Bryan Harsin reacts to targeting penalties in Birmingham Bowl loss

On3 imageby:James Fletcher III12/28/21

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Following a disappointing 17-13 loss against Houston in the Birmingham Bowl, Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin spoke about a pair of targeting calls which turned the momentum of the game in the second half. The loss of senior safety Smoke Monday and sophomore cornerback Jaylin Simpson weakened the secondary and left the Tigers shorthanded.

“Targeting is a hard one, because it’s just different. It’s different with different crews,” Harsin said in his press conference. “I think it’s different in different leagues at times too. And I don’t know the guy upstairs that calls down on those and makes the decisions on it sometimes. Those decisions, they decide if it’s defenseless or did he use the crown of his helmet. And the situations – and you’ve got to look at the game too – the game is just bang bang plays. That’s one of the things, and both those plays were bang bang plays.”

After speaking to the inconsistencies of the targeting rules across college football, Bryan Harsin dove into the individual scenarios from Auburn’s loss against Houston.

“There’s and interception and immediate response, there’s a slide,” said Harsin. “And quarterbacks, they all do it a little bit differently. So when a guy slides, the timing of it and all that – and you’re going down – but you kind of know as a quarterback too when you slide you kind of get a sense. They took the fake slide out, we saw that alright. So it’s disappointing, I don’t disagree that there needs to be targeting calls because that’s what protects the game. I just think it’s hard to make those decisions, I really do.

“I don’t envy the officials having to make those decisions because you pull a guy out of the game – a senior for example – that doesn’t get to finish. And that’s a tough one to swallow. So when those things happen it’s difficult but it did and other guys had to step up. That’s just part of the game.”

More on targeting calls

Auburn’s defense took a huge blow late in the third quarter of the Birmingham Bowl on Tuesday. Tigers safety Smoke Monday was ejected for targeting with 2:28 left in the third quarter against Houston. Earlier in the game, the referees called targeting on Monday before a review and ruled it “incidental contact.”

The ejection marked the end of Monday’s career with Auburn. He entered the game with 58 total tackles, including 40 solo stops, two sacks and an interception on the year. Monday was a big part of the Auburn defense and a leader for the Tigers in the locker room.

Late in the fourth quarter, Jaylin Simpson hit Houston quarterback Clayton Tune after he started sliding. After review, he was called for targeting and thrown out of the game. Houston ended up scoring on the drive and won the game 17-13 after stopping the Auburn offense on fourth down and picking up a first down with the running attack.