Clawson minimizes Pickett's fake-slide touchdown with rule complaint, Narduzzi fires back

Kenny Pickett showed how serious a threat he was to Wake Forest's defense on the opening drive of the ACC Championship.

Pitt saw its quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate take off against Wake Forest for a 58-yard touchdown run, the second-longest touchdown run in ACC Championship Game history. It was a spectacular play as Pickett not only converted a third down with his legs, but faked going down into a sliding motion to freeze defenders chasing him, and then finished the run by getting to the end zone.

The move even drew praise from NFL superstar cornerback Jalen Ramsey:

It also drew the attention of Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson, who took time during his postgame press conference to address it.

"I've never, ever seen that before," Clawson said of Pickett's touchdown run. "You know, you just train your players, as soon as a quarterback starts sliding to stop, because if you touch him it's going to be a penalty. He started his slide, and our kids stopped playing. I mean, I don't think he did it intentionally. If he did, he's brilliant." 

Pickett confirmed after the game it was indeed intentional, which should make him 'brilliant' in Clawon's eyes.

"Yeah, it was intentional," Pickett said of the fake-slide. "I started slowing down and pulling up getting ready to slide and I just kind of saw their body language, they pulled up, as well. I didn't really know. I've never done that before, so I just kind of kept going after I was initially starting to slide."

Clawson believes the NCAA needs to change an entire rule over Pickett's play.

"I just think he reacted as an athlete," Clawson continued. "But what do you tell your players? The quarterback is protected and you start a slide, and there's two guys that could have made a play that stopped playing because he started to slide. That is certainly something for the rule book that I think that's something they have to look at and come up with a rule for. There's no rule for it, so the officials were correct in letting it go. They made the correct ruling by not blowing it dead. But I said, If that's the rule, I'll just have my guy fake kneeling all the way down the field, and really what do you do. It's something that I think the NCAA is going to have to look at. You can't fake a slide."

First, it's important to note that Clawson does acknowledge that the play is indeed within the rules of the NCAA. But he clearly wasn't happy with the fake slide or how it might have cost his team momentum in the ACC Championship.

Pat Narduzzi didn't feel that way when Clawson's comments were brought up to him, defending Pickett by pointing out the athleticism it took to make such a play.

"First of all, you've never seen him do that," Narduzzi said. "I think it was called instincts and a heck of a football play by Kenny Pickett. He started to slide, drug his foot, and then I think -- the guys were still 10 yards away from him. He was going to go down and be smart and be safe, but he was like, 'Hold on a second.' He drug that right foot I believe it was and then just took off. He's an athlete, and you can't teach that. It's called instincts, and to me it was a heck of a play."

But eventually Narduzzi switched from praising Pickett to addressing Clawson's comments directly. He pointed out how his own coaching would prevent such a situation, and made the issue about following through to make sure an opponent is defeated.

"You've got to finish the play," Narduzzi said. "There's a thing called a whistle, and when the whistle blows you stop, but until then you've got to gather up. And if the quarterback slides too late, we've seen guys slide late and get scraped up and tattooed a little bit, and it's part of the game. Again, we never practiced it. It wasn't something where today we said we're going to fake slide. It was a football play, and Kenny Pickett is the best, and that's why he's a champion."

Narduzzi brings up the ultimate point here, that defensive players can still close on the quarterback to make sure the slide occurs without hitting him. It's an adjustment, but it's become one that Pitt's defense has made. If the Panthers can play their aggressive style of defense that often hits the quarterback without getting called for hitting sliding passers, then Wake Forest can make the adjustment too.