So it turns out the umpire who delivered the much-clicked hit to Stephen Garcia at the LSU 5-yard line during Tigers' win over South Carolina Saturday is no stranger to bringing down ballcarriers in the open field: Wilbur Hackett Jr. was a Parade All-American out of Louisville and a three-year starting linebacker at Kentucky from 1968-70, where he was the first black captain in SEC history. The conference won't say whether Hackett will be back on the field this weekend, per its usual policy, but he won't be facing any discipline:

... the SEC office believes Hackett was protecting himself and plans to take no disciplinary action on the veteran official. Rogers Redding, the conference's coordinator of football officials, reviewed the tape of the play and thought it was inadvertent contact.

"Garcia changes his direction just a tad, which ties up the umpire just a tad and makes it look a lot worse than it really was," SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said.

Of course, we didn't have to wait long for the inevitable evolution of one of the most-viewed YouTube clips of the weekend:

It should be noted that the impact of this gaffe on the game was zero: Carolina scored on a 4th-and-1 dive a couple plays later to go up 17-7 heading into the half, after which they punted four times and turned the ball over twice en route to blowing the lead. USC held the ball for all of 2:13 in the fourth quarter, losing seven yards on seven plays. Rather than worrying about any complaint, the Gamecocks will be spending their time this week figuring out the blitz after giving up a season-high six sacks.