ASU’s no-targeting call vs. Texas the worst officiating call of 2024 season, On3 says

The no-targeting call in the Peach Bowl for Texas defensive back Michael Taaffe’s hit against ASU wide receiver Melquan Stovall even after review was deemed the worst officiating call from the entire 2024 college football season, On3’s Pete Nakos posited on Tuesday.

Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham spoke recently about conversations he’s had since the call helped end the Sun Devils’ season in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

“I had a meeting about it, just about some of the process that goes in, you know, when you’re playing a game with Big 12 officials and when you’re playing a game without Big 12 officials,” Dillingham told reporters on a Zoom call on Feb. 9. “In those discussions, there are no positive results because the result is over.

“I don’t want to get too much into the weeds about what they told me because it doesn’t solve any problems. I think we all know what the correct answer is to the question, but I’m not going to get into the weeds of the personal conversation that I had.”

Because Stovall had completed the catch through the hit, the play gave ASU a fourth-and-five from its 48-yard line with 57 seconds left in a tied game.

A flag would’ve set the Sun Devils up with a first down at the Texas 37-yard line against a defense that hadn’t gotten a stop since a goal line stand halfway through the third quarter.

My phone has been burning up all morning.

Yes, this should have been a flag for targeting in #TEXvsASU. It meets all of the criteria of targeting (Rule 9-1-4). pic.twitter.com/tv5HPIQgd0

— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) January 2, 2025

In the immediate aftermath of ASU’s infamous no-call, Dillingham expressed a desire for consistency between how each set of officials adjudicates the targeting penalty.

Targeting a common issue for college officiating in 2024

Targeting was apparently a rough area for officials this season, as evidenced by it being the topic of three plays in Nakos’ top-10 list.

Both of the other plays follow the Peach Bowl trend of the bigger brand coming out the better end of the call, with Ohio State benefitting over Nebraska and Cal drawing the short stick with Miami.

Another pattern that sticks out is Texas benefitting from Nakos’ third-worst call of the year in addition to the Peach Bowl fiasco.

Coming from one of the hardest-to-explain sequences of the season in a matchup between the Longhorns and then-No. 5 Goergia, a pass interference call on then-No. 1 Texas was rescinded after its fans threw debris onto the playing field.

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