Mizzou used as an example in college football's altered roughing the kicker rule
Missouri helped college football change the game, literally.
On Tuesday, the Southeastern Conference discussed a rule change surrounding roughing and running into the kicker fouls, specifically stating there will be no foul if a kicker is displaced more than five yards from the position of the snap.
John McDaid, the SEC coordinator of officials, announced the rule change as part of the new rules for the 2023 season.
The example McDaid gave for this rule change was none other than roughing the kicker foul called against Missouri during the 21-17 loss to Kentucky during the 2022 season.
"If the kicker possesses or carries the ball more than five yards behind his original position at the snap, those protections of running and roughing are no longer in effect," McDaid said, using a video of the foul to illustrate his point.
Tigers fans still remember the perplexing moment.
With 2:34 to play in the fourth quarter, Missouri held Kentucky to a fourth down UK's own 41-yard line. The Wildcats elected to try and pin Missouri deep, but the punt snap sent the ball flying over Kentucky punter Colin Goodfellow's head.
Goodfellow tracked down the loose ball, but not before it rolled inside Kentucky's 10-yard line. Goodfellow was able to get a punt away, but Missouri sophomore linebacker Will Norris hit Goodfellow in the spit second as he got the ball away.
Kwiecinski: Missouri football and Eli Drinkwitz have a lot to prove in 2023, and they know it
The ball went out of bounds at UK's 41, but Norris was flagged for roughing the kicker. The referees made the call because Goodfellow remained in the tackle box when he was punting the ball away. The tackle box is defined as the area on the field between the two offensive tackles, but that area extends slightly outside of that area.
The flag was one of the most significant plays in MU's loss. This gave Kentucky an automatic first down and allowed the Wildcats to burn two minutes off the clock, but more importantly, kept Missouri out of Wildcats' territory late in the game with a slim lead.
Instead of having the ball at the UK 41 with about 2:20 left in the game, MU got the ball back with 38 seconds remaining and couldn't pull off a miracle.
“How a guy can still be a protected punter 50 yards down the field and how our guy is supposed to know he can’t tackle him is beyond me,” Drinkwitz said about the penalty after the loss. “I’m sure I’ll get an explanation."
McDaid discussed how the rule change came about, mentioning the standard that a kick was going to be made in this instance and that Goodfellow was not going to run with the football instead.
"Our official had a flag down for roughing the kicker, and I asked him after the game why did you believe running and roughing are in play, and he said, I never had the kicker possessing the ball and showing any intent to run, and I had the defender coming in not making any effort to block the kick but just to contact the kicker," McDaid said Tuesday. "If that's the two judgments he brought to bear to try to determine is it obvious a kick is going to be made, I supported him on that."
The roughing/running into the kicker penalty wasn't the only rule change discussed on Tuesday.
McDaide mentioned how penalties occurring at the end of the first and third quarters will be played at the start of the next quarter after flipping the fields. Teams cannot request back-to-back timeouts in the same dead ball period, which is common when coaches try to ice field goal kickers.
Finally, the game clock will continue to run after a play results in a first down that ends in bounds, except in the final two minutes of each half.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football used as example in altered roughing the kicker rule
