ACC
Officiating
Football officiating in the ACC has bothered me for several years, but it has recently reached an all time low.
While there
are countless examples, the most egregious showing was likely the Florida
State, Miami game last weekend. In fact,
John Swofford, the ACC Commissioner, announced on Monday that the entire crew
that presided over that game will receive letters of reprimand. Additionally, the crew chief has been
suspended for one game due to failure to properly administer the ten second
runoff rule. Let’s start with the runoff
rule. Florida State had the ball as the
half was closing and had one timeout.
With less than ten seconds left a FSU Offensive Guard was called for a
false start. The officials ruled that
consequent to the ten second rule, the half was over and that Florida State
could not kick a field goal which potentially would have put the Noles up 13-10. What they failed to realize was
that the rule is such that it prevents teams that do not have timeouts from
stopping the clock with a penalty. FSU
did in fact have a timeout. It seemed to
be more of a misunderstanding of a rule as opposed to failing to keep track of
timeouts. Florida State Head Coach,
Jimbo Fisher, had to run to the center of the field to inform the officials of
the rule. By this time, half of the UM
team was already in the locker room. Finally,
the officials got it right and let FSU kick their field goal, which they made
to take the lead. This blunder highlights
a general lack of understanding by the referees; literally the head coach had
to inform the officials of the rules of the game. In addition to this mistake, there were
several others including three offensive pass interference calls. The PI calls, in my opinion were the worst of
the entire game, which says a lot. One
was Rodney Smith, who did not appear to even touch the defender- it cost FSU 50
yards. The other two were on 6’6’’ wide
receiver Kelvin Benjamin. Here is one
thing to keep in mind, prior to this game no offensive pass interference had
been called in all of ACC football in 2012.
On top of this, our sophomore Cornerback, Nick Waisome, was called for
Pass Interference when almost no contact was made. Additionally, the refs missed some blatant
holding calls as well as personal foul calls. The most notable non-call in terms of personal fouls came when a UM defensive player head-locked an FSU player and threw him to the ground while they were both out of bounds.
On top of
the FSU, Miami game, it seems like Florida State fans feel victimized,
particularly this season and last. It is
not just that FSU is penalized more, but often times other teams are penalized
less, particularly with regard to holding calls. Here's a mind blowing fact: During the same time period, Duke has been the beneficiary of holding calls four to one over FSU. FSU'S defensive line has produced All Americans, NFL prospects etc and Duke is Duke, but somehow Duke's Defensive line draws more holding calls on it's opponents. How is this possible, especially in such proportion? Florida State’s defensive line is so superior
to every other defensive front in the ACC that it seems like the officials show
mercy on other teams. There literally
looks to be a holding penalty on opposing teams almost every play. Check out this picture:
That is a
choke hold being put on our star Defensive End, Bjoern Werner. Of course, it was NOT CALLED. In 5 ACC games for Florida State, the Noles have been penalized 42 times compared to it's opponents sum of eight times! Officials are not put on the field to level
the competition….. football is not supposed to communist.
Here are
some facts:
FSU averages
8.4 penalties/game vs. ACC competition while opposing teams average 3.6
penalties/game. UM averages 7/game, but
when they played FSU they only had 4 and 1 one in the first half. Clemson averages 4.7, but when they played
FSU, they only had 3. When FSU plays ACC
opponents, those opponents generally have fewer penalties than they are
averaging against all other competition.
When FSU plays ACC teams, they have more penalties for more yards than
when they play other competition-8 penalties/game as opposed to 6.4/game.
There are
countless other examples of unfair officiating. Take a look at
the video of officials moving the ball to help Wake Forest while spotting for a
first down:
Is this a
conspiracy? Who knows, but it is
certainly something. I have always
perceived people that complain about officials to be whiners, but something
here is different and something has to be done.
Bob Caperton,
Jr.
Disclaimer: Some of the numbers that I used came from Rivals message boards and are thus subject to error. Also, some of the plays and calls that I reference are subject to my memory. However, to the best of my knowledge all of the information is correct.
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