Throwback Thursday: The infamous call at UConn

Temple people have moved on from injustice, but the animals (below) are still having a cow.

Throwback Thursday this week was supposed to be about Scott Andrien's remarkable catch that beat Syracuse in 1982, but the gentleman I met in the parking lot on Saturday who promised to send me photos of that play either forgot to do so or forgot that he promised me.
No matter.

Fans driving by a busy intersection this week saw this.

We'll save that throwback for Syracuse week.
We'll keep the throwback theme intact for UConn and that's the infamous game of 2007, when the Owls beat UConn, 23-22 (extra point not even counted), as Bruce Francis clearly caught a tipped ball by Adam DiMichele.
Great play, though. I love passes off reverses and I hope to see former Big 33 quarterback Jalen Fitzpatrick, now the Owls' top receiver, throw one some game.
Why Dyonne Crudup was throwing to DiMichele and not the sure-handed Francis (who never juggled a ball once in his four-year career at Temple) is a story for another day, but my guess is that most Temple fans have moved on from that miscarriage of justice.
So have I, even though I was sitting on the side of the field where I could clearly see the ball stick to his one hand like crazy glue and the foot come down about 10 inches inside the back line.
I used to have a cow about it, but now only cows are having a cow.

Bruce Francis was so sure he caught it, he immediately called
for the protest flag to be thrown by Al Golden.

The photo above and to the right, taken in suburban Philadelphia this week (we won't say where to keep the cownappers away), shows Larry Holstein (yes, that's the cow's name) still protesting the call of Big East replay official Jack Kramer, who might as well have been Kramer from Seinfeld because that call was a joke.
Unlike Larry, though, the day I moved on was when Temple beat UConn by two touchdowns. Both teams finished 8-4 that year and UConn went to the Fiesta Bowl while Temple stayed home.
Those days of an 8-4 Temple team staying home are over, thanks to a BCS conference affiliation.
Still, the Big East has not been immune to calls that it protects its teams against other conferences (although I'm waiting for that to benefit Temple some day).
At Syracuse last year, a Big East crew ruled a clearly made extra point by Toledo missed and 'Cuse went on to win the game in overtime.
I've always written that non-conference games should have crews from neutral conferences. The Penn State vs. Temple game, for example, should have had a field crew from the Sun Belt and a replay official from the PAC-12. Instead, there was a field crew from the Big 10 and a replay crew from the Big East.
Take the competing conferences crews away and all of the conspiracy theorists will be restricted to talking about Freemasons, the Kennedy assassination Temple home attendance figures.
Hopefully, the NCAA will wise up and do that in the future.
Now, though, things should be decided on the field since Temple is back in the BE.
Hopefully, this game won't come down to a controversial call either way.
Or I'll have a cow.

Tomorrow: Gameday preview 24 hours early