Official’s blow refs the passer

In what might be the first flashback from the 1960s involving football, Southeastern Conference official Wilbur Hackett Jr. -- a linebacker at Kentucky from 1968 to 1970 -- delivered a hit on South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia on Saturday in the Gamecocks' 24-17 loss to Louisiana State.

The hit, which has become a YouTube sensation, took place near the end of the first half. As Garcia was running toward the end zone, Hackett Jr. moved into his path at the LSU 5-yard line and appeared to try to stop him with a shoulder-to-shoulder hit.

Garcia didn't go down but was slowed enough to allow LSU safety Curtis Taylor to tackle him.

South Carolina later scored a touchdown on the drive, and the SEC ruled the questionable play was inadvertent contact.

"Garcia changes his direction just a tad, which ties up the umpire just a tad and makes it look a lot worse than it really was," SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said.

Despite the ruling, the hit certainly appeared to be intentional. Maybe it simply was a case of Hackett trying to relive his glory days and take one last shot at a rival conference quarterback.

• 'T' PARTY -- At halftime of Tampa Bay's 20-10 win over Seattle on Sunday, a ceremony took place to honor retired Buccaneers fullback Mike Alstott.

He was presented with two framed jerseys -- one in the Bucs' current red color scheme and the other in the bright orange of the team's past.

There was another notable difference between the two uniforms. Alstott's name on the throwback jersey was misspelled "Alsott."

But the mistake was intentional, the Orlando Sentinel reported, because in Alstott's rookie season, his name was misspelled "Alsott" on his jersey in each of his first two games before the mistake was corrected.

So the Bucs decided to leave off the first 't' to commemorate the error, which was made fun of by many media outlets. Since the blunder was done on purpose, though, the Orlando Sentinel wrote "the Bucs had the last laugh."

But did they? As a fan pointed out in an online comment beneath the article, the Bucs "were the ones who were stupid enough to misspell his name in the first place."

• UP IN SMOKE -- Iowa State might want to reconsider having its football players run onto the field through a cloud of smoke at home games.

Before Saturday's 35-7 loss to Nebraska, with smoke clouding his vision, Cyclones defensive end Travis Ferguson ran straight into a goal post.

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY REVIEW-JOURNAL