Danny Kanell had hefty praise for Virginia but hefty criticism of the ACC referee crew that worked the Cavaliers’ double-overtime upset of No. 8 Florida State on Friday night.
The delirious Virginia fans rushed the field at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville when it was all over late Friday night, with their team shocking previously unbeaten FSU, 46-38, in a marathon game with many twists and turns. Kanell played quarterback for Florida State from 1992-95, so this classic college football game hit home for him in not the best of ways, but not just because he’s a Seminole.
It hit home because Kanell, now a college football analyst for CBS Sports, was angry at the “egregious incompetence” of the ACC officiating crew that worked the game. Sure, he congratulated Virginia in a social media post on Friday night when the dust settled in Charlottesville, writing that the Cavaliers “made some huge plays” and that Virginia has “one of the most improved rosters in the ACC.”
But he wasn’t afraid at all to go after the refs, who he claimed gifted the home team “essentially a free timeout in overtime.” Kanell acknowledged that it might not have changed the outcome of the game, but it also didn’t exactly help Florida State, which was trying to escape Charlottesville with its unbeaten record intact. The Seminoles didn’t, and Kanell went so far as to write that he expected “an official acknowledgement by the ACC offices” regarding the crew’s error in overtime.
FSU has no time for self-pity though, as the Seminoles have to pick up the pieces quickly in Week 6 with a home showdown against No. 2 Miami next Saturday night, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Florida State will hope for a different result than it got in the controversial loss on Friday night.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
