Arizona displeased with refs after Purdue’s fake kneel-down

Arizona was still steaming after the game about Purdue’s fake kneel-down at end of the first half Wednesday in the Foster Farms Bowl.

The Boilermakers took over at their 32 with 56 seconds left after Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate lost a fumble.

Purdue appeared to be taking a knee on the play to run out the clock, but running back D.J. Knox was crouching hidden behind a guard. Quarterback Elijah Sindelar then handed the ball to Knox, who waited a second as the linemen stood and then ran around the left end for a 30-yard gain that helped set up the field goal.

“That was a little tricky play,” Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said. “What happens a lot of time on a kneel-down, when they get in a kneel-down formation, an official will tell the defense not to rush. They’re taking a knee, don’t rush, don’t him them.

“One of the officials told our guys, ‘They’re taking a knee, don’t rush. Just stand there.’ They complied with that. My argument would be, if it’s an official’s error, which in my opinion it was, it’s no play. Maybe I don’t know the rules. But if you comply with what the official does and it’s an official error because he told him not to move, correct it. That’s my opinion.”

Purdue head coach Jeff Brohm successfully ran a similar play in the Boca Raton Bowl last year while he was coaching Western Kentucky.

“If the refs tells us it’s a kneel it’s really a dead play,” Arizona linebacker Tony Fields II said. “We can’t do anything as linebackers or DBs. They don’t even want us to rush the quarterback because that’s an injury prevention thing. They got us.”