Longtime coach Kyle Whittingham was unaware the stadium clock he watched Saturday night at Michigan might not reflect the official game time.
Purdue coach Barry Odom also was caught off guard as he watched on television more than 250 miles away. The two Big Ten coaches acknowledged Monday they did not know there could be a discrepancy between what everyone was seeing on television and inside the stadium and the conference’s tracking system.
But that’s how conference officials explained the dramatic finish in Whittingham’s debut for No. 16 Michigan.
After time appeared to expire with Western Michigan leading 12-7, the refs added one more second and the Wolverines capitalized on their second chance with J.J. Buchanan hauling in Bryce Underwood’s desperation heave for a 47-yard touchdown and a stunning 13-12 victory.
“Well, I guess they have this Hawkeye system? I was unaware of that,” Whittingham said Monday. “But as I looked, I knew it was close. When the ball sailed back to the end zone, I glanced up at the clock, and it was just ticking to zero, and somebody touched it. I didn’t know who had touched it, but apparently, it was a defender that had already established an out-of-bounds position. I’m assuming they got it right. They looked at it, and the technology they have is very advanced, I guess.”
It was a learning experience for both longtime coaches, who are relatively new to the Big Ten.
The 66-year-old Whittingham joined Utah’s staff in 1994 and stayed through last season, coming out of a brief retirement to take the Michigan job. He won a school record 177 games, including 11 bowl games, as the Utes head coach from 2005-25.
The 49-year-old Odom returned to his alma mater, Missouri, as an assistant coach in 2003 and spent a total of 14 seasons on the Tigers staff, the last four as their head coach.
His tenure at Missouri was split by a short stint at Memphis, from 2012-14, and following his firing as the Tigers head coach in 2019, he went to Arkansas for three seasons before returning to the head coaching ranks at UNLV in 2023 and moving to Purdue in 2025.
The Boilermakers (1-0) beat Indiana State 44-19 on Friday night to snap a 10-game losing streak.
“I didn’t until Saturday night,” Odom said at his weekly news conference when asked if he was aware a second clock, not visible inside the stadium, kept the official game time.
The Big Ten issued a statement two hours after the game, clarifying the process that was used and citing the rule that was enforced about when the clock stops if a player touches the ball out of bounds.
“It was determined (Western Michigan safety Micah Davis) started his jump from an established out-of-bounds position (left foot) and made contact with the ball with 1 second remaining on the clock,” the conference said. “A side-by-side view of the play and the game clock, using a direct shot of the game clock in the stadium, was used to determine the final ruling.”
Based on that explanation, Whittingham and Odom believe the refs got it right.
Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher and Western Michigan President Russ Kavalhuna also told ESPN on Sunday night they accepted the explanation though Kavalhuna believes more transparency is needed. The Broncos (0-1) play in the MAC.
“If you look at what they saw, then you reach the conclusion they reached,” Kavalhuna said. “However, if you look at what the broadcasters broadcast, you reach a different conclusion. I think it would be good to ask ourselves, can we sync those up so that the viewers could see what the officials would be looking at?”
The ACC even allows television viewers to hear the discussion between the game officials and the replay center before reaching a conclusion.
But it wasn’t just fans who were confused.
“I believe those charged with orchestrating, administering and officiating the game, they have to make decisions based on all the information they get, and then it’s their job to communicate that to us. I would assume that’s what happened in Ann Arbor,” Odom said. “Like the other night, we were exiting the field for halftime and the official stopped me and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to make sure that that last play there…’ They wanted to make sure everything lined up the way it did. So it’s never over till it’s over. Until they blow the whistle or whatever that indicator is.”
Whittingham now believes the matter is closed as he moves on from the season-opening win and focuses on hosting No. 10 Oklahoma in one of this week’s featured games.
“I think everyone’s fairly satisfied with the explanation. I am, and I think Western Michigan came out with a statement that, ‘Hey, we’re not going to question this anymore,’” he said. “They gave us a fairly transparent answer, and we’ll move forward.”
Reporting by the Associated Press.
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