A friend dared me to write that Chad Ochocinco was seen bribing officials at Nippert Stadium Friday night. Another said I needed to mention they do sell beer at Nippert and that’s the only way to possibly explain the reversal. Or is it The Reversal? And does this connect to The Curse?

Irregardless (!), this is big, so let’s address it right now.

Three immediate press box reactions to Isaiah Pead’s “touchdown” run in the second quarter Friday night.

1. “Touch–did he lose the ball?”
2. “What a swing!”
3. “Ooohh … they’re gonna review that.”

From there, we were perplexed. We stared at the monitor, angled our heads, squinted, blinked and sighed. I think a few even jutted jaws and bowed backs. This was serious.

The consensus — consensus — was that call could not be overturned. Could not. Maybe Pead did get the ball over the line. But just maybe. And how perfect was the camera’s angle? And did Pead have possession? Oh, yes, and could you rob Robert Sands of a smart, smart play because Pead was maybe over the line and maybe had possession?

There was just no way the play was irrefutable. For perspective, if it’d been called a touchdown, you couldn’t plainly argue WVU forced the fumble.

The best part? The referee announced the reversal and heads turned in every direction because no one could believe it. I heard two people ask where John Marinatto, the Big East commissioner who was at the game, was seated. This looked like … well, it looked like a screw job and the pursuit of a national championship bid. The last time I remembered this emotion was when WVU was getting calls — sorry! — at home against Pitt in 13-9.

Afterward, of course, this was the hottest possible topic. Some Mountaineers shied away from the issue. Others did not.

Coach Bill Stewart

I’ll save that for the Big East. (The officials) are professional men and they called it the way they saw it, I guess.

Defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel

I couldn’t see it from where I was at. Obviously, they reviewed it and they made the decision. Those are the things that happen in games. That’s the way they ruled it. We’re not going to get it back, so go play the next one. It was a big play, though.

Sands

Out there on the field, it didn’t look like he crossed the line. He jumped in the air and the ball didn’t look like it crossed the line at all. He was air born, but he got stopped in the air. You can’t tell where that ball was. The cameraman can get a bad angle where it looked like he crossed the line, but he was in the air and he got stopped in the air and I knocked the ball out. But it is what it is. They gave him the call and gave him the touchdown.

Nose guard Chris Neild

That definitely would have made a big difference. It would have given us a chance to get our offense on the field. I thought I had the fumble and I knew they were going to review it, but I really thought he didn’t break the plane.

Linebacker J.T. Thomas

It was a turning point in the game, but we’ll never know exactly what happened. All we could do was go back on the field and keep trying to stop them.

Defensive end Julian Miller

That call on that fumble was crucial. Who knows what happens if we get the ball back?

To be fair, no one volunteered opinions about the call. A few had to have it pulled out of them. They wouldn’t lean on it whatsoever and, perhaps correctly, pointed out they had other opportunities within the game.

What bothered the Mountaineers most was Pead’s 43-yard run after WVU’s failed fourth-and-9 late in the fourth quarter. That, too, warrants some explaining.

On third-and-9, WVU ran the ball and got nothing. Stewart and offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen said the plan was to go for a touchdown over a field goal and, on that particular play, set up a more palatable fourth down. Honest.

Stewart

All we’re trying to do is run a basic, sound football play and get it back to fourth-and-5, fourth-and-4 so we can make the fourth down conversion.

Mullen

We were trying to get a manageable fourth-and-5, fourth-and-4 instead of going for it on fourth-and-10. Unfortunately, the run that was there all night wasn’t there for us in that situation.

The Mountaineers were going for the touchdown over the field goal because they again had doubts about their defense being able to stop the opposing offense — and Pead’s run justified that doubt. Had the Mountaineers scored, Stewart said they would have opted for the 2-point conversion.