{"id":367493,"date":"2025-11-09T19:11:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T19:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/367493\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T19:11:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T19:11:20","slug":"big-ten-says-usc-shouldve-been-penalized-for-fake-punt-ploy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/367493\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten says USC should&#8217;ve been penalized for fake punt ploy"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762715479_268_rittenberg_adam.png&#038;h=80&#038;w=80&#038;scale=crop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\"\/>\n<p>Adam RittenbergNov 9, 2025, 12:04 PM ET<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Big Ten said <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"63d7a1b4-ee19-f0ae-33c5-42a14e000fb8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/30\/usc-trojans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USC<\/a> should have been penalized after having reserve quarterback <a data-player-guid=\"e0357bde-0378-3a86-b199-adab31021de0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/4567748\/sam-huard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Huard<\/a> wear the same jersey number as primary punter <a data-player-guid=\"b01bb6b5-654f-3276-81ab-17ac4043e2c0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/4692047\/sam-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Johnson<\/a> and successfully execute a fake punt pass in Friday&#8217;s win against <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"ca8359bf-52ca-f069-b9c4-bbfbcfc15c64\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/team\/_\/id\/77\/northwestern-wildcats\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Northwestern<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Early in the second quarter, USC faced fourth-and-6 and lined up in punt formation. Huard, the team&#8217;s third-string quarterback, took the field wearing No. 80, which is also Johnson&#8217;s number, and positioned himself as the punter. Huard took the long snap and then completed a 10-yard pass to <a data-player-guid=\"d86682b1-9df9-377c-ad15-9659fde118cb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/5141975\/tanook-hines\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tanook Hines<\/a>. USC went on to score a touchdown and take a 14-7 lead, eventually winning 38-17.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/46888054\/usc-sam-huard-wearing-no-80-fools-northwestern-trick-play\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/r1572457_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/46893930\/college-football-week-11-superlatives-usc-texas-tech\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762715480_949_r1572617_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>Both Huard and Johnson were listed with No. 80 on USC&#8217;s game-day roster, but Huard appears as No. 7 on the team&#8217;s online roster and in the game notes for the Northwestern contest. Most college teams have multiple players with the same jersey number, but often they play on different units (offense\/defense). USC does not have players&#8217; last names on the backs of its jersey, which could have helped the officials and Northwestern delineate between Huard and Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Northwestern coach David Braun took responsibility for the play, saying USC &#8220;did legally submit that&#8221; and that &#8220;it 100 percent falls on me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But the Big Ten cited an NCAA rule under &#8220;Unfair Tactics&#8221; that reads: &#8220;Two players playing the same position may not wear the same number during the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If a foul was identified when #80 (Johnson) entered the game as a punter, a Team Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty would have been assessed resulting in a 15-yard penalty from the previous spot,&#8221; the league&#8217;s statement reads. &#8220;The Big Ten will continue to review the situation with both institutions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Because Huard&#8217;s fake was the Trojans&#8217; first punt attempt of the day, the penalty actually would have been assessed when Johnson punted the ball away with 57 seconds remaining in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>USC coach Lincoln Riley said the team made Huard&#8217;s number change several weeks ago and joked with reporters following the Northwestern game: &#8220;You guys [have] got to pay attention. &#8230; I&#8217;m glad none of you all put it on Twitter.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adam RittenbergNov 9, 2025, 12:04 PM ET Close College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":367494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-367493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115521329312047841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}