Why not 'targeting'? Texas' Quinn Ewers, LSU's Jayden Daniels suffer after Alabama hits

Texas fans may have shuddered a bit after seeing LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels go down after a hard hit from an Alabama linebacker last Saturday.

The hit wasn't completely the same, but it was similar to the one that injured quarterback Quinn Ewers in 2022. It was also made by the same player, linebacker Dallas Turner. The initial hits are different - Ewers got struck in the air while Daniels was hit under his chin - but the way Turner took the quarterbacks to the ground and the end results were the identical.

Both players were ruled out for the game after suffering injuries: Ewers with a shoulder/collarbone injury and Daniels with a concussion. The hit on Daniels wasn't called targeting, but LSU coach Brian Kelly submitted a claim to the league office, saying that "we felt like it checked all the boxes" of targeting.

Both teams ended up losing a game that they may have won had they kept their starting quarterbacks. Ewers went 9 for 12 with 134 yards before ceding the ball to Hudson Card in the second quarter, who went 14 of 22 for 158 yards. Texas lost 20-19.

Longhorns fans were frustrated not only because of Ewers' injury, but because of how Texas QB Colt McCoy suffered a similar fate in the 2010 BCS Championship game against Alabama.

LSU had scored 28 points before Daniels' exit late in the third quarter, with Alabama leading 42-28 at the time. He was the Tigers' leading passer and rusher and the team did not score again after Garrett Nussmeier took over, while the Crimson Tide also failed to score thereafter.

Some folks on social media have begun to question the validity of Turner's play, since he also had a violent facemask penalty on Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart in 2022. Rebels coach Lane Kiffin was particularly unhappy that the linebacker got away with what he saw as a clear targeting penalty on Daniels.

"I was blown away that was not targeting," Kiffin told reporters on a Sunday Zoom meeting. "I mean, from the second that I saw it. And the hit to the neck and head injury — how that wasn’t and how that wasn’t reviewed."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: LSU's Jayden Daniels, Texas' Quinn Ewers suffers similarly vs. Alabama