One of the more unusual mid-play moments in a while came from the University of Central Florida Knights Saturday. Inside the final two minutes of the first half in their road clash with the Oklahoma Sooners, UCF QB John Rhys Plumlee faked a handoff, rolled out left, and threw a short pass to wide-open wide receiver Javon Baker. Baker took that 86 yards for an easy touchdown, even pausing at one point to blow a kiss to the Oklahoma sideline.
That blown kiss infuriated Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, who argued there should have been an unsportsmanlike conduct flag thrown during the play (which would have stopped to play and prevented the touchdown). Instead, there were two unsportsmanlike flags thrown for the touchdown celebration, which led to a 15-yard penalty on the kickoff and to the players involved (Baker and fellow receiver Kobe Hudson) receiving flags that could lead to disqualification with further unsportsmanlike penalties. Here’s the clip of the play and of Venables’ protest:
UCF's Javon Baker blew a kiss to the Oklahoma sideline while scoring against them, leading to OU coach Brent Venables lobbying for a flag. pic.twitter.com/pbzsjhXiuW
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) October 21, 2023
And here’s the replay, including announcers Dave Pasch, Dusty Dvoracek, and Tom Luginbill discussing the play and Venables’ complaint.
"Could have easily thrown the flag there and negated the touchdown. That's what Brent Venables was arguing." pic.twitter.com/QLr7ckdWPg
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) October 21, 2023
There, Pasch says “We just showed the replay, it did look like Javon Baker, I don’t know if he was blowing a kiss towards the Oklahoma sideline, that’s kind of what it looked like. Could have easily thrown the flag there and negated the touchdown. That’s what Brent Venables was arguing. But count it, and so it’s 17-14.”
That definitely could have wound up as a mid-play penalty under the letter of the rules. But it wasn’t called. And it made for quite a funny moment.
[The Comeback on Twitter]
