College football fans are known to storm the field after their team pulls off a big win. Baylor fans didn't want to wait until the game was over.
As the clock was ticking down with No. 13 Baylor leading No. 8 Oklahoma 24-14 with seconds left, the Bears called a timeout with three seconds left to avoid a delay of game penalty as they were taking knees to end the game. The fans were unaware a timeout had been called — as was the Fox broadcast crew of Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt — as the score read as final while fans ran across the field.
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley was not happy. As the fans continued to party on the field, Riley had sent his team to the locker room and was seen yelling at officials before his team came back on the field for the final seconds of the game.
Baylor fans rushed the field with 1 second left and Lincoln Riley was HEATED 💀 pic.twitter.com/3PHcl7wTOW
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 13, 2021
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Once the chaos was settled and the fans were back off the field, the Bears brought out kicker Isaiah Hankins to kick a last-second field goal from 32 yards out, officially ending the game at 27-14 and bringing the fans back out.
After the game, Riley said he was upset that Baylor didn't receive a 15-yard penalty, and added that he felt the field goal was bad sportsmanship.
Lincoln Riley said he was upset that Baylor wasn’t assessed a 15-yard penalty for the field rushing. He also said he understands why Dave Aranda kicked the FG, but said he wouldn’t have done it and that it goes against a “code of sportsmanship"
— Jason Kersey (@jasonkersey) November 13, 2021
Was Baylor simply rubbing it in with the late field goal? Baylor coach Dave Aranda had an explanation for Fox Sports' Jenny Taft.
"That was for the Big 12 tiebreaker, we wanted to be over 10""That was for the Big 12 tiebreaker, we wanted to be over 10"@BUFootball Head Coach Dave Aranda tells @JennyTaft why he chose to kick that last second FG ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/m9IslTfJ6o
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 13, 2021
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Riley watched the scene from up close.
.@CoachDaveAranda confirms he kicked the FG due to Big 12 tiebreaker rules. Lincoln Riley was standing at midfield as BU attempted the FG.
— Matt Mosley (@mattmosley) November 13, 2021
Certainly part of the confusion stemmed from the fact that fans had no idea whether the game had actually ended, or if it was progressing toward an end. Baylor had ran its previous play with 43 seconds left on the clock, and would need to call a timeout or run a play once more in order to avoid a delay of game penalty.
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Instead of doing that earlier — anytime within 40 seconds would have allowed the clock to wind down to the end, as Oklahoma was out of timeouts — Baylor chose to wait to call the timeout until there were three seconds left, potentially to set up the field goal as time expired.
Riley certainly had more steam to blow off than just on the officials for how the final seconds of the game went. After weeks of struggling against opponents, Oklahoma took its first loss of the season, having been outgained in total yards 413-260 as they lost to the Bears. Considering the Sooners were already No. 8, a loss this late in the season could be a heavy blow to the team's College Football Playoff chances.
