Michigan-Maryland highlights (WH style)

You may know the answer or maybe someone else will chime in.  At 5:51 of your highlight video, Peppers throwback to Speight, the handoff occurs forward of the QB.  If Speight 'tosses/pitches' it forward, they score this in the stat sheet as a pass / catch.  I'm wondering why the refs didn't flag this as an illegal forward pass on Speight's 2nd throw?  Was it simply because they considered it a handoff even though Peppers was forward of the QB?  If this was an out of time desparation play with many laterals beyond the line of scrimmage, I don't think the refs would allow a forward handoff without flagging it as an illegal forward pass.