The targeting rule in college football appears to be out of control.
During the Monday night matchup between Ole Miss and Louisville, two players from each squad were ejected for targeting. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Yes, you read that correctly. Four players were tossed in the first half, and some of the calls were questionable at best.
4 players were ejected in the first half of the Louisville-Ole Miss game for targeting. pic.twitter.com/n8XelF2utl
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) September 7, 2021
For example, this block that got Tabarius Peterson tossed looks like one hell of a strong block. I’m not sure how any ref would call it targeting, but they did!
Louisville DE Tabarius Peterson has been ejected for Targeting pic.twitter.com/sTPAlpMOwp
— NCAAF Nation (@NCAAFNation247) September 7, 2021
Another example of a very questionable call was when the Louisville ball carrier got popped. Despite it looking like Ole Miss linebacker Mark Robinson wasn’t leading with the crown of his helmet, he still got tossed.
Thoughts on this targeting call on Ole Miss LB Mark Robinson 🧐
pic.twitter.com/mTSejml3ox— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 7, 2021
At some point, the targeting rule in college football has to change. Mark Robinson’s targeting call literally looked like a perfect tackle.
Yet, he still got thrown out of the game.
Targeting call + ejection for Mark Robinson…
— The Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) September 7, 2021
Football is a violent sport. That’s the nature of the game, and while I’m all for safety, we can’t sit here and pretend like all big hits are illegal.
At least two targeting calls from Monday night were questionable at best, and they were just downright wrong at worst.
Reality is, Targeting would get changed tomorrow if the suits weren’t afraid of litigation and appearance of backtracking on safety.
However, if they were actually concerned with safety wouldn’t they adopt NFL game clock rules to lower volume of total snaps? pic.twitter.com/GwvNAjlxzE
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) September 7, 2021
Something has to change. I’m not sure how we fix targeting in college football, but it has to happen.