Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher smiled and tried to be diplomatic Tuesday.
When asked about the three offensive pass interference calls against FSU in Saturday night’s 33-20 win at Miami — two of which were called on former Glades Central standout Kelvin Benjamin — Fisher responded, “Interesting.” And after a long pause, he said, “Amazing.”
Fisher said he agreed with the first pass interference that was called against Benjamin, a first-quarter play in which the redshirt freshman receiver went up against two Miami defensive backs in the end zone for an EJ Manuel pass (it was incomplete and FSU settled for a Dustin Hopkins field goal). But the two other calls — one against Benjamin and the other on senior Rodney Smith — were hard for Fisher to comprehend.
“Makes it hard to coach,” Fisher said. “How do you tell your players how to play? What’s a penalty and what’s not a penalty? … I don’t want to be an official. They have a tough job. But they have to do the job.”
Smith was flagged for pass interference on his 50-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter. FSU later made a field goal just before halftime — after Fisher had to argue that he could use his timeout to avoid a 10-second run-off due to an offensive penalty.
Benjamin’s second penalty for offensive pass interference, coming on third-and-goal in the third quarter, appeared to be mutual contact between Benjamin and the Miami defensive back. The Seminoles were also penalized on the ensuing play and settled for a 35-yard field goal from Hopkins to put them ahead 16-10.
Fisher said he doesn’t want to spend time looking back on the calls and debating them.
“You can’t dwell on it,” Fisher said. “And I can’t either. They’re going to call what they call.”
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