Georgia's Malcolm Mitchell disputes complaints of Missouri's Gary Pinkel

ATHENS -- Georgia receiver Malcolm Mitchell was at the center of two controversial plays in Saturday's game against Missouri.

The first was his tackle on Tigers punt returner Cam Hilton that forced Hilton to muff the punt, which resulted in a Georgia recovery and helped lead to a drive ending in a field goal to tie the game.

The timing of the hit on Hilton was questionable, but no kick-catch interference was called.

The second was a fourth-quarter pass interference call down the sideline. Quarterback Greyson Lambert threw a ball that was out of Mitchell's reach, but the referees opted to throw a flag for defensive pass interference. That play gave Georgia 15 yards and helped set it up for the game-winning field goal.

Upset by what he felt were wrong calls, Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel appealed both plays to the SEC. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Pinkel said the conference admitted to making mistakes on both calls.

"There's no whining here. You just kind of feel bad they didn't it get right," Pinkel said.

Rule 6-4 section (b) of the NCAA rulebook says interference results if a kicking team player "enters the area defined by the width of the receiver's shoulders and extending one yard in front of him." It also adds that "when in question it is a foul."

This would make it sound like Mitchell probably got away with one on that play.

"It's too late now, huh?" Mitchell said. "I think it was close, to be honest. I haven't watched it enough to know that. I'm not saying he's wrong, I'm not saying he's right. I'm just ­saying, the game's over."

On the second, call, however, Mitchell had a gripe of his own.

On the play itself, Mitchell claimed he took significant contact beyond the allowed 5 yards, which resulted in the ball being uncatchable.

"I don't know, maybe I don't ­understand the rules," Mitchell said. "If I'm 15 yards downfield, ball's in the air, somebody hits me, what is that? The ball's not catchable because I couldn't get to it because I was being hit downfield."

Beyond the actual play, Mitchell felt like the officials allowed what he believed to be excessive contact on several passes thrown his way.

After joking that it was "too late" to change the kick-catch interference no call, Mitchell said, "I can't get those pass interference (calls) back," in reference to other plays in the game that weren't called.

"I thought it was pass interference the five times before that (the one that was called)," Mitchell said. "You've got to make plays as a receiver regardless of any situation going on. You've got to make plays.

"I don't want to make it sound like I'm complaining but I'm definitely, well, yes I am, I'm complaining. But it's not an excuse."

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Georgia's Malcolm Mitchell disputes complaints of Missouri's Gary Pinkel ."