Tennessee Player Somehow Avoids Flag After Blatant Late Hit Out Of Bounds On Kentucky QB

Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff was yards, plural, out of bounds when he took a shove to the head by a Tennessee player on the sideline before hitting the turf, yet somehow didn’t draw a penalty flag from officials.

The highly criticized play occurred during the first half of Saturday’s game in Knoxville, Tenn. when Vandagriff went off on a scramble run toward the Volunteers’ sideline. While it seemed like he did a great job at avoiding any sort of contact from Tennessee players chasing him down toward the sideline, after he took a couple of steps out of bounds he was greeted by defensive lineman Omarr Norman-Lott and his two giant hands.

Vandagriff undoubtedly sold the hit by falling to the ground in dramatic fashion, there is no denying that Norman-Lott put a bit of force behind his shove. He easily could have bear-hugged the quarterback if he wanted to slow him down, but he instead put both of his hands on Vandagriff’s helmet.

In the video you can see a Tennessee coach and multiple players react as if they couldn’t believe Norman-Lott just did what he did, yet the officials didn’t do anything about it.

As you can imagine, many Tennessee fans are of the opinion that Norman-Lott was simply protecting himself on the play. Shoving a player head first after he takes multiple steps out of bounds is an interesting choice to protect yourself.

Tennessee ultimately knocked off the Wildcats 28-18, and while the late hit on Vandagriff likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game, being handed 15 free yards certainly wouldn’t have hurt their efforts of pulling off an upset on the road.