During the third quarter of Texas’ game against Baylor on Saturday, Longhorns defensive back Kris Boyd put a high hit on Baylor quarterback Seth Russell as Russell went to the ground at the end of a run.
Officials reviewed the play for targeting, and they decided not to assess that penalty and eject Boyd from the game.
That’s awfully at odds with the rules. According to those, this looks like textbook targeting.
Let’s go to the NCAA’s football rulebook, specifically the part about targeting:
No player shall target and make forcible contact against an opponent with the crown (top) of his helmet. This foul requires that there be at least one indicator of targeting ... When in question, it is a foul.
There’s other stuff about not "forcibly contacting" a "defenseless" player in the head, and I’d argue that Russell, going to the ground here, is pretty defenseless. But we don’t even have to go that far, because Boyd pretty clearly rams the top of his helmet into Russell’s head. It’s remarkable that replay officials couldn’t figure this out, on a day when there have been a couple of questionable calls.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7372105/targeting.jpg)
That's the crown of Boyd's helmet, going directly into Russell's helmet. It's that simple.
In the Texas vs Baylor game I thought it was targeting. It was a shot to the helmet.
— Mike Pereira (@MikePereira) October 29, 2016
Again, even if this weren't true, it'd be targeting. The rules also say that "forcible contact to the head or neck area of a defenseless opponent," with the head leading is targeting.
Both of these things are happening, and officials could've used either interpretation to make the call that's most consistent with the rules. For some reason, they didn't.