Wake Forest football coach Dave Clawson says the NCAA should review the rules on fake slides under Pitt QB Kenny Pickett’s TD
CHARLOTTE, NC — Wake Forest Football coach Dave Clawson said the NCAA needs to review its regulations on whether quarterbacks are allowed to “fake slip” after getting out of pocket.
Clawson’s statement came after his team 45-21 lose come Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Saturday night, in which the Panthers played midfield Kenny Pickett used a fake slide to freeze defenders and ran for a 58-yard touchdown in the game’s first possession.
After Pickett broke the barrier on his third downhill, he briefly stuttered and pretended to slip after picking up the first down. Wake Forest’s two defenders froze, thinking Pickett had given up. Instead, Pickett made a quick cut and ran another 40 yards to make a touch before kissing the crowd at the back of the field.
While Clawson admitted after the game there was no rule stopping Pickett from doing what he did, he said the NCAA should consider such a rule.
“If that’s the rule, I’ll show my guy a prosthetic knee all the way down the court, and really, what are you going to do?” Clawson said. “So that’s something the NCAA’s going to have to look at and you know, you can’t fake a slide.”
Clawson said he had never before seen a play where a quarterback pretended to give up, just to keep running.
“You just have to train your players, as soon as your midfielder starts to slip you stop because if you touch him it’s going to be a penalty,” Clawson said. “He started to slip and our kids stopped playing. I don’t think he did it on purpose, but if he did, he’s brilliant. I just think he reacted like an athlete. But he did. What do you say to your players? Midfielder is protected, and there are two boys there who could have played but stopped the game because he started to miss.”
Pickett admitted after the game that he did it on purpose.
Pickett, the ACC Player of the Year, who caused three touchdowns on Saturday night, said. “I just started to slow down and pull up and get ready to slide and I just saw their body language and they just pulled up too. … I’ve never done that before. I just kept chasing. I started to slide at first.”
Pitt’s coach Pat Narduzzi defended his defender.
“I think it’s called instinct,” Narduzzi said. “I think it was a Kenny Pickett football game. I mean he started to slide, he got high in his leg. Last time. [defender] maybe 4 out of 5 yards away. I think [Pickett] think about it, and was a little hesitant and he would come down and be safe, but then he said, ‘Wait a minute.’ … And then he took off. “
Narduzzi doesn’t believe Pickett did anything wrong.
“For me, I coach our defensive players to complete the play,” Narduzzi said. “If [the quarterback] down so many times we slide on top of them. It’s just a football player. You must complete the play. There’s a thing called a whistle, and when the whistle blows, you stop. Until then, you have to regroup, and if the midfield quartet slips too late. … We’ve seen the boys slide too late and the midfielder has his head shaved and a little tattooed. That is part of the game. “
Narduzzi added that the style of play is not something the coaching staff teaches.
“We never practiced it,” he said. “It’s not like we said, ‘We’re going to fake today.” It was a football match. And Kenny Pickett is the best, and that’s why he’s the champion. “
