WATCH: It’s painful to see the Pac-12’s VP of Officiating explain this penalty

There wasn’t much drama in UCLA’s 56-23 victory over Hawaii on Saturday.

But that doesn’t mean it was without drama. And it all centered around Pac-12 officials’ interpretation of the targeting rule. In both instances, it went against the Bruins.

In the first quarter, UCLA linebacker Kenny Young was taken out on a brutal hit from Hawaii tight end Metuisela Unga. It appeared to clearly be a helmet-to-helmet blow, but officials ruled that the contact was instead shoulder to shoulder, and Unga was not penalized. Young, however, left the game and did not return.

In the fourth quarter, the Bruins’ linebacker corps was thinned once more, when Josh Woods was flagged for targeting on a fourth-down pass. Woods hit Hawaii receiver Kalakua Timoteo on a pass that fell incomplete. The play was reviewed and the initial call upheld, forcing Woods to leave the game. Per the rules on targeting, Woods will also have to sit out the first half of this week’s game against Memphis.

Later in the fourth quarter, the Pac-12 broadcast crew brought in David Coleman, the Pac-12 vice president of officiating, to try to explain each of the plays and their respective rulings.

It did not go well, as Coleman fumbled through his answers and seemed to be grasping for ways to justify each call.

.@RedditCFB whoa, this is some serious #pac12refs action. VP of Officiating is bumbling to justify horrible calls: pic.twitter.com/I3xBXNitgO

— Patrick Kirby (@ThePatricKirby) September 10, 2017

After the game concluded, UCLA coach Jim Mora unloaded on the targeting rule

“I think it’s an awful rule, frankly, that you just take a young man who’s playing football hard, at full speed,” Mora said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Josh is anything but a dirty player. He’s not a dirty player at all. He makes a clean hit. Things happen so fast out there. They happen so fast. Receiver catches it, he’s coming down, so all of a sudden Josh hits him kind of high, and now you’re going to punish this guy [by] not letting him play for an entire half? I think it’s a terrible injustice, and I think it’s a horrible rule.”

Ryan Black

Ryan Black covers Georgia football for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow him on Twitter @RyanABlack.