Current:Home > NewsNCAA cracking down on weapon gestures toward opponents in college football-InfoLens
NCAA cracking down on weapon gestures toward opponents in college football
View Date:2025-01-07 01:58:27
The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season!
Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — College football is on high alert for players flashing make-believe guns at an opponent.
That happened Saturday when freshman edge rusher Dylan Stewart, who sacked Mississippi quarterback Jaxson Dart for a loss of eight yards on third down, stood over him and pretended to shoot his opponent with a repeating firearm.
Stewart was called for unsportsmanlike conduct and South Carolina was penalized 15 yards.
The flag did not deter Stewart, who celebrated the same way — he got off three shots of his pretend shotgun — a few minutes later after stopping Rebels runner Matt Jones for a 4-yard loss. No penalty was called on that play.
At Minnesota, defensive back Justin Walley broke up a pass in his team’s 24-17 win over then-No. 11 Southern California, then lifted up his shirt as if he were showing a handgun sticking out of his waistband.
Walley was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for what the official said was “simulating brandishing a gun.”
“There’s a list of automatic unsportsmanlike conduct fouls. One of them in our rule book is simulating firing of a weapon,” Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday. “That’s not really a judgement call.”
It seems like a case of bad judgement by the players who consider those actions when they celebrate. The incidents show the NCAA sending a message to keep violence, even the pretend kind, out of its game.
“We’re starting to see, I hate to say it, but more and more of it,” Shaw said. “We’re just trying to say that’s not acceptable. Gun violence is not acceptable in our game.”
It can be difficult to get that message to young players like Stewart, who turned 19 last month and has had an immediate impact on the Gamecocks’ defense. He’s had 3.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage in his first five college games.
Such displays are sometimes seen in the NFL. Jets receiver Allen Lazard was penalized for firing finger guns after a first-down catch against Denver two weeks ago. He was also fined $14,069 for “unsportsmanlike conduct for a violent gesture,” according to the NFL.
South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said he spoke with Stewart after the penalty and he’s talked with all his players about reducing pre-snap and post-play infractions.
The gesture was “unacceptable,” Beamer said “And Dylan Stewart feels awful about that play. Dylan Stewart’s a really good kid, and Dylan Stewart’s mom feels awful about that play.”
Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said at his weekly news conference that he tells his players to celebrate with teammates and not leave themselves open to an officials’ interpretation of their actions.
“In our world right now, we’re talking about everybody should express themselves, rightfully so,” Fleck said. “Sometimes we’re flagging a particular move, sometimes we’re not. Our whole thing to counter that is don’t leave it up to somebody to interpret something the wrong way.”
Dart, who leads the Southeastern Conference in passing, responded to Stewart’s fake shooting on social media, quoting late rapper Young Dolph’s song, “100 Shots.”
“How the ... you miss a whole hunnid shots?” Dart said, using a line from the song after the Rebels’ 27-3 victory.
Shaw said players have to understand they can celebrate in creative ways after big plays. He after the NCAA penalized the throat slash gesture, some players turned to a simulated nose wipe, which is not against the rules.
NCAA spokesman Greg Johnson said Shaw recently sent around a reminder in mid-September to conferences and their football officials to emphasize treating weapon gestures as penalties.
“This was done with the goal of this rule being officiated consistently on a national basis,” Johnson said.
Beamer said he’ll keep any punishment for Stewart inside South Carolina’s football building. Young people make mistakes, he said, and that’s when you help them make the right decisions going forward.
“It’s our job to help,” Beamer said, “like a parent would do with a child.”
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
veryGood! (52287)
Related
- Taylor Swift gifts 7-year-old '22' hat after promising to meet her when she was a baby
- Cambodia grapples with rise of YouTubers abusing monkeys for clicks at Cambodia's Angkor world heritage site
- Ohio’s DeWine focuses on children in his State of the State address
- Democrats Daniels and Figures stress experience ahead of next week’s congressional runoff
- Get well, Pop. The Spurs are in great hands until your return
- Rape case dismissed against former Kansas basketball player Arterio Morris
- Who’s who in the triple-murder trial of Chad Daybell
- Yet another MLB uniform issue: Tigers' Riley Greene rips pants open sliding into home
- New wildfires burn in US Northeast while bigger blazes rage out West
- Mama June Shares How She’s Adjusting to Raising Late Daughter Anna Chickadee Cardwell’s 11-Year-Old
Ranking
- Maine dams face an uncertain future
- Tennessee Senate advances bill to arm teachers 1 year after deadly Nashville school shooting
- Psst! L’Occitane Is Having Their Friends & Family Sale Right Now, Score 20% Off All Their Bestsellers
- Rep. Ro Khanna calls on RFK Jr.'s running mate to step down. Here's how Nicole Shanahan responded.
- New Mexico secretary of state says she’s experiencing harassment after the election
- Hank Aaron memorialized with Hall of Fame statue and USPS stamp 50 years after hitting 715th home run
- Horoscopes Today, April 9, 2024
- Biden's latest student-loan forgiveness plan brings questions for borrowers: What to know
Recommendation
-
Stock market today: Asian shares meander, tracking Wall Street’s mixed finish as dollar surges
-
Real Madrid and Man City draw 3-3 in frantic 1st leg of Champions League quarterfinals at Bernabeu
-
Teenager charged as an adult in downtown Indianapolis shooting that injured 7
-
California court affirms Kevin McCarthy protege’s dual candidacies on state ballot
-
Ashton Jeanty stats: How many rushing yards did Boise State Heisman hopeful have vs Nevada
-
Aoki Lee Simmons, 21, Vittorio Assaf, 65, and the relationship age gap conversation
-
Trump’s lawyers try for a third day to get NY appeals court to delay hush-money trial
-
2 Republicans advance to May 7 runoff in special election for Georgia House seat in Columbus area