‘It’s hard for me to accept it’: Urban Meyer says Western Michigan ‘beat the Wolverines’
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The biggest story of the first weekend of college football was the controversial replay review that gave the Michigan Wolverines one last chance to stave off an upset from Western Michigan with a Hail Mary touchdown to win the game.
The controversial decision has been the biggest topic of conversation throughout the college football world, and now three-time national champion head coach Urban Meyer is weighing in.
Controversial Call
After being outplayed for most of the game, Michigan found itself with one final opportunity to steal the win on a Hail Mary as the clock expired. The pass fell incomplete, however, and it looked as though the Wolverines had dropped the game 12-7.
But then, Michigan was given another opportunity.
Right after the play, the stadium announcer informed the crowd that the previous play was under review. Moments later, the head referee walked to the center of the field and announced, “After review, there’s one second remaining in the game. Third down.”
The issue was that none of the replays shown on the broadcast appeared to show any reason for an additional second to be put back on the clock.
Even NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay was confused as to what the referees were seeing that led them to add a second back to the clock. Still, Michigan was handed one more shot, and the Wolverines took full advantage.
Underwood launched another Hail Mary, and this time, JJ Buchanan came down with it to give Michigan a stunning 13-12 victory.
The mind-blowing, controversial Western Michigan-Michigan finish.
Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, and rules analyst Terry McAulay have the commentary on the stunning scene for NBC.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 6, 2026
Following the game, the Big Ten released a statement explaining the controversial ruling:
“Following video review, it was determined Western Michigan’s #18 started his jump from an established out -of bounds position (left foot) and made contact with the ball with one second remaining on the clock. As shown in the provided video of what was viewed during the replay process, a side-by-side view of the play and the game clock, using a direct shot of the game clock in the stadium, was used to determine the final ruling.
Eighty-five minutes prior to the game, all broadcast cameras used for the replay system, including the camera on the game clock, are synced using a strobe system to ensure all cameras are aligned.Per NCAA Football rule 4-2-3-a, ‘A ball not in player control, other than a kick that scores a field goal, is out of bounds when it touches the ground, a player, a game official or anything else that is out of bound or that is on or outside a boundary line.’ and thus the clock is stopped.”
Since then, the controversy has not died down as the MAC is now protesting the result of the game.
‘It’s hard for me to accept it’
Longtime college football head coach Urban Meyer, who coached the Ohio State Buckeyes to a national title back in 2014, weighed in on the incident involving Ohio State’s biggest rival as he claimed that it is difficult for him to “accept” the result.
“It made sense but it doesn’t make sense,” Meyer said on The Joel Klatt Show. “I thought the Big Ten did a good job how they explained it, however, I still don’t; it’s hard for me to buy, accept it. The clock on the field is what everybody operates by. The clock on the field, Western Michigan had the greatest win in program history.”
Meyer went on to say that he felt for the players, claiming that they “beat the Wolverines.”
“And more importantly, Joel, I guess, is you hear from the president, maybe the AD, the head coach. Who cares? I don’t care about the president of Western Michigan. I care about the players. The players are the ones who beat the Wolverines. Sometimes I don’t understand why they roll certain people out. And once again, all due respect. I thought Western Michigan handled it as classy as they could. I’m not saying I would have went there. I would have lost my mind, because I saw what I saw, there’s three zeros on the board and you celebrate,” Meyer added.
While it might not go down as a win officially, one NCAA-recognized national championship selector is listing the game as a victory for Western Michigan.
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