Akron football moved to 1-8 on Saturday with an 18-point loss to Miami of Ohio. In the process, backup quarterback Jeff Undercuffler Jr. managed to get himself ejected from the sideline.
Undercuffler, a fifth-year junior who spent his first four years at Albany, stands 6-foot-5, 240 pounds. He is hard to miss, which may have been his downfall.
The Zips found the end zone for their only touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter. To try and get back in the game (even though it was too late) they lined up to go for two.
Unfortunately, Akron was called for an illegal block on the conversion attempt.
Undercuffler did not like the flag. To express his disapproval, he unleashed a full-throated attack on the officiating crew from the sideline.
Although it is unclear as to exactly what was said, Undercuffler appeared to call the penalty “bullsh*t,” call the referee and/or another player a “p**sy” and gave the player and/or referee a firm “f**k you” while pointing to himself as if he wanted the smoke. He got his money’s worth, but berating the officials or an opponent like he did simply won’t fly.
Akron backup quarterback Jeff Undercuffler Jr. was penalized.
As a result, Undercuffler received not just one, but two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and was ejected from the game. Everybody, even the announcers, was confused as to what had just happened, but a replay made it very clear what went down.
While being escorted off of the field by one of his coaches, Undercuffler was grinning from ear-to-ear and laughing. Some of his teammates even dapped him up.
Obviously, the ejection was pretty irrelevant at that point. However, between the illegal block on the initial conversion attempt and the two unsportsmanlike penalties on Undercuffler, Akron faced an abnormally long point-after-touchdown attempt… and missed.
For a backup quarterback to get ejected from the sideline is rare. It led to one of the most bizarre PAT attempts of the year, if not of all-time. Undercuffler will likely get a stern talking to for his actions, but it certainly seems as though the Zips have bigger issues to figure out.
