Play.
Kenny Pickett fakes a slide and takes it all the way to the house.
The Wake Forest defense was fooled by Kenny Pickett and he took it 58 yards for the opening touchdown. (0:45)
6:49 AM
The fake slide Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett used to score a touchdown is being stopped by the NCAA.
Steve Shaw, the NCAA's national coordinating official, has a memo that says referees should end the play when a player surrenders himself.
The memo states that the ball should be declared dead by the on field officials when a ball carrier begins a fake slide. The goal of the rule is to give a ball carrier an option to end the game by sliding feet first and avoiding contact. The defense is being told to let up when the ball carrier slides feet first, so allowing the ball carrier to fake a slide would compromise that.
The play is not reviewable according to the memo.
Pitt's 45-21 win over Wake Forest in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game featured a fake slide by Pickett that resulted in a 58-yard touchdown run.
He pretended to slide after picking up the first down after breaking containment. Two Wake Forest defenders thought Pickett was giving himself up. Instead, he made a quick cut and raced another 40 yards for a touchdown before blowing kisses to the crowd in the end zone.
After the game, the player of the year said that the move was intentional.
"I just slowed down and pulled up and they just pulled up as well, and I just saw their body language, and I just kind of slowed down and pulled up," he said. I have never done that before. I kept going after I started to slide.
Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson questioned the rule after Saturday's loss, saying the NCAA needed to review whether the play was legal.
"If that is the rule, I will have my guy fake knee all the way down the field, and really, what do you do?" "Clawson said that." You can't fake a slide, that's something the NCAA is going to have to look at.
Information from The Associated Press was used.
