The NCAA is cracking down on the rules loophole that helped Oregon beat Ohio State over the weekend.
Oregon was able to pull out its massive win over the Buckeyes Saturday night thanks to some shrewd last-second coaching by Dan Lanning. With Ohio State facing a 3rd-and-25 from Oregon’s 43-yard line and 10 seconds on the clock, Lanning called timeout. Just before the next snap, Ducks defensive back Dontae Manning walked onto the field, giving Oregon a 12th defender and incurring a penalty. Ohio State threw an incomplete pass on the play, and while the Buckeyes gained five yards due to the illegal substitution penalty, they lost four precious seconds.
On the ensuing play, quarterback Will Howard was tackled after scrambling, and the clock ran out, securing a 32-31 win for Oregon.
Two days later, Lanning confirmed he instructed his team to intentionally have too many men on the field, and the situation worked out exactly as he hoped.
“There was a timeout before that. We spend an inordinate amount of time on situations,” Lanning said on Monday.
“There are some situations that don’t show up very often in college football, but this was one that obviously was something we had worked on. So, you can see the result.”
Well-played by the third year head coach, but Lanning’s exploitation of the rules has led to the NCAA making a change. The rules committee announced Wednesday that if a team on defense commits a substitution penalty in the last two minutes of either half, the team with the ball now has the option to reset the clock to where it was pre-snap.
Too little, too late for the Buckeyes, but overall, this change makes sense.
A tip of the cap to Lanning for recognizing this strategy would work and then executing it, but as Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger noted, there’s no reason why a penalized team should reap the benefits of the penalty in this fashion.
Related: Dan Lanning Confirms He Got Intentional Penalty Against Ohio State