Baylor’s QB got ejected, but there’s more to it

Charlie Brewer didn’t have anything to do with one episode, but in a way, he got thrown out because of it.

Officials threw Baylor quarterback Charlie Brewer out of the Bears’ game against Iowa State on Saturday, a little more than halfway into the fourth quarter. Brewer’s ejection came after he drew a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct after saying something to an official.

Brewer had just taken a hit while sliding at the end of a QB scramble. It’s not at all clear what he said to the ref, but whatever it was got him tossed:

An unsportsmanlike foul doesn’t get a player tossed on its own. But two in one game does, and that includes if that player’s team got assessed a group penalty earlier in the game. And after a skirmish between the ISU offense and Baylor defense earlier, both teams got one:

So, Brewer’s unsportsmanlike foul was considered his second, and he was gone. This has happened in other games this year, including a ruckus of a Florida-Vanderbilt game in mid-October. Like in that case, players who have gotten personal unsportsmanlikes earlierin the game can be ejected when the whole teams gets a penalty for it later.

You might think this is silly, given that he ostensibly had nothing to do with the first penalty “he” got. I think that’s a fair case, though it’s also fair for the NCAA to want to give officiating crews a lot of tools to keep games from getting out of hand when tensions are hot.

It does stink for Brewer, though, and Baylor fans will understandably be mad about it. The simplest way to avoid it would’ve been to not say, uh, whatever he said to the ref.