photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach David Beaty argues with officials during the second quarter on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015 at Darrell K. Royal Stadium in Austin, Texas.

Before leaving Austin, Texas, I spoke with one of the Big 12 officials who worked Saturday’s KU-Texas game to see if I could get a clarification on the situation surrounding the punt that was muffed by Derrick Neal in the first half of KU’s 59-20 loss.

The ruling on the field was that Neal touched the ball and a Texas player recovered it at the KU 17. Replay during the game confirmed as much — according to the official, the camera angle showed Neal’s fingers bend back after making contact with the ball — but KU coach David Beaty continued to have discussions with the referees for several minutes after the replay confirmation.

Beaty said after the game that he was arguing that the UT player who recovered the ball “clearly went out of bounds” and was the first one to touch it after returning to the field of play. By rule, that would be deemed illegal touching and possession would be given to Kansas.

The official this morning told me that the refs on the field missed the call during live action and that replay could not get involved after the fact. It falls in the same category as a play in which a team challenges the spot of the football and on replay officials see a facemask penalty. Because the penalty was missed on the field — and penalties are not reviewable — the infraction cannot be flagged after being discovered by replay.

In short, the missed call on the field cost Kansas because the rules were on the Jayhawks’ side.

These things happen, though, and the officials had nothing to do with Neal’s poor decision and inability to execute the fielding of the punt.

The official, who said he was impressed with how hard the Jayhawks played, added that Beaty was very calm and respectful during his discussions and “asked his questions in the right way.”