PJ Fleck on controversial ending of Iowa game: "There's nothing controversial about it"

Coaches and fans alike were up in arms about Iowa's go ahead punt return touchdown that got called back against Minnesota on Saturday.

Here's a great look back at that play.

After going to a review to ensure Hawkeye returner Cooper DeJean stayed in bounds, the officials decided that he used an invalid fair catch signal, resulting in a dead play where the ball was touched, therefore wiping away the touchdown.

It was perhaps the most talked about call of the weekend, but as PJ Fleck explained yesterday, there's really nothing controversial about it if you understand how the rules read.

Fleck shared with media yesterday that returners cannot wave while communicating "poison" or "Peter" and then attempt to advance the ball at all - something that will come as a surprise to a lot of coaches and fans.

This video from the same game shows four other instances of returners waving people away from the ball. The difference between that one and DeJean's touchdown is that DeJean waved people off and then advanced the kick.

"There's nothing controversial about it. Offsides if offsides. A false start is a false start. A hold is a hold. An invalid fair catch signal is an invalid fair catch signal," he opened his response with saying.

"Everyone thinks that an invalid fair catch is above your shoulder and has to look like a fair catch., but that is not a part of the rule. The other part of the rule that was implemented years ago is the 'poison' rule. When you 'poison' or 'Peter' any call, you cannot advance that ball."

"You can point to a ball. That's fine. But with one hand, you can't shoo away people at all. You can't do that. We got called for that weeks ago, if you remember. We shoo'd people away from the ball, caught it, wanted to return it, and it was blown dead."

Fleck says if there was any mistake made, it was that the play should have been blown dead and never given a chance to play out. 

"Now, the only thing that should have happened, I'm not a referee nor am I blaming anyone, but it should have just been blown dead right then and there. Don't even let that play happen because it doesn't exist."

Still, Iowa took over at about midfield with about a minute and a half to go and needed only a field goal to win the game. They were unable to advance the ball the move the chains on their subsequent four plays, and that's why we're here hashing this out now.

Hear more from Fleck in the clip.