Most of the time when we talk about a targeting penalty on college football Saturdays, it’s because an egregious call was made. Not this time.
West Virginia linebacker Vandarius Cowan was ejected from Saturday’s Kansas State game because of targeting.
Cowan had a clear shot at Kansas State quarterback Skylar Thompson and proceeded to commit an extremely dirty play. The West Virginia linebacker basically head-butted Thompson and was ejected, as a result.
Check it out.
This might be the most obvious targeting call I’ve ever seen LMAOOOO pic.twitter.com/FnsdefXPlx
— ✯✯✯✯✯ (@FTBVids_YT) November 13, 2021
That’s about as bad as it gets. And it’s exactly why the targeting rule is in place. Good job on this one, refs.
This is what the NCAA has to say about how it defines targeting at the college football level, via SEC Sports:
“‘Targeting’ means that a player takes aim at an opponent for purposes of attacking with forcible contact that goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball. … No player shall target and make forcible contact against an opponent with the crown of his helmet. This foul requires that there be at least one indicator of targeting. When in question, it is a foul.”
One of the issues surrounding targeting is it tends to be subjective. There’s no clear way to make a proper ruling. The good news is the West Virginia linebacker made it easy for the officials on Saturday afternoon. The bad news is it was a dirty play.
Kansas State leads West Virginia 17-3 at the half.
The post Look: CFB Player Ejected After Blatant Targeting Penalty appeared first on The Spun.