USC-Stanford Fallout: McDonald and Kiffin Get the Book from Larry Scott

Saturday night T.J. McDonald blew up Stanford’s Chris Owusu, Lane Kiffin popped a cork about the Pac-12 officiating and Monday the conference struck back, penalizing both the Thorpe Trophy semi-finalist and the conference’s most controversial head coach.

McDonald might end up taking the hardest hit in the end, as Larry Scott suspended the junior for the first half of Friday night’s trip to Boulder, Colorado. As mentioned on Saturday night, McDonald’s vicious hit provided a major momentum shift in the game’s final minutes, as Andrew Luck and Stanford avoided a potential 4th down at their own 40 after the penalty netted the Cardinal an automatic first down.

In the moment, it appeared as though the call from the officials was the exact right call as it looked like an intentional illegal hit live, thus a very justified penalty call. But, after seeing the footage on tape and the image above, McDonald clearly led with his shoulder and only hit Owusu high due to the receiver ducking at the last instant as he tried to avoid the hit. So just how can the conference levy a suspension on the safety? With the speed of the game you cannot fault the on-field officials, but the conference officials back in Walnut Creek had to clearly see a lack of intent from McDonald. Naturally, the preseason All-American candidate didn’t take the suspension lightly, airing his frustrations immediately on Twitter:

"“I accept my penalty and I apologize to my team, the Trojan fans, and Stanford. I’m disappointed that I can’t be with my team for the 1st half of Friday’s game but I know my team will do a great job. I did not purposely try to hurt any receiver. As I said after the game, I WILL figure out away to stay physical and between the rules.”"

McDonald’s reaction to the suspension is about as classy as can be, especially when you take into account just how much the conference has penalized USC this season compared to the rest of the 11 teams in the Pac-12.

Now, back to Lane Kiffin. Since the end of the game he’s claimed he had been lied to by the officials, was clearly frustrated in the postgame interview and even said on Sunday that his two-year-old son correctly calculated the yardage on Stanford’s holding penalty in overtime, despite the Pac-12 crew failing to do so. The result of Kiffin’s actions ends up being a $10,000 fine according to commissioner Larry Scott. Rather excessive, no?

Was Kiffin actually lied to? Who exactly knows. There’s been conflicting reports and according to John Jackson, who joined the Mason & Ireland show on Monday afternoon, the most logical explanation is a miss-communication between Kiffin, the “lying” official, and the rest of the officiating crew regarding a phantom timeout at the end of regulation with the now infamous Robert Woods play.

But as for the yardage, the controversial Brooks from Sports by Brooks came out Monday with some interesting evidence regarding the blunder on the spotting of the football. The holding call in question took place at the line of scrimmage, or the 20-yard-line on 2nd down and five. Since holding is a spot foul, the penalty should have placed the ball at the 30-yard-line for a 2nd and 15. But, according to Brooks, “the ball was instead walked by Umpire Rick DiBernardo only back to the USC 22-yard line, somehow setting up a 2nd-and-7 play. So rather than penalize the potent Stanford offense – led by Heisman Trophy frontrunner Andrew Luck – 10 yards, the Cardinal was pushed back only two.”

The juicy part? Brooks did some hunting and found out that DiBernardo was a starting linebacker for Notre Dame in the 80s, adding just another layer of conspiracy to the drama from Saturday night. Did his Irish roots play a factor in screwing the Trojans out of eight yards in a critical situation? Probably not(and I would really hope not), but it definitely doesn’t help matters. By the way, if you were questioning the spot of the penalty yourself, here’s the video of the penalty via Brooks. Chris Galippo gets absolutely taken out of position via Stanford’s Geoff Meinken.

To me, it looks as though the penalty may have been a yard in front of the line of scrimmage, but it’s still far from the spot made my DiBernardo.

So there you have it. The Trojans will head to Boulder down a starting safety and a fine that equates to half a semester’s tuition at USC, coming out of the pocket of coach Lane Kiffin. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s the third reprimand for USC this season, along with Barkley’s comments about Vontaze Burfict. Yeah, only USC gets to be the conference whipping boy apparently.

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