Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Eastern Michigan quarterback Mike Glass III was ejected from the 2019 Quick Lane Bowl after slapping Pittsburgh players and a referee.
Glass was kicked out with 10 seconds remaining in the Eagles' 34-30 loss Thursday at Ford Field in Detroit. The Eagles had the ball on their own 40-yard line with 16 seconds remaining when Glass took a snap on a third-and-10 play.
Glass threw an incompletion during the play, before hitting the ground. He then got up and got into a scuffle. He slapped Pittsburgh linebacker Cam Bright in the face mask before squaring up with Panthers defender Paris Ford. Glass threw another slap at Ford, but appeared to make contact with a referee, who fell to the ground during the melee.
The Eagles quarterback was then kicked out of the game after the players were separated.
Eagles cornerback Kevin McGill was ejected earlier in the game for unsportsmanlike conduct. Officials told Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton that McGill was kicked out for spitting on a Panthers player.
"Both of those guys are incredibly competitive, and they have put so much into this," Creighton said of Glass and McGill. "This was their last opportunity, and there is absolutely no excuse for any of that. They're embarrassed by it, they apologized to the team.
"I'm embarrassed. I apologize to anybody who was watching it and a part of it. Their emotions both got the best of them."
Glass completed 28 of 50 passes for 311 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He also ran for 83 yards and a score in the loss. Glass tweeted an apology early Friday.
"I let God and my family down," the Eagles quarterback tweeted.
Creighton said Glass was crying in the locker room after the game.
"He's phenomenal. I love him 100 percent, and thank God he is hotly competitive, but [there is] absolutely zero excuse for what happened, and he knows it," Creighton said. "He's in tears in the locker room begging me to talk to the team before I could say a word. So he made a mistake and he is truly sorry for it, and I'm ultimately responsible for it.
"I'm embarrassed, but I love him 100 percent. That's not who we want to be. It'd be really too bad if that's what you all make this out to be [Thursday] because that's not who we are."
Glass -- a senior -- completed 66.3 percent of his throws for 3,155 yards, 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 12 games this season for the Eagles. He also ran for 428 yards and eight touchdowns.
