Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Bottom line, as his football coach often says to summarize, Mark Harlan was wrong to blast the officiating crew after Utah's soul-crushing loss to BYU.
There's a certain sense of irony calling out the refs for their lack of professionalism as the athletic director did Saturday night in taking the highly unusual step of going before the media in the postgame press conference. In making his case, Harlan indirectly pointed the finger back at himself.
"We won this game," Harlan said. "Someone stole it from us. Very disappointed. I will talk to the (Big 12) commissioner. This was not fair to our team. I'm disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew tonight."
And with that, he was off into the night, left to await the impending sanctions that will surely come from commissioner Brett Yormark. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham shrewdly got similar sentiments across with less damning comments and should not face any reprimands.
"Things out there were ridiculous. I'll leave it at that," he said in postgame remarks that lasted less than three minutes.
Whittingham and his boss were furious at a holding call against Utah's Zermaiah Vaughn that gave BYU a new set of downs and eventually led to Will Ferrin's 44-yard game-winning field goal with three seconds left. Without the call, which came on a fourth-down sack, Utah would have gained possession and run out the clock.
Instead, without a timeout left, BYU used two completions totaling 42 yards and a 14-yard run to set up the field goal in the 22-21 victory. The Cougars improved to 9-0 and lead the Big 12 at 6-0.
No wonder the Utes were fuming. One last defensive stop, a broken record this season, would have ended a four-game losing streak and salvaged to a degree Utah's most disappointing season in recent memory.
Expecting Cam Rising back at quarterback after missing all last season, Utah was picked to win the Big 12 in its first year in the conference. Players openly talked during the offseason of competing for a national championship in the new 12-team playoff.
Losing to a BYU team that was 5-7 last season never crossed their minds. But now here they are, needing to win two of the last three games simply to qualify for an irrelevant bowl game.
Therein lies the frustration that caused Harlan to lash out publicly. In context, it's easy to understand — or at least forgive — his own momentary lapse in judgment.
Emotions always run extremely high each time BYU and Utah play in football — it's a component to a heated rivalry. Combing a bitter loss with an awful season, Harlan reached a breaking point.
So what? Take the repercussions and move on with life in the same manner we did after BYU quarterback Max Hall's epic postgame rant against Utah in 2009.
Hey, don't dare question Harlan's passion and commitment. Give him more street cred for the willingness to back his guys in the face of public ridicule.
For their part, as winners do, BYU stayed above the fray. Officiating decisions, which include no-calls, are always a part of football.
Quietly, the BYU brass point out Utah's physical style on defense results in contact with receivers. They see several plays that deserved penalties but got no whistles.
"Sometimes they can be really handsy," coach Kalani Sitake said. "Glad we got the call. Can't hold people."
Make it akin to a basketball game. The constant grabbing, pushing and holding could lead to a parade of free throws that nobody wants to watch — same thing in football, can't call every infraction.
Refs make crummy decisions, same with coaches, players and athletic directors. Raw emotions boil over sometimes.
Bottom line, as they say, we're all human.
