Wake Forest had an early 7-0 lead against Pittsburgh in the fourth quarter when Kenny Pickett ran for a touchdown. But, Pitt’s wide receiver picked up and pretended to take a slide at the pylon of Wake Forest’s end zone as he crossed into it.
Wake Forest football coach Dave Clawson says the NCAA should review rules on fake slides following TD by Pitt QB Kenny Pickett.
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Wake Forest football coach Dave Clawson believes the NCAA should reconsider its regulations regarding quarterbacks’ ability to “fake slide” after fleeing the pocket.
After his team’s 45-21 defeat to Pittsburgh in the ACC championship game on Saturday night, Panthers quarterback Kenny Pickett utilized a fake slide to freeze defenders and run for a 58-yard touchdown on the game’s opening drive.
Pickett stutter-stepped and feigned to tumble after picking up the first down after breaking containment on a third-down run. Two Wake Forest defenders froze, thinking Pickett was about to surrender. Pickett instead made a sharp cut and ran another 40 yards for a score before kissing the fans in the goal zone.
While Clawson admitted after the game that there are no rules prohibiting Pickett from doing what he did, he suggested that the NCAA consider enacting such a restriction.
“If that’s the rule, I’ll have my man fake knee all the way down the field, and what are you going to do?” Clawson explained. “So it’s something the NCAA will have to look at, because you can’t fake a slide,” he says.
Pat Narduzzi, Pitt’s coach, defended his quarterback.
“I believe it was referred to as intuition,” Narduzzi remarked. “Kenny Pickett made a great football play, in my opinion. He began to slip, and he dragged his foot. It was possible that the nearest [defender] was 4 or 5 yards distant. I believe [Pickett] considered it, and there was a little moment of uncertainty before deciding to go down and be safe, but then he said, ‘Hold on a second.’ Then he just vanished.”
Pickett, according to Narduzzi, did nothing wrong.
Narduzzi added, “I teach our defensive men to finish the play.” “We often slip over the top of [the quarterback] when he falls down. It’s just a matter of becoming a football player. You must complete the play. There’s a device called a whistle, and when it blows, you come to a complete stop. You have to collect yourself till then, and if the quarterback slips too late… we’ve seen players slide too late and the quarterback gets scraped up and tattooed a little. It’s all part of the fun.”
The play isn’t something the coaching staff teaches, according to Narduzzi.
He said, “We never practice it.” “We didn’t say, “Today, we’re going to pretend slip.” It had been a football game. Kenny Pickett, on the other hand, is the finest, which is why he is a champion.”
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The “wake forest university” is a football team that is part of the NCAA. After Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett scored a touchdown, Wake Forest’s coach Dave Clawson said the NCAA should review its rules on fake slides following TD.
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