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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Did the ball hit the ground?

Click on the photo for a larger image
Click on the photo for a larger image

?Just like the average Arizona football fan saw Saturday night, Danny ?Corrales thought the ball cleanly ricocheted off Delashaun Dean’s? foot.?

Until he broke it down frame by frame.?

Corrales, an ESPN production assistant and former UA basketball? manager, was both cutting bumps for SportsCenter and watching the game? in ESPN’s digital center with fellow UA alum and coworker Roman? Veytsman. ?

After Washington linebacker Mason Foster returned the interception for? the game-winning, pick-six touchdown, the two weren’t ready to call it ?a game.

“”Obviously we’re going through every single frame of every single ?angle,”” Corrales said in a phone interview from Bristol, Conn. “”We ?noticed the ball hit the ground. Automatically we’re cutting the ?highlight. It was bullshit.””

?Corrales, who has worked at ESPN since April 2008, broke down the tape ?and began writing the shots for the 45-second highlight. After that,? it’s his job to sell the highlight to producers across the ESPN? networks.?

Since the game ended so late, the SportsCenter producer didn’t want to? tweak the rundown but did put it in Top Plays.? Corrales sold the highlight to ESPN News.?

“”Even my family members back in Tucson said everybody here thought it ?hit off his shoe,”” Corrales said. “”But they’re not looking at what I’m? looking at.””

?Sunday evening, during ESPN’s two-and-a-half hour College Football ?Live broadcast, the crew used Corrales’ highlight in a 30-second ?segment that discussed the controversial call at 7:43 p.m. local time.? The highlight telecasted the ball hitting the ground.?

So why did the Pac-10 get it wrong?

?””In my personal opinion, it was too quick,”” Corrales said. “”I didn’t ?even know it was getting reviewed. They definitely got that play ?wrong. I think that the Pac-10 owes Arizona an apology. It was a play ?that decided the game and I don’t think they made the right call.””

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