UCLA players and coaches have blamed Oregon State’s defense for seven false start penalties they collected Saturday, claiming that the Beavers’ defense was calling out offensive line cadences.
Oregon State coach Gary Andersen has defended his team from the charges, however, going as far as to cite the actual rule.
UCLA coach Jim Mora and quarterback Josh Rosen blamed the Oregon State defense for the penalties, with Rosen calling it “BS.”
“There was something going on up front, yes,” Mora said, via Coaching Search. “I’m not gonna talk about it, because it doesn’t really matter what I say. I will just tell you this. It wasn’t on UCLA.”
Andersen defended his team, saying it’s just his defense’s pre-snap movements and telling UCLA to read the rule. It’s not the first time one of his teams has faced these accusations. In fact, he said he carries a copy of the rule during games to produce when the accusations come up.
The rule prevents defenses from using “words or signals that disconcert opponents” and imitating the cadence of offensive line snap counts, but does not prohibit the defense from using its own signals.
“I could share the old WAC piece of paper with them,” Andersen said. I could share the Big Ten piece of paper, if they’d like to see that also. It’s within the rules. If we can’t say, ‘move,’ and our defense can move side to side, then I would suppose the offense should not be able to go on ‘two,’ the offense should not be able to motion. We’re not gaining any more of an advantage by doing what they’re doing. That’s how I see it. It’s been going on for years, not just one game.”
Andersen’s defense likely won’t placate UCLA, because it seems that whatever the defense was doing definitely had an impact on the UCLA offense.
