Auburn Tigers football coach Bryan Harsin has been an FBS head coach since the targeting rule involving ejections was instituted in 2013.
Harsin sounds like a coach who is frustrated with the inconsistency the rule.
Auburn had two defensive backs — Smoke Monday and Jaylin Simpson — ejected for targeting in Tuesday’s Birmingham Bowl loss to Houston. Monday could have been ejected in the first half, but the penalty was wiped away by review before the senior was called for the same penalty (one that was confirmed) in the second half.
“Targeting is a hard one because it’s different with different crews. It’s different in different leagues at times too,” Harsin said after the game. “The guy upstairs that calls down and makes decisions sometimes, those decisions, they decide if it’s defenseless or if he used the crown of his helmet. You’ve got to look at the game, too.”
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“Both those plays were bang-bang plays. There’s an interception and an immediate response. There’s a slide. And, you know, quarterbacks, they all do it a little bit differently. So, when a guy slides and the timing of it and all that, I mean, you’re going down but you kind of know as a quarterback too when you slide, you kind of get a sense— they took the fake slide out; you saw that — so I just, it’s disappointing.
“I don’t disagree that there needs to be targeting calls, because that’s what protects the game. I just think it’s hard to make those decisions, I really do. I don’t envy the officials having to make those decisions, because you pull a guy out of a game, a senior for example, that doesn’t get to finish. That’s a tough one to swallow, so when those things happen, it’s difficult. But it did, and other guys stepped out, and that’s just part of the game.”
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football: Bryan Harsin on Birmingham Bowl targeting penalties