Officials wipe out Iowa's punt-return touchdown in home loss - ESPN

Officials wiped out Cooper DeJean's punt-return touchdown that gave Iowa a late fourth quarter lead Saturday against Minnesota because DeJean gave an invalid fair catch signal by waving his left arm.

DeJean fielded a bouncing Minnesota punt at the Iowa 46-yard line and raced 54 yards to the end zone to put Iowa ahead 16-12 with 1:32 left. But after reviewing the play, officials ruled that the play was dead. Iowa's Deacon Hill threw an interception three plays later and Minnesota prevailed 12-10, defeating the Hawkeyes for the first time since 2014.

«The receiver makes a pointing gesture with his right hand and he makes multiple wave gestures with his left hand,» referee Tim O'Dey told a pool reporter. «That waving motion of the left hand constitutes an invalid fair-catch signal, so then when the receiving team recovers the ball, by rule, it becomes dead. That is a reviewable element of the game. We let the play run out and then we went to review. Review shows with indisputable video evidence that there is a waving motion with the left hand.

»That's when these rules are applied."

O'Dey said that while returners are allowed to point toward the ball, «any waving motion» renders the play dead. O'Dey consulted with the on-site replay official and collaborative reply, used by power conferences and headquartered in Pittsburgh, to make the ruling.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said the ruling was «tough,» and noted that fair-catch procedures are reviewed with officials before every game.

«It was interesting, the final analysis of that play,» Ferentz said. «The most peculiar part to me was, at least the initial replay, was to find if he's in or out of bounds, which clearly he didn't.… Somehow we went from there to a whole different