Week 8: SEC Referee Madness

Pretty bad weekend to be on official in the SEC.

On Thursday, the officiating crew that did the LSU vs. Georgia, and the Arkansas vs. Florida game were suspended for some very questionable calls in those two games.

This phantom excessive celebration call against A.J Green of Georgia started it all they did try to make up for it by calling LSU for the same garbage on their ensuing touchdown, butt the magnitude at that point was nothing compared:





Then, that same crew did the Arkansas/Florida game with a trio of bad calls late in the game:

1.  Phantom pass interference
2.  Phantom personal foul
3.  Horrible spot of the ball - although this one not nearly as bad



Fast forward to this weekend:

Lane Kiffin complains that Terrance Cody was not given a personal foul call for taking off his helmet on the final play of the game.  He also said he only let the clock run down for that field goal attempt instead of running another play because "You run another play and you throw an interception or they throw a flag on us -- I wasn't going to let the refs lose the game for us there and some magical flag appear.

Yes, Lane is right, a personal foul call could have been throw.  But if it had, it would not have been like the Cleveland Browns vs. Kansas City Chiefs in either 2001 or 2002 when it gave the Chiefs a chance for a winning field goal.  This was a dead ball foul AFTER the change of possession which would have backed Alabama up but not changed the outcome.

For his other quote, just SHUT UP!  If the refs really wanted Alabama to win they would have called that pass interference in the end zone earlier in the game that probably cost Alabama a touchdown.



Oh but we are not done yet.  Dan Mullen, Mississippi State coach, called for the suspension of the replay official in their game against Florida for not overturning the pick-six because the Florida defender lost possession before crossing the plane of the goal line.

Yes, it should have been overturned.  Yes, it would have been State's ball at the 20.  But you can't tell me anyone on here thinks it would have actually mattered in the end.

I hate all of this focus on referees.  The call against A.J. Green was horrible.  But so was Georgia's play all game when they had plenty of chances to win the game on their own.

Arkansas:  score touchdowns instead of kicking field goals and that drive doesn't matter to you.

Kiffin, JUST SHUT UP!  I don't even care about this particular instance, I just want you to shut up anyways.  I might not hate you as much as I hated Fulmer, but you are getting close.

Mullen, you lost the game by two scores.  That play only counts for one score....so you would have needed to score again on your own anyways.  You see how that works?

Referee's are going to make mistakes.  This is true.  But referees do not effect game outcomes.  If a referee makes 5 bad calls a game, that leaves 95 other plays where they did not.  You had plenty of time to make a play in the rest of the game, and you didn't do it.  Stop blaming refs, and take the Bear Bryant approach.

In the 1960's, Joe Namath thought he got into the end zone against Texas and would have won the game.  The ref said no, and Texas won.  Namath came back to the sideline complaining to Bryant.  Bryant just looked at him and said that it shouldn't have even come down to that.  If we had gotten one more score earlier, this play wouldn't have mattered.








So everyone, JUST SHUT UP AND PLAY FOOTBALL!!!!