re: LSU USC 1979 False Start on Facemask Play

quote:

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This sounds kinda Hokie to me.
Can you post a link? We have plenty of time, it's a long off-season.

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It's widely known by knowledgeable LSU football fans that USC FB Ricky Johnson came off the bench without his helmet to tackle LSU QB Woodley. It wasn't flagged.

The incident is recounted on page 364 of "50 Years of College Football":

LINK

Scroll to page 364. It is in the column on the right under the games played on September 29, 1979.

As for LSUTANGERINE, you can now clearly see that the play should have been called dead on the false start, which would have lead to a 3rd and 14 that USC would have been hard pressed to convert under those circumstances in that atmosphere.

So, uh, "KABOOM." Dork.

And by the way, if you had bothered to actually read a book or two on college football rather than mindlessly trolling the internet, you would have known that Benji Thibodeaux already conceded, long ago, that his hand was on the facemask of McDonald. On page 22 of "Game of My Life," he states:

"When I reached out to grab him, his head moved and MY HAND GRAZED HIS FACEMASK." (emphasis added)

LINK

Your video (which many of us had already seen - it isn't some revelatory, newly discovered Rosetta Stone) confirms that his hand was on the mask. But the critical question, the only question that mattters, the only question that has mattered for thirty years is: did he graze or did he grasp? The 1979 facemask rule (which didn't distinguish between incidental and major facemask penalties) stated that a penalty only occured if a player "grasped" the facemask.

In any event, your arrogant post was distasteful and clearly evidenced that you didn't fully appreciate the long history of the debate.