Notre Dame gets no luck with replay review during CFP semifinal

In big games, the margins between success and failure can be fine, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish learned that the hard way in Saturday’s College Football Playoff semifinal.

In the first 35 minutes of Saturday’s game, the Irish found themselves on the wrong end of all five replay reviews initiated during the game, including a couple big decisions.

One of Notre Dame’s replay losses wasn’t hugely significant in that it wiped out a moderate gain, ruling what was originally called a Fighting Irish catch and fumble that they recovered to be an incomplete pass. It did not wipe out a first down. The others were more controversial, the worst being a Clemson fumble on the kickoff that was ruled to go out of bounds instead of being recovered by Notre Dame. Late in the first half, a Tee Higgins touchdown catch was upheld in Clemson’s favor.

Early in the first quarter, Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book was ruled down by the officials despite a possible fumble. On review, it was clear Book had fumbled and Clemson recovered, giving the Tigers a fumble recovery at midfield.

The fourth call that went against Notre Dame came early in the third quarter. The Irish had appeared to intercept Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, which would have given them the ball near midfield with the chance to start staging a rally. However, on review, the ball touched the ground before there was control, and the pass was ruled incomplete.

That call was pretty clearly correct, as was the touchdown catch, fumble, and other incompletion ruling. The fumble will be most controversial, but that appeared to be correct too. While Notre Dame fans will be livid, the bottom line is the breaks, not the reviews, just weren’t going their way.