EAST LANSING – The referee who threw the flag negating the fourth-quarter onside kick recovery by Michigan State football in its loss to Illinois has been under the microscope before for a similar call – and was part of the crew for the Big Ten’s biggest officiating controversy of the season.
Umpire Keith Vaverchak called Samson Gash offsides after the Spartans freshman dove and caught kicker Liam Boyd’s well-placed chip shot along the Illini sideline during MSU’s eventual 38-37 overtimedefeat on Saturday, Oct. 10.
Video replays – both on the FS1 broadcast and inside Spartan Stadium – showed Gash’s body behind the line of scrimmage as Boyd’s foot made contact with the ball on the tee, followed by Vaverchak throwing his flag from his position at
the 35-yard line on Illinois’ sideline.
Former official Mike Pereira, speaking on the FS1 broadcast, said he did not believe Gash was offsides.
“When I saw it in real time, I thought he was because he was so far ahead of everybody else,” Pereira said. “But when the ball is kicked, he really hasn’t reached the line yet.”
That penalty could not be reviewed per NCAA replay rules, Pereria said.
But the Big Ten did review – in what appeared haphazard fashion in real time – whether Gash was inbounds when he caught the ball. After a lengthy review, referee Mark Kluczynski announced that Gash was out of bounds and Illinois would start its possession 5 yards beyond where he touched it, with no rekick, on a penalty for an out-of-bounds kickoff . Seconds later, Kluczynski changed the call, announcing another angle that showed Gash was inbounds. As MSU fans were celebrating what appeared to be a negation of the original penalty, Kluczynski continued that the offsides penalty on Gash would remain and the Spartans would need to rekick.
Pat Fitzgerald, Bret Bielema reactions to offsides controversy
Fitzgerald was livid and eventually gestured with his middle finger toward the Illinois sideline – where Vaverchak was standing waiting for Boyd’s second kickoff.
“I prefer to talk to the Big Ten officials. I'll talk to them,” Fitzgerald said after the game. “My vantage point – we were not offsides. My vantage point – we recovered the ball. My vantage point is that it was one of the more confusing plays I've ever seen officiated.”
Illinois coach Bret Bielema was equally perplexed by the whole situation, but for different reasons.
Afterward, he said he had “been in that ref’s ear a little bit,” telling him that Gash was offsides. Bielema also got on another ref in the crew, he said, for what he felt was a missed defensive holding call on MSU DE Kenny Soares Jr. in the first half that could have negated a potential touchdown pass.
“So I kind of said, I said, ‘Hey, just make it up, right? Like, make it up.’ And I'm not saying that's what happened, because that wasn't the same guy,” Bielema said. “But I'm like, ‘Oh, he's offsides, he's offsides.’ So I saw the flag go, and then I saw the pop-up, right? So I knew it was going to be – and then I swear I saw him land [out of bounds]. I don't know where his feet were, but he caught it, and I know that the ball is retained by where you land. So I have never seen [a referee] stop, tell us something, and then come back. I've never, never seen or witnessed that.
“But I got a lot of confidence in the Big Ten office. I'm sure what they saw is what they saw. They told me they found another angle. I don't know if someone phoned a friend. I don't know if iPhone sent somebody in, and I don't know how, because the review was long already, right? Like I mean, holy cow! But hopefully they got it right.”
The score was 31-24, with 7:47 remaining in regulation, after the original 24-yard touchdown pass from Alessio Milivojevic to Fredrick Moore. While the penalty on Gash ultimately did not lead to any Illini points – MSU's defense stopped Illinois, and the Spartans tied the game on their ensuing drive with Jaziun Patterson’s 2-yard TD run with 1:17 to play – it ultimately cost MSU valuable time, as Illinois’ possession took 3:27 before a turnover on downs.
“The coaching point is to make sure you're onside,” Fitzgerald said. “We were onside. We were not offsides. And so that is what it is.”
Although unexpected, Boyd's pooch kick to Gash was hardly unprecented, appearing similar to one that Ohio State's Blake Haubeil executed during a 73-14 Buckeye win over Maryland in 2019, with Chris Olave racing toward the line of scrimmage as the kick occurred and zooming past the Terrapins to catch the ball in stride for the recovery.
Keith Vaverchak officiating history
Saturday marked the second time in three seasons that Vaverchak threw an iffy flag on an onside kick. During Michigan’s eventual 27-24 win over Minnesota on Sept. 28, 2024, in Ann Arbor, Vaverchak called Minnesota's Matt Kingsbury offsides on an onside kick with 1:37 remaining, after the Gophers had rallied from a 24-3 hole to tie it. After the game, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said a ref told him that Kingsbury “broke the plane" of the 35-yard line.
However, two days later, the Big Ten told Fleck the play was “too tight to flag” and immediately altered its officials' positions for onside kicks. The Big Ten's statement to the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minnesota on changing the league’s rules: “Effective immediately, the Big Ten has been approved by the NCAA to implement a modified officiating mechanic … on onside kicks by positioning the Line Judge and Head Line-Judge on the kicking team's restraining line, thereby putting multiple officials in the best position to consistently make the correct judgment.”
The Free Press sent a message early Sunday morning to a conference spokesman to determine if Vaverchak was in the correct position based on the 2024 rules change.
Officiating crew linked to U-M/WMU controversy
This wasn't Vaverchak's first controversy in the state of Michigan this year, either.
In Week 1, Vaverchak (along with Jeff Szink, Saturday's line judge in East Lansing) was part of the crew that added an extra second following an end-of-game replay review, setting up U-M’s eventual 13-12 victory over Western Michigan. Four days after that game, the NCAA announced “instant replay protocols were not followed” properly, despite Big Ten claims otherwise. The conference then changed its policy for in-game replay reviews during game broadcasts to allow viewers to see and hear what the replay officials and on-field referees discuss.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ref in MSU onside kick mess has history of controversial calls
