What Nacua did was stupid and he should be penalized. However, a few clarifications are in order. The first punch he threw (which missed the mark) wasn't directed at the player that laid him out (#94) but at another player who was at the time throwing punches at another BYU player. Nacua missed because he was being restrained by a BYU coach and got laid out in glorious fashion because he was being restrained and unable to avoid the blow. The second "sucker punch" that went viral looked like it happened to a random Memphis player (#40 Alan Cross), but it wasn't. Cross had already thrown plenty of punches at multiple BYU players. I believe he had already scuffled with Nacua (please correct me if I'm wrong on that account).

Incidentally, Cross was also one of the players who threw punches in the Ole Miss game. It's too bad that Memphis did nothing to penalize the players that fought earlier in the season because now we are seeing repeat offenders. Had Cross been penalized in any way for throwing punches against Ole Miss he likely wouldn't have done the same thing against multiple BYU players this week.

Still, no excuses. It's too bad that things escalated for both teams. I don't thing Memphis players are "thugs" as so many are saying, things simply got quickly out of control. FWIW, the scuffle with Ole Miss wasn't that bad.