Disgraceful Officiating

#1
SprocketRocket

SprocketRocket

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#1
I read a story yesterday that A to Z Sports posted a couple of days ago that made me furious all over again. The officials in the Missouri game did us a favor, and broke a streak of 11 quarters where our SEC opponents were not flagged for a live ball penalty. Let that sink in for a moment. 11 quarters. The 4th quarter of TX A&M, the two entire games against Alabama and Kentucky, and the 1st two quarters of the Missouri game. All the while, throwing flags on TN to the tune of over 9 a game in the last three games. I get that the job is hard, but that isn't even remotely plausible.
 
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#4
#4
SprocketRocket said:
I read a story yesterday that A to Z Sports posted a couple of days ago that made me furious all over again. The officials in the Missouri game did us a favor, and broke a streak of 11 quarters where our SEC opponents were not flagged for a live ball penalty. Let that sink in for a moment. 11 quarters. The 4th quarter of TX A&M, the two entire games against Alabama and Kentucky, and the 1st two quarters of the Missouri game. All the while, throwing flags on TN to the tune of over 9 a game in the last three games. I get that the job is hard, but that isn't even remotely plausible.
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The officiating is a political structure without accountability to anyone, including the NCAA. I am not sure this could ever be fixed regardless of the stats. If teams are stealing signals, what makes anyone believe the referees can't be bought?
 
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#5
#5
Tennessee is in college football purgatory atm. They were slapped on the wrist for the Pruitt fiasco and now the SEC and NCAA will make sure to punish them for their crimes. Tennessee can show up and play as hard and well as they want, but their momentum will be stopped by the officials, has happened way too many times over the past few games. They called a double holding call on a great Sampson run against Missouri, even the Danielson wondered where the holds were........
 
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#6
#6
SprocketRocket said:
I read a story yesterday that A to Z Sports posted a couple of days ago that made me furious all over again. The officials in the Missouri game did us a favor, and broke a streak of 11 quarters where our SEC opponents were not flagged for a live ball penalty. Let that sink in for a moment. 11 quarters. The 4th quarter of TX A&M, the two entire games against Alabama and Kentucky, and the 1st two quarters of the Missouri game. All the while, throwing flags on TN to the tune of over 9 a game in the last three games. I get that the job is hard, but that isn't even remotely plausible.
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The refs didn’t cause a total collapse in the 2nd half against Bama, the refs didn’t stop us from winning vs KY, and the refs didn’t sleepwalk for 4 quarters against Missouri and allow them to utterly embarrass us on national TV
 
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#9
#9
The Original Fade said:
The refs didn’t cause a total collapse in the 2nd half against Bama, the refs didn’t stop us from winning vs KY, and the refs didn’t sleepwalk for 4 quarters against Missouri and allow them to utterly embarrass us on national TV
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F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

It is possible to be angry at officiating AND acknowledge the poor officiating had little (if anything) to do with UT's abysmal performances.
 
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#12
#12
hog88 said:
They called a few very questionable penalties at critical points that certainly changed the momentum.
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We played very uninspired football. Coaching/play calling/ in game adjustments were non existent. We sucked up front on both sides of the ball, linebackers looked lost and extremely slow/lost. I agree the officiating has been pretty biased this year, but the officiating didn’t cost us the mizzou game. Reminds me so much of last year at South Carolina!
 
#13
#13
Stacmot said:
We played very uninspired football. Coaching/play calling/ in game adjustments were non existent. We sucked up front on both sides of the ball, linebackers looked lost and extremely slow/lost. I agree the officiating has been pretty biased this year, but the officiating didn’t cost us the mizzou game. Reminds me so much of last year at South Carolina!
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No, the officiating didn't cost us the Mizzu game but it didn't do us any favors either.
 
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#14
#14
McDad said:
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

It is possible to be angry at officiating AND acknowledge the poor officiating had little (if anything) to do with UT's abysmal performances.
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Totally agree. Also to say that the refs didn’t help with the Bama loss is crazy. If they call the obvious hold or hands to the face on Bama’s first TD of the second half, we might stop them on 3rd and 20, get the ball back and who knows? Between that missed call and the phantom “fair catch” that backed us up on the ensuing kick killed us. Sure we still might’ve lost, but the officials kicked us in the nuts hard to start that down slide.
 
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#16
#16
The Original Fade said:
The refs didn’t cause a total collapse in the 2nd half against Bama, the refs didn’t stop us from winning vs KY, and the refs didn’t sleepwalk for 4 quarters against Missouri and allow them to utterly embarrass us on national TV
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I agree . . . I usually chalk up blaming officials to fans being fans.

The one killer call to me this year was the blatant missed hold on Tyler Baron on Alabama's 2nd play of the 2nd half where they scored. It probably wouldn't have mattered, but I would've liked to have seen Alabama trailing 20-7 and facing 2nd and 20 from their own territory instead of a 50 yard bomb coming out of halftime to take all the momentum.
 
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#18
#18
FlyFishnVol said:
The officiating is a political structure without accountability to anyone, including the NCAA. I am not sure this could ever be fixed regardless of the stats. If teams are stealing signals, what makes anyone believe the referees can't be bought?
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There is an accountability system but it is obviously ineffective. Each team is able to submit calls they think are bad for review each week. From there, they are supposed to make a judgment and distribute them as training tools to the officials if they agree with the complaint. It is all behind closed doors so we really don't know how legit it is. I can only recall one crew being suspended for poor officiating. I believe it was later split up.

A few crews/officials have been fired quietly or reassigned after the season.

However what is going on with UT cannot be labeled "mistakes". It may be some sort of subconscious bias all the way up to the SEC wanting to punish UT for some sin.
 
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#19
#19
SprocketRocket said:
I read a story yesterday that A to Z Sports posted a couple of days ago that made me furious all over again. The officials in the Missouri game did us a favor, and broke a streak of 11 quarters where our SEC opponents were not flagged for a live ball penalty. Let that sink in for a moment. 11 quarters. The 4th quarter of TX A&M, the two entire games against Alabama and Kentucky, and the 1st two quarters of the Missouri game. All the while, throwing flags on TN to the tune of over 9 a game in the last three games. I get that the job is hard, but that isn't even remotely plausible.
Click to expand...
Imagine how that would go over at Alabama. It would begin with the Governor, the University President, the AD, the Head Coach, and many others. This is became obvious when Ole Miss last played at Neyland. It has gotten worse sense. Referees should have to answer for outrageously bad calls or no calls. It takes pressure though. Obviously, no pressure is being applied.
 
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#20
#20
The Original Fade said:
The refs didn’t cause a total collapse in the 2nd half against Bama, the refs didn’t stop us from winning vs KY, and the refs didn’t sleepwalk for 4 quarters against Missouri and allow them to utterly embarrass us on national TV
Click to expand...
Really? How do you know that? Bama caught momentum in the 2nd half. The most meaningful play to start that surge was Milroe's deep TD pass. That also happens to be one of the plays when UT DLs were held... and that particular one was the choke hold on Baron. So if instead of a TD that is a drive stopping 10 yard penalty... does that change the direction of the game? Yes. How? We can't be sure but it would have given UT the ball with the opportunity to shorten the game.

I think someone else mentioned it. UT was driving with an opportunity to pull within one score vs MU. Sampson broke off one of the best runs of the day. Not just one but TWO flags were thrown for holding. Go back and watch yourself. Neither should have been called. So why were they and what was the ultimate effect?

Two things are true in the MU game. The officiating was STILL tilted against UT. UT played very poorly and made too many mistakes to win. Both can be, and are, true at the same time. Either can be the critical factor in determining the outcome. Both were to some extent.
 
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#21
#21
sjt18 said:
However what is going on with UT cannot be labeled "mistakes". It may be some sort of subconscious bias all the way up to the SEC wanting to punish UT for some sin.
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The lack of live ball fouls called on our opponents is flat out odd. I don't think we challenge defenses like we did last year, so the lack of PI calls is maybe understandable. But it's impossible to believe that nobody seems to ever hold when they play us. One game, I get. But after you've seen a decent d-line get no calls for 3-4 games??
 
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#24
#24
hog88 said:
They called a few very questionable penalties at critical points that certainly changed the momentum.
Click to expand...

That's exactly the point and why it matters. To say the officials do NOT affect a game is just downright stupid. If everytime the opponent gets to third and long and their players are choke holding ours, it's easy to convert and we look like we're not stopping anyone. If everytime we start moving the ball on offense, and the ref calls offensive holding to push us back, it make it harder to convert. If everytime we try to throw a long pass or a pass into the endzone and we never get a PI call, it becomes to risky, so you have to change what you're doing. The players know what's going on and you can see it on their faces.

If we're frustrated as fans, imagine the frustration of the players and coaches.

It's not an accident or human error. This has been mentioned in the press and social platforms for months. Not one person has come forward and named a game where there were ZERO live ball calls.......and we've had 3 almost 4. That's not an accident. This has stopped our drives and eliminated our pass rushers from being effective.

How a game is officiated has always had an effect on games.
 
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#25
#25
GAVol said:
The lack of live ball fouls called on our opponents is flat out odd. I don't think we challenge defenses like we did last year, so the lack of PI calls is maybe understandable. But it's impossible to believe that nobody seems to ever hold when they play us. One game, I get. But after you've seen a decent d-line get no calls for 3-4 games??
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The play that bothers me maybe more than the others is the hold called on GJL vs Bama. Bama needed a 3rd down conversion... PRESTO... defensive holding. Go back and watch the play. If that was a foul then Bama should have been flagged literally on every passing play by UT. Those calls changed the game. There is no way to say if it would have swung momentum to UT enough to result in a win vs a loss. It is possible but saying one way or the other requires someone to assume... they cannot "know" regardless of which side they take.
 
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