Do we really trust SEC officials to make even more subjective calls?
The last thing college football needs is another opportunity for officials to affect the outcome of the game.
I understand the rationale behind the NCAA’s controversial rules change to take points off the board starting in 2011 if a player is called for taunting on his way to the end zone.
The folks who run college football have been uncomfortable for some years now with all the high-stepping and pointing and diving toward the goal line like Superman that they see as a lack of sportsmanship, and they feel that calling a dead-ball foul that’s assessed on the PAT or ensuing kickoff just hasn’t gotten through to the players. As Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association put it, “this rule is one way to make sure the kids pay attention.”
And this won’t change what happens if a player or team is called for excessive celebration. That’s after the score and will still be a dead-ball foul tacked on to the kickoff.
I understand all that, but I still think this is one of those cases where all the potential pitfalls make the cure worse than the ailment.
We all know that taunting calls vary wildly from conference to conference and even game to game within a conference. Why saddle the officials with yet another subjective call that forces them to inject themselves further into the flow of a game, possibly altering the outcome?
As A.J. Green found out last season against LSU, some officials already have a hair trigger when it comes to those calls. And, as the video showed afterward, they can be flat-out wrong.
That’s my main worry: the execution of this kind of call. Dave Parry, the NCAA’s coordinator of college football officiating, says that “if it’s close to diving into the end zone, most likely it would be ruled that the act ended while in the end zone. We’ll be lenient.” But Dave Parry won’t be the one out there throwing the flags, and in the SEC in particular we know how inconsistently rules are interpreted when they’re subjective.
Plus, as it is, those flags generally only come out for offensive players. If taunting is so bad for the game, why not call it on defenders pounding their chest as they stand over a player they’ve tackled? Or on the defender who holds a running back down on the ground after the play is over? Those calls do happen, but oh so rarely.
And then there’s the question of why the NCAA is trying to keep players from letting their emotions get the better of them when part of the appeal of college football is all the emotion it stirs, among the players as well as the fans. Why try to dampen that?
I know, I know. The players should act like they’ve been there before. And celebrating too early can sometimes result in something really embarrassing like dropping the ball before you’ve crossed the goal line. But those are discussions that should be between players and their coaches. Why get the officials involved?
Rules that are intended to protect players from injury make sense, like the new ban on wedge blocking on kickoffs. But trying to give college football the demeanor of a round of golf at Augusta National is just wrongheaded.
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130 comments Add your comment
Dawg'em out!
April 16th, 2010
2:30 pm
no, AJ green had a b/s call on him that IMO, cost georgia the game by sucking the momentum outta the team.
So what
April 16th, 2010
2:33 pm
Bill King is a ……,
You bring up the Bama blackout game a couple of years ago and all Knowshon’s dancing. I remember that. It seems before the game Knowshon and our players were all hyped up, dancing and getting all jacked up and partying all over the sidelines. You would never have thought they had a game to play. You looked over at the Bammers and they were focused, listening to their coaches, they were ready for a dang football game while Knowshown and our guys were on the soul train dancing express. Just another example of substance over flash. Knowshon danced a lot before the Florida game too. Until that thug Spikes planted him firmly on his butt. Funny thing but he wasn’t dancing after that and we all know what happened then. A change of culture is in order. More hard nosed football and less dancing.
Bill King is a ...........
April 16th, 2010
2:37 pm
Dawgfan…..i’m well aware of what music is played at the games. I’m at everyone of them. I’m not 90…..i’m 38 and i’m old enough to remember #34 and the way he played the game. He didnt do all the dancing and he won the damn Heisman Trophy. So take that static you are talking and shove it. In the Bama game…..we were not worth a damn but at least we won the dance contest. Maybe someone will give out a National Championship for dancing on the sidelines and we for sure will win it. We lost our discipline when we lost Neil Calloway. And as much as i thought he was a poor O-line coach….he was our disciplinarian and a damn good one. Hopefully Grantham will play that role. And having Knowshon and Stafford has turned out to set our program back several years. Such star players like they were and what did we get for it?? We beat UF and thats about it. Had a decent run in 08. Whatelse?? No SECC or NC.
I woulda rather had a kid like Sam Bradford. That kid could have left a year early but he didnt. And why?? Because he always wanted to play for Oklahoma and thats what he was going to do. He’s still getting drafted next week. Those are the kinda players we need to be going after……ones who have always wanted to be Bulldawgs. And speaking of Knowshon……did you notice how he was always taking himself outta the games that year? Explain that to me.
Dismissed
Bill King is a ...........
April 16th, 2010
2:39 pm
So What…….thank you for that.
UGAAlumnus
April 16th, 2010
2:41 pm
I sat through the entirety of that Alabama black-out game. We didn’t loose that game because of Moreno, we lost because our defense was HORRIBLE in the first half. The problem had nothing to do with dancing and having fun, it had everything to do with CWM and his lack of defensive coaching.
Bill King is a ...........
April 16th, 2010
2:43 pm
At UGA ALUMNUS…..you brought up having the players ‘dressing up like old ladies and drinking tea.’ I’m going to the TeaParty next time it comes to ATL.. Care to join me?
Old Dawg
April 16th, 2010
2:44 pm
On the subject of the new NCAA rules, I somewhat agree with Bill that they can be incorrectly called, as evidenced during the LSU game last year. At the same, I blame the players and coaches for not holding themselves to higher standards. I understand that kids are different than they were in the past, but if you hold them to a higher standard, dole out punishment like running etc for improper behavior, then they’re less likely to behave poorly.
I played HS football in the age before dinosaurs. However, from day one of spring practice throughout fall camp and each season the coaches reviewed what behavior was and wasn’t accepted. The punishment? The entire team ran, did up-downs, whatever. At the end of the season we were the least penalized team and had the fewest turnovers of any team in our region … and we won. Our head coach learned this disciplinary program when he played college football.
So it’s the players and coaches who haven’t maintained a high standard of behavior and now, as a result, all teams are being punished. They have no one to blame but themselves.
Bill King is a ...........
April 16th, 2010
2:44 pm
And i suppose the Offense had nothing to do with that since we had a goose egg at the half in the Bama game? What planet are you living on UGAA?
ga gator
April 16th, 2010
2:46 pm
UGAAlumnus, I was at the game and the D did suck, but so did the offense in the first half. You cant blame it all on Willie.
Bill King is a ...........
April 16th, 2010
2:46 pm
We couldnt move the ball and kept putting our poor coached Defense on the field.
Bill King is a ...........
April 16th, 2010
2:47 pm
i.e Moreno and Stafford I really dont see how all these suck up fans continue to treat those two like Gods.
gdad
April 16th, 2010
2:51 pm
Why do they single out football for taunting and let the other sports, i.e. basketball, baseball, softball et. al. pump fist after dunks, home runs pull their shirt up, toss the ball up etc. The NCAA is not even handed in this rule.They take away the joy a young athlete may have in singular accomplishment
Bo
April 16th, 2010
2:59 pm
I can also understand the NCAA’s motivation. Showboating is the #1 thing that I don’t like about NFL football (I still like Pro football, though). I wish every pro could be like Barry Sanders.
I would be all for the rule if it were reviewable. As it stands now, this is horrible. Mike Slive made sure that a coach in the SEC won’t be able to critisize a bad call and our teams will be at the mercy of a ref who wants to prove a point…this is a bad deal.
38 Yardline Dawg
April 16th, 2010
3:04 pm
This new rule will cause more controversy than ever. But what else should we expect from a football league that embraces a subjective means of naming it’s national champion instead of a FREAKING PLAYOFF SYSTEM?!?!?
UGAAlumnus
April 16th, 2010
3:17 pm
@Bill King is a ….
Sure, I’ll join you in ATL. I love comedy!
To answer your question: I live on planet Earth. To speak to the game in question, Bama notoriously has a great defense under Saban. Not scoring in the first half of a football game isn’t that big a deal. Unless you don’t have a Defense of your own. We did score something like 31 points in the second half, after Bama’s defense trotted back to Tuscaloosa.
I grew up going to all of Auburn’s home games, and have been to many UGA games since attending school here. I’ve seen plenty of football games with low scores. I’ve also seen plenty of big UGA games when we loose 30 or 40 something to some low score. Usually those games are against FL or Tenn. Remember those games? Who was the defensive head coach? CWM.
Defense wins ball games and championships.
So, Bama held us to no points in the first half of that game. How many points did Bama have in the first? 41, or something like that? Was that Moreno’s or Stafford’s fault?
If our defense had kept us in the game, our offense clearly had it in them to come back from a deficit.
But now that I look at it that way, it was clearly Moreno’s and Stafford’s fault.
You’re right. I concede. You’ve totally won this argument.
If Moreno had not been dancing before the Bama game, our defense wouldn’t have allowed 41 points in the first half.
FLMoonpie
April 16th, 2010
3:18 pm
The way to avoid those yellow flags is to stop this “Rapp-Crapp and Ghetto-Dancing” and istill some “Damn Disipline”….
Ted Striker
April 16th, 2010
3:24 pm
When a player makes a poor on-field decision and receives a penalty, the immediate repercussions affect the player and his team. When an official makes a poor on-field decision, the repercussions first and foremost affect…..a player and his team.
Old Dawg
April 16th, 2010
3:42 pm
UGAAlumnus: you’re a fine example of a UGA graduate. It’s lose, not loose. Loose, as in Moreno broke loose on a long run. Lose is when you lose a game, regardless of whether it’s 41 points or 4.
Did you take any English classes in high school or in college?
KJ
April 16th, 2010
3:50 pm
“The folks who run college football have been uncomfortable for some years now”
Yeah, I’m guessing these are the same decrepit old coots that were “uncomfortable” with the darkies drinking out of their water fountains.
This just proves that the NCAA needs to clean house, like, yesterday. Absolutely no excuse for this BS. I guess we can look forward to Penn Wagers flagging AJ Green unless he walks gingerly into the end zone with his head down.
KG
April 16th, 2010
3:53 pm
The call on AJ Green was legit, don’t see the big deal. H ewas taunintng and celbration, you can see his shoulder slightly move up in a taunting like fashion on the slo mo.
FLAMoonPies
April 16th, 2010
3:55 pm
Richt runs themost disciplines program in the SEC. He gets robbed by the refs who are out to get him. Gets a ton of bad calls. He’s innocent. Everybody hates a winner.
If Georgia’s uniforms had stripes like some of the other teams, the refs would like them better, and call less penalties.
ga gator is a ......
April 16th, 2010
3:57 pm
Thoe posts on this thread are some of the lamest I’ve seen,e specially ga gator, who has the worst, as usual, but does his writing make no sense to any of us. Is he Bulldawg?
dawgfan is a ......
April 16th, 2010
3:59 pm
dawgfan in not a dawg fan
change is good is a ......
April 16th, 2010
4:01 pm
change is good knows nothing abut football.
change is not good. having bear bryant as head coach at alabama year after year was good, not change.
no, the refs don’t tthrow flags because richt has no discipline.
they throw flags because it’s revenge for the celebration call richt made against florida years ago. since that time, penalties went up by 50% for georgia.
richt won the battle, and lost the war.
so you are wrong, as usual, your posts are a complete waste of time.
KJ
April 16th, 2010
4:05 pm
“you can see his shoulder slightly move up”
OH NOES HIS SHOULDER SLIGHTLY MOVED LETS GIVE THE WHOLE TEAM THE DEATH PENALTIEZ LOLOL
Idiot.
KG
April 16th, 2010
4:06 pm
Yeah, it was an OBVIOUS shoulder taunt, watch the slo mo idiotic idiot.
KG
April 16th, 2010
4:07 pm
KJ-
You are BY FAR, the biggest idiot I’ve ever seen on this blog.
KJ
April 16th, 2010
4:16 pm
Yeah, KG, all of the fans, announcers, analysts, sportswriters, and coaches are wrong about that incident, and YOU are right.
Good luck in the real world, kid.
UGAAlumnus
April 16th, 2010
4:17 pm
@Old Dawg
Thanks for the spell check. I actually have two undergraduate degrees from two different Universities, and will start Graduate school in the fall semester (not at UGA).
Hope my trigger happy “o” doesn’t ruin your night. I make simple, absent-minded typos (sometimes consistently) so I need to keep you close by. I’ll email you all future writings. I’m not sure how I’ve made it this far without your help!
UGAAlumnus is a .......
April 16th, 2010
4:20 pm
You don’t have any collegiate degrees. Obviously, you are about as much of an idiot as KJ, are you the same person, you sure seem like it, using two dfferent names. actually, almost every post here seems like one guy, using a bunch of fake names.
KJ
April 16th, 2010
4:22 pm
“almost every post here seems like one guy, using a bunch of fake names.”
oh, the irony….
Old Dawg
April 16th, 2010
4:43 pm
UGAAlumnus: Dude, you just need to go back to English class. Even when you’re defending yourself, you make mistakes. For example, in your last post, you used Universities and Graduate. No need to capitalize those words. You’re extremely lucky I haven’t graded your previous term papers. I know a lot of professors are slack on grammar and punctuation, but some still take it seriously.
It’s always better to write correctly than get points taken off for poor writing skills … something very lacking in our country. Enjoy grad school. Wish I could go back and enjoy the research.
GaDawg
April 16th, 2010
4:58 pm
Do we really trust SEC officials to make even more subjective calls?
NO!
BDAWG
April 16th, 2010
4:58 pm
THIS IS THE KIND OF CALL THAT YOU DON’T TRUST ANY OFFICIALS TO MAKE. IT’S A DUMB RULE AND A LOT OF GAMES WILL BE RUINED BY IT. THIS IS A SPORT AND IT SEEMS LIKE ALL THE FUN IS BEING TAKEN OUT OF CELEBRATING. THERE IS EXCESSIVE CELEBRATING, BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT THE OFFICIALS DON’T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXCESSIVE AND WHAT’S NOT EXCESSIVE.
UGAAlumnus
April 16th, 2010
5:04 pm
@OldDawg
Well, admittedly I don’t hold a degree in English grammar. Like I said, I should keep you close by just in case I need an annoying reminder that there are imperfections in my writing skills. That said, since you’re a grammarian could you please dissect this sentence of yours for me? Here’s your chance to teach:
“I understand that kids are different than they were in the past, but if you hold them to a higher standard, dole out punishment like running etc for improper behavior, then they’re less likely to behave poorly.”
p.s. who needs to obsess over grammar when we have editors and grammar Nazis roving the blogosphere?
p.p.s. and could you please work on all those skills in which you perform worse than me? I think you should be master of more than just grammar.
FLMoonpie
April 16th, 2010
5:16 pm
Someone said that Richt runs the most disiplined program in the SEC….you gotta be kidding me. Every year UGA practically leads college football with number of players who have run-ins with the law. All this boogie-boy dancing and carrying-on on the sidelines is certainly not an image of disipline. Refs see this crap going on, and yes Ga may be singled out with penalties(questionable at best), but that may be the reason why.
Einsteindawg
April 16th, 2010
5:27 pm
Please, let me enlighten you. The NCAA & SEC are all about the MONEY. Money= TV ratings and contracts. Who do you think will get the benefit of the call…the higher ranked team? And, which games garner the most money? In my opinion, the SEC/NCAA are the Goldman Sachs of the sports entertainment business. Go back to 10 regular season games and 7 bowls.
One, two, free, fo, fi, dem der Gator don't take no jive!
April 16th, 2010
5:29 pm
Why can’t we all just get along?
UGAAlumnus
April 16th, 2010
5:39 pm
It’s a bad rule change…
yeah whatever!
April 16th, 2010
5:43 pm
“so what”….middle of pack last 4 years?????/ So number 2 in the nation in 2007 was middle of pack? 2007 is within last 4 years…right? Kinda need to learn football then come on back and you can talk with the adults
yeah whatever!
April 16th, 2010
5:47 pm
oh and some one asked how is UGAs record in black? Auburn, Hawaii are wins…ALA is a loss.
hmmmm 2-1…or .667 percent. Next question.
yeah whatever!
April 16th, 2010
5:49 pm
SO WHAT…….Richt has not beat Fla? He beat them in 2007 the year they were defending Champs and did so convincingly. Again….go learn some football then you can come back to the big people table. Until then just stay over at the children table
UGAAlumnus
April 16th, 2010
5:53 pm
@Old Dawg
I was referring to specific “Universities”, and a specific “Graduate” school.
When substituting the noun for the name it calls for capitalization.
McDawg
April 16th, 2010
6:00 pm
what happenes when a back like k. moreno flys towards the pylon with ball extended does a flip scores a TD but all the ref sees is some kid showing off–leave the rule the way it was
Mature Person
April 16th, 2010
6:06 pm
How old can a guy like “Old Dawg” be when he likes to start his sentences off with “Dude” ????
Talk about trolling as someone you ain’t. And I guess the guy posting as “Bill King is a …” has effectively tagged himself as a moron with his Tea Party talk. But as to the rule change, here’s all that needs to happen. Unlike last year, the GA coaches need to COACH the players and make sure they understand what’s not to be tolerated. If they’re unsure, I’m sure the SEC officials will be happy to spell it out for them. Sounds pretty simple to me, for someone making the kind of money these coaches are making. Are we cool ????
UGAAlumnus
April 16th, 2010
6:09 pm
@McDawg
A yellow flag and NO POINTS!!! That’s what the rule is for. When the refs need to erase the score, they will see taunting.
Maybe they should start throwing flags on athletes that just look too graceful when they make a play. Hurdle a defender and make him look bad? 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike.
Just look too pretty when you juke the d-back out of his socks? 15 yard penalty and loss of down!
AltamahaDawg
April 16th, 2010
6:21 pm
I don’t want them to be “lenient”. I want them to define the rule. Lenient implies that it does break the rule but they are subjectively deciding to let the player get away with it, subject to change. Is diving a penalty or not? If it is, then say so and then everybody knows. If it’s not, then how is that lenient?
Make a tape, cover as many situation as you can find in the past 5 years, define the call, and put it out there in the public domain. This is, this isn’t.
AltamahaDawg
April 16th, 2010
6:24 pm
Mature person, what situation do you define as a UGA penalty last year due to the lack of the coaches explaining it effectvely?
Bad News
April 16th, 2010
6:28 pm
This rule is bad news. If they’re going to put a rule like this in place then it should be targeted to specific actions like throat slashing. The call against AJ was truly horrible. There have been plenty of other botched ones like the one against Jake Locker. If officials can’t discriminate between taunting and celebration then I’d rather see the rule thrown out. At some point some lame call will negate a touchdown and cost someone a game. It’s too much of a judgment call.
I agree that political talk has no place on these boards (and I’m a fan of the Tea Party movement).
AltamahaDawg
April 16th, 2010
6:53 pm
The AJ call is really not a very good example here. The SEC didn’t rule that the ref took it too far, or misinterpreted, or was too subjective. What they said was: what he claimed he saw, never happened. Then that play got confussed in all the celebration-penalty-overly-subjective talk, when in fact it was pure incompetance. There is no good rule if you just make up stuff. He is fortunete that he was though as going overboard, because the fact is he just completely screwed up. And then to cover it he made up a phantom, “Started to look in the general direction of people who where invited to attend” claim, which would have been overly subjective, if that is honestly what he called it for.