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Ego-driven officiating blunder overshadows Music City Bowl

We should have been focused on the game that was actually taking place on the field. It should have been, simply enough, a reward for Kentucky and Northwestern players who won enough games to get to Nashville. It should have been one last celebration of SEC and Big Ten football before we turn the page to 2018.

Instead, an ego-driven officiating blunder overshadowed the game and ruined the moment.

Benny Snell (USA TODAY Sports)
Benny Snell (USA TODAY Sports)

This wasn't the first time Kentucky suffered a devastating personnel loss in Nashville.

Rewind almost two decades and Kentucky was taking on Syracuse in the Music City Bowl. The Wildcats were looking good until star tight end James Whalen went down with an injury.

It was brutal to watch. A horrible injury, yes, and devastating to Kentucky's chances because Whalen was an essential part of the Wildcats' offense. Without him, they stood little chance. And they lost.

What happened Friday in Nashville was worse. Injuries are part of football. Officiating blunders this bad, and this avoidable, shouldn't be.

First team All-SEC running back Benny Snell was going to be a crucial ingredient in any formula for Kentucky success against Northwestern. The blue Cats were the underdogs on paper and in Vegas going into this game. Still, they were acquitting themselves well enough until the second quarter, when Snell was ejected for "making contact with an official."

But the decision, which has been skewered by pundits across the social media spectrum, was a disaster and clearly the result of a referee who was taking himself a little too seriously.

Pac-12 official Chris Coyte put the hashtag in #Pac12refs when he ruled that Snell had made contact with him, when in reality he had made contact with Snell. Northwestern's players had ripped Snell to the ground, and all Kentucky's star running back did was respectfully brush off Coyte's attempt to pick him up off the ground. Snell shook his head, "No," so as to clearly say he didn't need or want the help getting up. Anyone who has watched Snell knows he's a fiery competitor, but also a competitor who respects the game and the players, coaches and officials around him.

Coyte wasn't having any of that. Incapable of accepting Snell's decision to "go it alone" at the massive undertaking of standing up, of rejecting his noble advances, Coyte threw a flag and decided that what Snell had done was so outrageous that he needed to be escorted from the field of play.

Based on the boos from the thousands of Kentucky fans who braved the cold and made the trek to Nashville, they weren't thrilled. But they weren't alone.

Former Kentucky resident and Alabama running back Damien Harris tweeted, "If you don’t want a player putting his hands on you, why put your hands on him?"

ESPN's Booger McFarland tweeted, "So why is the ref trying to touch Snell ( help him up) ? Does he have to accept it ? 1 of the worst calls of the year by a Ref I mean terrible ".

Even late night host and comedian Seth Meyers tweeted to his 5.11 million followers, "Oooof. Terrible call to eject Bennie Snell. Sorry, @UKFootball."

It seemed like Mark Stoops' outrage really came out later when Stephen Johnson took a hit, which went unpunished, on the sidelines. Kentucky drew an unsportsmanlike call when the referee and Stoops had a verbal exchange.

You'll have to forgive Stoops for his outrage. And he should call the refs out in the postgame setting. He's stood by his players for doing things that almost everyone has recognized were wrong. In this case, his player was punished in spite of doing nothing wrong.

This is a decision Coyte will regret and it's one that should be addressed by those capable of holding him accountable. Let's be honest - this game was never going to pique the interest of many people who don't have allegiances to Kentucky or Northwestern. But this call ensured the game would be trending in the national conversation for at least a while. It might have the unintended impact of elevating Snell into a more prominent place in the national college football discourse going into next season. But it's a really bat beat that was totally avoidable.

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