“I can’t say anything about it. There were many, many, many questionable
calls in his game,” Brooks said.
More than the apparent Auburn fumble that was not ruled a fumble or the
Auburn touchdown reception after the receiver went out of bounds and
then shoved UK cornerback Antoine Huffman when he cam back on the field?
“Yes,” Brooks said.
Brooks says he does not “understand what we are doing with (instant)
replay.” Who does? He noted that a picture in Sunday’s Lexington
Herald-Leader clearly showed that UK receiver Glenn Holt came down
inbounds with a touchdown catch Saturday with UK trailing 14-7. However,
the official ruled he was out of bounds and no instant replay reversed
the call. Kentucky settled for a field goal instead of tying the game at
14-14.
“My assumption is that you are supposed to review (that catch). The
ruled him out. What are they doing with replay? It’s not doing what it
was intended to do in my opinion,” Brooks said.
Brooks emphasized that the questionable calls were not why Kentucky
lost. But he said the calls “contributed” to Auburn’s victory.
He says Kentucky will submit plays it thinks were not called properly to
the Southeastern Conference and will get a response later this week.
However, even if the SEC admits calls were blown, that won’t pacify Brooks.
“What would help is if they would get the calls right in the first
place,” the UK coach said. “They have instant replay. If they are not
going to use to correct an obvious bad call, why have it?”
Remember a week ago when a Kentucky punt seemed to hit a Mississippi State player. Everyone in Commonwealth Stadium saw it except the
officials and the instant replay official. When Brooks was told Sunday
that the replay official said he could not review the Auburn fumble
because one official on the field said he had blown the ball dead, he
was flabbergasted. “There was not a whistle blown. I have ears on the
sideline. It was not blown,” Brooks said.
Brooks downplayed the minor altercation between him and defensive
coordinator Mike Archer on the sideline after Archer got a 15-yard
penalty protesting one non-call. Brooks said that dispute was not
because of the frustration over a losing season, but because of what
happened Saturday.
“The emotion was dictated by the calls that we were getting. It just
boiled over,” he said.
Brooks said whatever calls were made or not made, his Cats have to move
forward as they prepare to play Vanderbilt, a double overtime loser at
Florida Saturday, this week.
“They got a questionable call at the end, too,” Brooks said of
Vanderbilt. “They got some calls I didn’t expect to tie the game up, but
that celebration penalty was pretty weak.
“I’m not going to talk about the calls. It is over. We can’t get the
calls reversed. We can’t get them corrected. We have to move. We have
Vanderbilt, which I have thought all year was a very good team.”