davidtrw

UT defender pushes Gillaspia sideway into Terry's helmet instead of his shoulder. When player A shoves player B into player C it gets a little gray area.

Possibly, I need to see how much force the Tenn defender puts into Gillaspia as he is going for the tackle. He was pushed right into Terry's helmet. Has gillaspia not been moved I would say it was also targeting.

And in the replay you can clearly see Mack's helmet making contact first. Not his facemask. As for the A&M player ejected, he didn't headbutt the ball carrier. He made a helmet to helmet hit against a defender who was defenseless. The guy he hit was trying to tackle the ball carrier.

While they are very similar, Gillaspia also has a Tenn defender pushing him to the side. Had he not been moved to the right the contact would have hit his shoulder. This is similar to when a defender pushes the other teams blocker into his own return man and the contact isn't called. But the helmet contact is pretty similar.

What are you talking about? We just want to make sure our players don't get killed. If going helmet first into kick/punt returners is now legal you would be stupid not to teach your team to tackle this way. Speedy somehow held onto the ball, but I would bet 70% of the time a guy taking that hit drops the ball.

There are two rules for targeting, helmet to helmet and hitting a defenseless player. This was helmet to helmet. Yes Noil is short and Mack is taller. His job is to get lower and go shoulder first. This play was clear as day targeting and Mack got away with one. Not really his fault or Bama's, it was terrible reffing. The refs are responsible for protecting players and they cannot allow hits like this to keep happening, someone will die. You can have targeting and have no ill will or malfeasance by the player making the hit. Sometimes the defender just has a bad break with how the ball carrier moves while they are tackling.