College football brawls ignite during Rivalry Week over flag-planting celebration
College football descended into chaos Saturday night when several winning teams attempted to plant a flag in the middle of their opponent’s fields during Rivalry Week.
The postgame on-field antics ignited mass brawls — and forced police to use pepper spray to contain the flood of athletes and coaches converging onto the field — while broadcasters pleaded that university officials ban the controversial taunt.
Michigan upsets No. 2 Ohio State
The chaos quickly unfolded after Michigan’s 13-10 upset over No. 2 Ohio State.
Michigan edge rusher Derrick Moore attempted to plant the Wolverines’ flag into the Buckeye’s “Block O” logo but was intercepted by Ohio State linebacker Jack Sawyer, who ripped the flag away as tensions flared between the two schools.
Several players were knocked to the ground during pushing and shoving as others tried to quell the mayhem.
Columbus police officers deployed pepper spray, striking several players and leaving them wincing in discomfort.
The Fox Sports broadcast caught Wolverines Tavierre Dunlap and Jason Hewlett on the sideline with tearing eyes after apparently being pepper sprayed by police officers on the field.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day backed his team after the loss, saying their frustration came from their pride.
“I don’t know all the details of it, but I know these guys are looking to put a flag on our field and our guys were not gonna let that happen,” Day said. “I’ll find out exactly what happened, but this is our field. We certainly were embarrassed of the fact that we lost the game, but there’s some prideful guys on this team that weren’t just gonna let that happen.”
Michigan running back Kalel Mullings called the Ohio State players “classless” for getting involved with their celebrations after the game.
North Carolina State – North Carolina
UNC head coach Mack Brown’s swan song at Chapel Hill was anything but a peaceful farewell.
Following the Wolfpack’s 35-30 victory over their instate rival, the teams met at midfield where orderly gamesmanship initially took place as Brown was greeted by several NC State players and his counterpart head coach Dave Doeren.
Brown embraced NC State’s Kevin Concepcion and Hollywood Smothers while their teammate defensive end Davin Vann took the wolf head-adorned flag from a cheerleader on the sideline and looked to skewer it into the field at Kenan Memorial Stadium.
UNC wide receiver Tylee Craft did not allow the rival flag to be planted into his home turf, grabbed the red banner and chucked into one of the benches before being shoved.
Wolfpack and Tarheel players scuffled for a few minutes before NC State headed over to their loyal fans and celebrated with them as one player waved the controversial flag high above his head in enemy territory.
Florida-Florida State
In Tallahassee, the Seminoles’ dismal season ended the way most should’ve seen coming as head coach Mike Norvell confronted Florida’s coach Billy Napier for his players’ antics.
After the Gators handed Florida State its tenth loss this year, some players didn’t leave Doak Campbell Stadium quietly.
The madness played out as Florida players – celebrating their dominating 31-11 win over their cross-state rival – gathered around midfield as edge rusher George Gumbs Jr. speared the team’s flag into the cheek of the shouting Seminole.
Several FSU players including offensive linemen Jeremiah Byers and Julian Armella took exception to the taunting celebration.
Byers got in the face of several Gators as Armella attempted to grab the flag, but was met with resistance.
Norvell raced across the field, where he got in the face of an apologetic Napier pointing towards midfield telling him off for the controversial flag planting that started the whole ordeal.
The Seminoles’ fifth-year head coach was the one to ultimately rip the Florida flag from the midfield logo, and throw it aside.
“They got to get rid of this flag planting stuff, this is causing too many problems here, it’s unnecessary,” ESPN broadcaster Rocky Boiman said.
Napier apologized for his team’s antics after both sides were separated
“Obviously what happened there at the end of the game is not who we want to be as a program,” Napier said. “It’s embarrassing to me and it’s a distraction from a really well-played football game. I want to apologize on behalf of the entire organization just in terms of how we represented the university there. We shouldn’t have done that. We won’t do that moving forward. And there will be consequences for all involved.”
Arizona State-Arizona
Following the Sun Devils’ 49-7 walloping of the Wildcats, Jacob Rich Kongaika planted a pitchfork into the Arizona logo but it was quickly snatched up by Montana Lemonious-Craig.
The scuffle only lasted a few seconds, as cooler heads prevailed and separated the players.
Other skirmishes broke out during the game at other rivalry games Saturday, including a sideline brawl during the “Iron Bowl” between Auburn and Alabama and punches were thrown between Utah State and BYU players after a Cougars’ touchdown.
With Post wires
