‘It Does Seem Really Fishy’ — Jason Kelce Doesn’t Hold Back on Controversial Ending in Michigan-Western Michigan

Jason Kelce isn’t buying the official explanation for how Michigan escaped Week 1 with a win over Western Michigan.

The Wolverines needed a Hail Mary to beat WMU 13-12, and it only worked because officials put one second back on the clock after review. The Broncos were already celebrating what looked like a win before the ruling came down and changed everything.

Michigan’s Bryce Underwood then connected with J.J. Buchanan on the extra play, and the Wolverines walked away with the victory.

Jason Kelce Says Officials Should Have Checked the TV Clock

The problem is that the Big Ten’s explanation did not resolve why its replay clock differed from the clock shown on NBC’s broadcast. The Big Ten stated that its replay system, known as “Hawkeye”, showed that one second remained on the clock when Western Michigan defensive back Micah Davis had touched the ball while he was established out of bounds.

Under NCAA rules, that contact was enough to stop the clock and give Michigan another play. But NBC’s broadcast showed the clock hit zero before the ball reached Davis. That left some questioning how officials determined there was one second left, and Kelce was one of the skeptics. “It does seem really fishy,” Kelce said on the “New Heights” podcast.

“It’s super (expletive) up for Western Michigan. I don’t know how they’re not losing their minds more than they are,” he added.

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Philadelphia Eagles Assistant GM Jon Ferrari walked through how the system is supposed to work, explaining that the replay official can pull up both the Hawkeye view and the TV broadcast feed side by side.

Kelce zeroed in on that detail right away, pointing out that if the official had both views available, there was no real excuse for trusting the one that didn’t match everything else on the screen.

“He only looked at the Hawkeye. He didn’t know that it was unsynced?” Kelce asked.

Ferrari then explained that the two clocks had been lined up correctly earlier in the game but had come apart somewhere along the way, calling it a rough night for the whole system.

Kelce shared his view on how replay decisions like this should be made in the first place. If a system built specifically for instant replay can’t be trusted on something as basic as the game clock, he argued.

“Every official just needs to double-check any situation like this with the TV clock,” Kelce said. “It shouldn’t be off the Hawkeye. What’s the point of looking at Hawkeye? Just look at what everybody else is watching.”

He basically argued that a game clock reading should never come down to guesswork or a single unverified source, especially when a win or loss hangs in the balance. Turns out Kelce isn’t the only one who felt that way. Since the game, the NCAA has actually issued new timing guidance on this exact issue.

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The national coordinator of officials sent out a memo stating that replay officials must now base clock adjustments on the embedded game clock within the program feed, using the broadcast’s game-clock graphic if an embedded clock is unavailable. In other words, the NCAA has already standardized how officials must determine the clock during replay reviews, addressing the same discrepancy Kelce criticized.

For Western Michigan, which ranks joint 81st in Pro Football Network’s 2026 CFB Power Rankings, that change comes one game too late. But at least going forward, no other team should have to find out the hard way how a mismatched clock can swing a football game.