By Will Vandervort.

At the request of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the National Coordinator of Officials has reviewed the targeting play that occurred in the second half of the Clemson at Wake Forest game on Thursday night that involved the ejection of Clemson safety Robert Smith with 14:37 to play in the Tigers’ 34-20 victory.

In trying to dislodge the ball from Wake Forest tight end Cam Serigne, Smith hit the Demon Deacon in the chest area and moments after the play an official ruled he had targeted Serigne with the crown of his helmet.

Replays during the ESPN broadcast clearly shows Smith hitting Serigne in the chest with his shoulder and his helmet is to the side. However, replay officials decided the ruling on the field stood because there was not sufficient evidence on video replay overturn the ruling on the field.

Because of the ejection, Smith will have to sit out the first half of next Saturday’s game at Georgia Tech.

“I don’t know how you look at that play and say it was targeting at all,” said ESPN analyst David Pollock during the broadcast.

The ACC’s Coordinator of Officials Doug Rhoads agreed with Pollock during the broadcast and said it appeared to him that Smith hit Serigne in the chest area.

“That is very close to being in the chest area,” Rhoads said. “We have only seen the one view here, but the initial forcible contact has to be into the helmet for that to be targeting so I’m sure they will look at some multiple views here.”

Rhoades went on to say, “Here is one view where you can see that initial contact and it looks below the head and in the chest area. If they have a view to be certain on that, I think they are going to reverse it.

“That play there looks like it is more down into the chest area.”

On Friday night, Rhoades changed his tune.

“During last night’s television broadcast, I made remarks surrounding the targeting call that were misleading,” he said in a statement released by the ACC to The Clemson Insider. “I did not have the benefit or access to the various replay angles and ability to perform detailed analysis and therefore made a rush to judgment comment.”

Rogers Redding, the National Coordinator of Football Officials, had this to say about the bang-bang play that led to Smith’s ejection and a one-half suspension next week.

“In my judgment, the call on the field of targeting is correct; there is a launch and forcible contact to the head/neck area of a defenseless opponent,” he said in the same statement. “This fulfills the requirements for the foul under Rule 9-1-4, and the player was appropriately disqualified from the game.

“The video also shows the views that are available for review by Instant Replay, and I have looked at these as well. It is helpful to remember that the standard is that in order for the Instant Replay Official to overturn the call on the field, there must be indisputable video evidence that there was not forcible contact to the head/neck area. The video certainly does not show this absence of such contact, and in fact, it would not be unreasonable for the Instant Replay Official to confirm the ruling on the field.

“In summary, in my judgment, the call was correctly made on the field and the Instant Replay Official was correct to sustain that ruling and disqualify the player.”

The ACC considers this matter closed and will have no further comment.