Kansas and Missouri have already turned Friday night’s Border War into total chaos when the game suddenly lost one of its officials. Head referee Jason Autrey went down on the sideline during the first half of the Week 2 rivalry game in Lawrence. He was eventually taken off the field, leaving his crew to finish the game one man short.

The injury happened mid-play when Autrey pulled his hamstring while sprinting down the sideline to keep up with Austin Alexander’s 88-yard touchdown return.

Warren Sharp reported on X that Autrey was seen limping after the play and was later carted off. FOX College Football’s X account also posted a video of Audrey stretching on the sidelines before being carted away. “The officiating crew had an unexpected substitution tonight,” the X post read.

The night was already unpredictable before Autrey went down. The chaos began early. Kansas blocked one Missouri FG, then returned another for a TD, setting the tone for a wild night. Kansas previously blocked one Missouri field goal before returning another blocked attempt for a touchdown.

Autrey tried to hold on for the full game, but he was clearly in pain, clutching his leg and stretching on the sidelines a few times before he was eventually carted off the field.

His absence left the crew with a real problem, as Rule analyst Mike Pereira cited that there was no replacement referee standing by, with no one wearing the white hat. As the field briefly lost its working microphone, Pereira himself ended up announcing a couple of calls from the booth to keep the viewers in the loop.

According to NCAA procedure, in Division I FBS, if the referee can’t continue, the center judge is designated to become the acting referee automatically. Conferences can also have alternate officials on standby, though that is more common in postseason games than in a regular-season rivalry.

Mid-game referee injuries force immediate tactical adjustments on the field rather than simple delays. When a standard crew drops from eight officials to seven, the remaining crew members have to absorb extra visual coverage, often forcing the back judge or umpire to split focus between lining up plays and monitoring pre-snap mechanics.

While rare, mid-game officiating shifts put immense pressure on communication, forcing remaining members to manage mechanics, penalties, and booth coordination on the fly without breaking game momentum. None of the situations had an easy fix, but the crews adjusted and kept the games moving. In Kansas-Missouri, Autrey’s crew brought in Ron Turner, who stepped into the lead role and helped through the rest of the game as another experienced official wasn’t available.

“The umpire, Ron Turner, was a referee in the SWAC,” Pereira said, according to Griffin McVeigh of On3. “And so, they likely designated him as the one official to fill in if, in fact, this happened. So, we just saw that Ron is in that position, and if there’s a lack of an alternate, then they just have to work with [seven], most likely eliminating the back judge, possibly. It may end up taking out the center judge or the back judge.”

Turner didn’t need to be called in from the stands or flown in late. He was already on the field working as part of Autrey’s seven-man crew. Because regular-season games rarely carry dedicated standby alternates, standard protocol dictates that the crew must reallocate responsibilities internally when a head referee goes down.

Since Turner had prior head referee experience in the SWAC, the crew immediately designated him to take over the white hat and handle administrative duties for the remainder of the game.