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Florida submits Hayden Hansen penalty to SEC: ‘That was an interesting call’

On3 imageby: Zach Abolverdi22 hours agoZachAbolverdi
Hayden-Hansen-Florida-Gators
Florida Gators tight end Hayden Hansen. (Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images)

GAINESVILLE, Fla — The Florida Gators shot themselves in the foot during their 18-16 loss to USF. They had pre-snap issues (illegal substitution, not getting set on defense and false starts), costly penalties (spitting and holding) and critical errors (a high snap and overthrown passes, dropped catches and missed tackles).

Those problems, to be clear, are what lost Florida the game, along with poor clock management by UF coach Billy Napier in the last three minutes and some questionable calls. Another call in question was the offensive pass interference against the Gators that took Tony Livingston’s 14-yard touchdown off the board.

It was one of two flags that negated TDs on the same series. While Napier conceded the hold by guard Kamryn Waites that brough back Ja’Kobi Jackson’s 20-yard touchdown, he said the OPI call against tight end Hayden Hansen was up for debate. Hansen discussed the penalty during his media availability on Monday.

“Man, that was an interesting call,” Hansen said. “I wasn’t given an explanation. I tried to ask. The guy touched me first. I was just keeping him away from me. And it was after the ball was thrown, you know? So, no, I never really got a clear explanation for it.”

Florida ended up settling for a field goal on that series, one of three where the offense couldn’t score a touchdown after crossing the USF 25-yard line. Napier confirmed Monday that he submitted the call against Hansen to the SEC office for a review.

“We did, yeah,” Napier said. “We submit a series of plays each week, one is that maybe we want interpretation on, and sometimes we’ll even turn in things that we think we got away with. I think it’s a healthy working relationship with the league and the officials.

“We’ll see what they say. But I’m kind of more focused on the things that we had total control over. Sometimes we don’t have control over what they do. We made enough errors that we had control of and that’s my job.” 

Hansen echoed Napier’s comments. Losing Livingston’s touchdown was a tough break for the Gators, but they had other opportunities to win the game and blew it with their miscues on offense, defense and special teams.

“At the end of the day, we can’t leave things up to the refs,” Hansen said. “I mean, you see what happens when you do that. So, we gotta go out there and win the game ourselves.”

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