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Scott Van Pelt: Controversial hit in Peach Bowl called targeting ‘100 times out of 100’ in regular season
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Scott Van Pelt weighed in on the hit heard around the college football world during the Peach Bowl, and ESPN’s popular SportsCenter host has a hard time believing targeting was not the final call.
That hit, of course, involved Michael Taaffe of Texas laying the lumber in a vicious hit on Arizona State’s Melquan Stovall. On the play in question, Stovall recorded a catch well short of the sticks on 3rd-and-long with the hit from Taaffe leaving Stovall shaken up on the play.
Though not flagged on the field, a review ensued to determine if Taaffe should have been flagged for targeting on the play. Replays showed Taaffe did make helmet-to-helmet contact on the hit, and ESPN’s analysts also discussed Stovall in the position of a defenseless receiver on the play.
However, replay review did not agree with no foul added to the play. It was a major call with Arizona State forced to punt the ball away with a minute left in the game before ultimately falling in overtime.
During Wednesday’s SportsCenter, Scott Van Pelt made it clear he believes the call would have been different during any regular season game:
“This is my opinion: If that’s a 1 o’clock window game between a couple of ACC teams or any conference, whatever, I don’t care who it is. That’s targeting 100 times out of 100. It wasn’t in this case,” said Van Pelt.
As a part of the discussion, Van Pelt admitted even having the targeting call added onto the play would not have guaranteed Arizona State a win against the Longhorns. Texas even missed the game-winning field goal try at the end of regulation that came on the possession after the no-call before outlasting the Sun Devils in double overtime.
While the game was not decided on the no-call, it’s still a play that will be discussed over the next few days. Meanwhile, Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns will advance into a Cotton Bowl semifinal matchup vs. Ohio State.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
