Jaishawn Barham suspension upheld; senior LB to miss first half of Oklahoma contest

Michigan senior linebacker Jaishawn Barham will officially miss the first half of Saturday night’s Big Ten-SEC showdown between Michigan and Oklahoma in Norman, Sherrone Moore confirmed on Monday morning.

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It’s an unfortunate turn of the tide for Barham and Michigan, which will need all hands on deck for Saturday night’s clash against the Sooners. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, Barham, a key starter, will be absent for the game’s first 30 minutes.

On 2nd down and 1 with 9:39 remaining in the third quarter of Michigan’s 34-17 win over New Mexico, Jaishawn Barham brutally hit New Mexico quarterback Jack Layne on a drop back.

In the process, Layne lost control of the ball. Barham scooped the ball up, and returned it for a touchdown, giving the Wolverines a 33-10 lead, with the extra point pending.

However, after video review, the referees ruled that Barham was guilty of targeting, which disqualified him from the remainder of the contest and will now ultimately sideline him for the first half of next week’s Oklahoma game.

Sherrone Moore voiced his frustration with the call after the victory.

“We’re going to talk about the ejection when we get to that point with the Big Ten and handling that, because we don’t agree,” Moore said in his postgame press conference. “We’ll handle it from there.”

Moore described what the referees’ explanation was to him regarding the call, and what the process of trying to appeal it looks like.

“It really wasn’t really that detailed of an explanation. So we’ll go with the process and I’ll reach out to whoever we need to reach out to in the Big Ten and go from there.”

According to the NCAA rule book, teams can appeal second-half suspensions in an effort to allow the ejected player to regain eligibility for the first half of the following game.

“A targeting call ejection occurring in the second half of a game can be appealed to the NCAA national coordinator of officials by the player’s conference or school. The national coordinator, often referred to as the ‘football secretary-editor,’ reviews video of the play to determine if the player was clearly and obviously incorrectly penalized. If the review confirms the error, the player’s carryover penalty (suspension for the first half of the next game) can be vacated.”

Unfortunately for Michigan, that effort came up short, Moore revealed on Monday.

“It was upheld, and we don’t agree with it. … It’s a rule we have to get changed and we have to look at in college football just for the game. The toughness of the game, and how you want to teach tackling. How do you want to teach guys that are 6-foot-3 tackling a guy that’s 5-foot-8? He lowers his head, and it might be even worse. He tries to duck to the side and the guy spins, and he misses.”

“So there’s a way that we have to teach guys how to tackle and what to do.”

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