Have you ever seen a more bizarre start to a college football game than Northwestern at Indiana on Friday night?
Before the first play from scrimmage, IU was whistled for two penalties related to “illegal snaps” by center Bray Lynch. 1st-and-10 became 1st-and-20.
A furious Curt Cignetti called a timeout eight seconds into the game in an attempt to receive an explanation he says he was never given.
And then of course Turbo Richard ran for 33 yards on the first play from scrimmage to deem the whole affair irrelevant.
But Cignetti wasn’t finished with the sequence.
He opened his postgame press conference accusing Northwestern and the Big Ten of conspiring against his team in a sneak attack. The IU head coach believes the Wildcats turned in a notice to the league about something Lynch was doing with the ball pre-snap.
“Was kind of a weird start,” Cignetti said. “We got Pearl Harbored the first two offensive plays, you know, when they called the penalty on the center. Obviously Northwestern must’ve turned something in none of us were aware of.”
If Northwestern turned something in, the protocol is for the league to make Indiana aware.
But Northwestern coach David Braun says not so fast my friend.
At his regular Monday press conference, Braun pleaded ignorance of any awareness of potential illegal snap tendencies by Lynch, or any communication with the Big Ten about it.
“I’m not sure what was going on,” Braun said of the penalties. “We try to do our best as a coaching staff to educate our players. Now it’s a rule in college football that you can’t clap before the snap on defense because that’s used as cadence (by the offense). I don’t know if it was just a result of our linebackers and D-line just doing a really good job of communicating some of the calls.”
While delivering a bit of a backhanded compliment, Northwestern head coach says he takes it as flattery Cignetti thought the Wildcats were that dialed into Lynch’s pre-snap tendencies.
“That was a very un-Indiana-like to have those two false starts,” Braun said. “I appreciate coach Cignetti giving us credit, but I don’t know if we deserve that credit.”
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