Washington State’s attempt at a ‘Tush Push’ went horribly wrong during Saturday’s college football game against California-Berkeley. What was supposed to be a one-yard quarterback sneak became a touchdown… for the opponents.
The Cougars faced 4th-and-1 from the Golden Bears 46-yard-line. They turned to their jumbo package.
Quarterback Cam Ward was supposed to follow his center up the middle and the two large linemen behind him in the backfield were supposed to help push him beyond the line to gain. That is exactly what happened!
Ward took the snap and went low. His teammates pushed him from behind.
The ‘Tush Push’ play has become the most talked about, controversial play in recent football history. It is almost always guaranteed to work. Rarely does it fail.
Technically, the Tush Push worked. Ward would have picked up the first down— if he had held onto the ball. He just didn’t hold on to the ball.
Ward fumbled at some point during the sneak, which resulted in a massive pileup. Washington State players signaled for a first down. Cal players signaled for the stop.
Meanwhile, the ball slowly rolled out of the pile onto the turf. Anybody who realized that the ball was loose was unable to get up out of the carnage.
Only Cade Uluave was able to escape. The Golden Bears’ 6-foot-1, 230-pound inside linebacker fell right in front of the fumble, scooped it up, and took off running.
Nobody was going to catch him!
Uluave took it 51 yards for six before anybody could realize what happened.
A Washington State first down quickly became a Cal-Berkeley touchdown. It couldn’t have gone any worse for the Cougars, who found themselves down 7-0 after thinking that they had moved the chains.
It was a Tush Push failure of epic proportions!