Oh man, this was absolutely brutal. In the third quarter of Notre Dame vs. USC at Memorial Coliseum, head referee Ron Cherry took a hard hit from USC linebacker Michael Hutchins. It looked like Cherry painfully took Hutchins’ helmet directly to the face.

Cherry was down for a couple of minutes on the field afterwards. Fortunately, he was able to get up and walk under his own power, but the hit took him out for the rest of the game.

Some good news:

Ron Cherry was taken to the hospital & was observed for a concussion. He was under process of being released 30 min ago per USC spokesperson — Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) November 27, 2016

ACC Ref Ron Cherry is in the process being released from the hospital. He was taken for concussion check. He's alert, per #USC SID. — Reign of Troy (@ReignofTroy) November 27, 2016

It’s clear Hutchins hit Cherry completely unintentionally — you can see his head was down towards the field while he was running, as if he didn’t know Cherry was even standing there.

USC would end up beating Notre Dame 45-27, bringing the Fighting Irish’s record to 4-8.