Miami of Ohio coach: ‘We didn’t touch anyone’ on crucial penalty in loss to Rutgers

Chuck Martin could not contain his frustration any longer.

Seconds after watching a big gain from wide receiver Kam Craft get called back for offensive pass interference, the Miami of Ohio head coach had to be held back by a staffer as he stood on the field at SHI Stadium, pumping his fist as he screamed in head official Billy Williams’ direction.

The fourth of 10 penalties called against his RedHawks was the most consequential, turning a 32-yard gain and fresh set of downs in Rutgers territory into a 15-yard loss and a 3rd-and-28 by their own red zone. Trailing 31-17 with five minutes to go in the third quarter, it put a major dent on any hopes of a comeback.

“Tough, tough, tough, tough, tough,” Martin said of the call.

The Scarlet Knights (2-0) eventually wore the RedHawks (0-2) down en route to a 45-17 win, and Martin was clear that officiating was not the reason his team did not pull off the upset: “We didn’t do enough right things on offense, defense, special teams.”

Still, the longtime head coach was candid about his feeling on the penalty discrepancy. Miami was flagged 10 times, including four defensive penalties that granted Rutgers a first down and two offensive penalties that pulled back Miami first downs.

None was more back-breaking than the offensive pass interference that set Martin off.

“My vantage point (on that play) is that we ran inside and didn’t touch anyone and they called offensive pass interference. We didn’t touch anyone. No one touched Rutgers DBs on that play, so I did not agree with the call,” Martin said. “I thought the officials were really good with communication. I told him at the end, I didn’t agree with a bunch of calls. I’ll watch the iPad at night and there are probably a couple ones I thought they got wrong that they probably got wrong and a couple of ones they got right, I probably thought they got wrong. That’s welcome. I made mistakes, they made mistakes. That was a big play, it was 31-17 and we were going to get a 50-yard gain and we make it 31-24 and got a chance to be in the game. But hey, trust me, I was not perfect today.”

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Rutgers coach Greg Schiano likely had his own gripes with the officials, though he did not express his publicly.

The Scarlet Knights were caught in a strange situation, when they snapped the ball on fourth-and-one with a second remaining in the third quarter. Running back Antwan Raymond was stuffed behind the line of scrimmage, causing a turnover on downs. Schiano was fuming after the play, but it appeared his ire was directed toward the officials, who he huddled with before and after they reviewed the play and confirmed the call.

Schiano declined to elaborate on the situation in his postgame press conference: “This is how we’re going to handle this: I’m going to handle that with the league office, and that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

Schiano did praise his wide receivers, who drew four defensive penalties in a game where they combined for 224 yards and four touchdowns on 20 catches.

“I don’t really get into the stats much, but they had a lot of DPIs caused,” Schiano said. “They were getting tackled. They don’t go on the stat board but those would have been big, big plays. The reason they got tackled is they had (the defenders) beat.”

Martin concedes that they “probably were penalties,” but added that his receivers “were getting held, too.” The Scarlet Knights were called for just two penalties: holding on left tackle Dantae Chin, who left the game early with injury, and unsportsmanlike conduct on cornerback Jacobie Henderson.

The Miami of Ohio coach will take note of the penalties — which usually came in “critical situations” — when he watches the game back as the team returns to Oxford. But his attention will also be on the opportunities his RedHawks missed in Piscataway.

“The least of my concern was maybe a couple calls that I didn’t agree with today,” Martin said. “Did they impact the game? Yeah, they impacted the game. Would we have won if those calls went our way? No.”

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Brian Fonseca may be reached at [email protected].