...Reggie Porter is somewhere between 5'9" and 5'11" depending on how honestly his height is listed on the yewt roster. Mathews is 6'6" and has a 37" vertical. If you're Reggie Porter and you have to do a jump ball against Mathews, in an honest moment, what chance do you give yourself to either intercept the pass or deflect it? Since an honest person knows they have no chance to win the jump ball, what is your best play in this situation?

1). try to outjump a guy who is at least 8" taller and has a better vertical? Nope, nodda chance.

2). hope to deflect it after he makes the catch and is trying to bring the ball down and get his foot down? very slim chance

3). P12 officials have been letting Keith McGill and the other ute DBs get away with murder all game long against the BYU recievers so maybe there's a decent chance if he pushes him out of bounds it won't get called? very good chance, this is his best option by far.

When you look at how Reggie is positioned, he looks like he's blocking not playing pass defense. This would be consistent with someone who is trying to move another individual away from a position (option #3). If he was intending on defending the pass he would've been turning and looking for the ball and gathering himself to try and out-jump a guy nearly a foot taller and with NBA hops. He's clearly not intent on going that route. He's going option #3 all the way.

Mathews did pull him down afterwards hoping the ref would see it and call it.