Josh Pate on College Football Officiating

I haven't delved too much into the weeds, but there was a penalty there. I think the one called was illegal touching. Bama's receiver that caught the ball was covering the tight end. With that being said, I would've thought the penalty would have to be illegal man downfield instead or illegal procedure/formation.

 

He always complains
To be serious though, the only message in the above post was that podcast guys have the ability to be very influential. It pertained to what role Josh Pate might be able to play in bringing awareness to this very big problem we have.

There was no intention to attempt to name a candidate or party or an opinion of either, or of the election results. Just a statement of the obvious - a very popular podcaster had influence. That in itself should not be considered offensive, right?

Do you accept this?

 

Until we eliminate the conflict of interest inherent in the current system, we will continue to get crooked officiating

 

Yes. That's fine. Thanks.

 

Dont disagree about the officiating going down the tubes, but the solution isnt the refs coming out after the game and explaining themselves to the media...that will always be a disaster. Bad calls are a part of the game since time began. Complaining about bad calls also part of the game.

 

Let's not forget how UL got screwed. His arm was not coming forward when the ball was fumbled.

 

At least they didn't get a targeting call for hitting someone in the left cheek! That is the worst call ever.

 

In my view, the more people that talk about it, the merrier. The fans knew about the Swindle, but it was the talking heads that had exposure that led to action. The powers that be don't want people talking about how shady the officiating looks, so any and every announcement that can be made about the issue is welcome.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

I can't imagine the firestorm on social media had the Swindle taken place in today's world. The fact that the entirety of college football media was unified in their criticism of the referees and their impact on stealing a win from Florida illustrates just how big of a Swindle it was because typically those things just get explained as "bad calls happen" and they are "just a part of the game." I remember the litany of links from schools fan pages across the entire country throwing support for Florida including rivals. It was and remains a unique display of widespread agreement of what had just happened.

 

Bad calls happen. Complaining happens. A ref standing in the middle of Dallas baker and a Tennessee player who watches the Tennessee player slap Baker and then throws a flag on Baker when he literally does the exact same thing warrants an explanation. Refs don't need to explain everything but there are egregious examples where they should if the play is unique enough that a coaching staff requests an explanation, not just whiny fans.

 

Firstly the problem is personnel, the refs are too insulated from their actions.

But also the game has changed and officiating itself needs to change. There is no reason why officiating crews should not be expanded to allow each official to cover a more limited number of responsibilities. The money is plainly there to cover the expense.

Make their jobs simpler then hold them to the highest standards of performance.

 

I still want to know why the refs moved the ball to the middle of the field for Tennessee on their final FG attempt. It ended up not mattering, but it could have.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

Pass was beyond the line of scrimmage so no illegal man downfield and formation had proper number of men on the line, so no call there either.

Had the guy lined up far right been up on the line the call would have been correct, but he clearly wasn't.

 

The fact that Williams was covering the tight end doesn't make Williams an ineligible receiver, it makes the TE ineligible. But the TE stayed in to block on the play so no issue there.

If the refs believed Ryan Williams was covered up by the outside WR, then I think Williams is guilty of both being an ineligible receiver downfield and illegal touching. Since illegal touching comes with a loss of down, that penalty takes precedent.

But looking at the replay, the outside WR at the very bottom is clearly off the LOS. Terrible call.

 

Yeah, that sure seemed like targeting to me.

1. He clearly made "forcible" contact with the crown of his helmet. Even if his shoulder hit first - the rule makes no distinction there.

2. What makes it targeting is that the contact also has multiple "elements" of targeting - the most telling one being that he dropped his head going in for the hit. HAD he kept his head up IMO it would not be a penalty.


The larger problem with the rule is that they are trying to kill two birds with one stone.

On the one hand they are trying to protect ball carriers from excessively nasty hits. While on the other hand trying to prevent defenders from making hits that are putting themselves at extreme risk of injury.

We used to refer to the latter sort of hits as "spearing" - which gives a decent visual concept of why it is a problem - the player is using his own body like a spear, with his spine as the shaft. That puts tremendous compressive forces on the spine - forces that no form of padding can really protect against.

I think it would be better if we split these calls into two different penalties, the one intended to protect the ball carrier, and the one intended to protect the defender.

 

May be mistaken but I feel like the term spearing was specifically for doing that to a players backside. I want to say it was actually a penalty that was called specifically as spearing.

 

Thank you.
I have no love for Bama and the blatant biased officiating in their favor for many years...
BUT there is no logical explanation for that call and the ensuing TD taken off the board.
The formation looked 100% legit.
Again, I don't like Bama, but I hate hate hate incompetent officiating. And so it galled me.

 

I know one way they can stop the appearance of biased officiating...stop having former alumnae from the SEC officiate SEC games...still can't believe David Smith a former Bama quarterback gets to officiate SEC games. The whole system has been shady forever.

 

Yup. Sucks. Refs having a press conference at the end of each game would be a DISASTER!

 

I don't think they need a press conference after a game because it would be a mess. The refs or conference should have to address egregious calls publicly when formal inquiries are made by a school. That's all. Can't entertain fan complaints.