Newsstand: NCAA stunningly overturns targeting penalty suspension for East Carolina OLB Jack Powers
Tweets Of The Day
Late in the third quarter of Michigan’s 30-3 win over East Carolina last weekend, junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy scrambled out right near his own sideline, got ready to throw and was clocked in the head by East Carolina outside linebacker Jack Powers. The play was called targeting, upheld by review, and Powers was suspended. By rule, since the play occurred in the second half, Powers would miss the first half of the team’s next game, against Marshall this week.
But ECU head coach Mike Houston revealed on Inside Pirate Athletics this week that the NCAA overturned the ruling, meaning that Powers will be able to play this week, in a stunning decision.
“Jack’s targeting penalty was overturned,” Houston said. “The head of officials for the entire NCAA deemed it was an incorrect call and it should not have been flagged on Saturday. There was no direct contact to the head, neck area of the Michigan quarterback. Jack is reinstated. It doesn’t help us for the game last Saturday, but it helps us for this coming week. Jack was excited when I was able to give him the news this morning. I think it took about 10 minutes to get it overturned. Glad that happened.”
Michigan has jumped ahead of Ohio State in national championship odds heading into the second week of the college football season. The Maize and Blue beat ECU, 30-3, while Ohio State went into Indiana and won, 23-3. U-M has the third best odds (+700), behind only Georgia (+220) and Alabama (+600).
Michigan has 38 former players on active NFL rosters — the fifth most in the country behind Alabama (57), Georgia (49), Ohio State (48) and LSU (43).
Quote Of The Day
“UNLV has a very unique offense, and that can cause a lot of problems. They have a lot of fast, twitchy guys. They do a lot of things that try to have eye violations for a defense to get the fast, twitchy guys out in open space. That’s when they can do a lot of damage. … That’s the thing I love about a playbook, though. Each week there are so many things that you change about it. So, you might know the playbook on a Saturday, and on Monday, it changes. And that’s why the whole game week prep, there’s nothing like it in any other sport. You go through a whole spring, fall camp, fall camp rules, but the playbook, there’s a lot of variables that go into it.”
— Michigan sophomore linebacker Ernest Hausmann
Headlines Of The Day
• Chris Balas, The Wolverine: Michigan linebacker Ernest Hausmann’s stock is rising quickly
• Anthony Broome, The Wolverine: Michigan football position group to watch this week: UNLV
• Clayton Sayfie, Chris Balas and Anthony Broome, The Wolverine: Wolverine TV podcast: What to watch for, predictions — Michigan football vs. UNLV
• EJ Holland, The Wolverine: Blue Chips: Michigan a top school for key underclassmen targets
• Anthony Broome, The Wolverine: Michigan reveals next priority for football facility upgrades
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