Zebras

[OrangeTsar]

I care because I don't believe it's rigged and I don't believe the refs are deliberately cheating UT or any other school.

I think it's weak, very weak, to complain about refs when things are not going as well as you'd like.

If these guys think it's rigged, they're watching WWE or the old "Live Wrestling" from the Fairgrounds in Nashville my Mom said "isn't totally rigged, you know" when of course it was.

I would prefer guys to say: I don't believe the SEC is legit sports but is decided in Birmingham.

If that's how you feel, own it.

It is not a binary choice between 100% pure and mafia style corruption you know. There is a continuum at play and there are certainly people in the halls of the SEC offices in Birmingham that are (how shall we put this) not exactly enamored with the Vols. There is a definite pecking order in the SEC and we have not been admitted to the “cool kids” table. And there are people there who wish to keep it that way

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

It is not a binary choice between 100% pure and mafia style corruption you know. There is a continuum at play and there are certainly people in the halls of the SEC offices in Birmingham that are (how shall we put this) not exactly enamored with the Vols. There is a definite pecking order in the SEC and we have not been admitted to the “cool kids” table. And there are people there who wish to keep it that way

Okay, so only the calls you think are corrupt are actually corrupt and the others are mistakes.

Good luck separating that line of logic into something believable.

"They're all against us but if we fight hard enough, we'll show them." You sound like a damn "Ohio vs everybody" Ohio State fan.

I'm not a believer in some "pecking order conspiracy" to keep Alabama relevant that magically started when Nick Saban showed up. Maybe, just maybe, the guy can coach. The same with Kirby. We watched both Bama and GA go through some lousy coaches and years but sure...... tell me about how the SEC coddles the "cool kids."

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

How would you explain the discrepancy in calls for vs against? Imperfection doesn’t appear to me to be very defensible.

Let's look at it this way, if the refs and the SEC are going to take the risk of having corruption blow up in their faces, why wouldn't they make dang, 100% sure the games they want to fix ARE fixed?

So if you actually believe there's some kind of corruption, why would we EVER be able to overcome it? You think they're taking this enormous risk of some underpaid ref blowing the whistle and NOT getting exactly the results they want?

C'mon. The risk is huge of such a scandal. They'd have the games they wanted nowhere near a situation where they could go wrong.

 

[OrangeTsar]

Let's look at it this way, if the refs and the SEC are going to take the risk of having corruption blow up in their faces, why wouldn't they make dang, 100% sure the games they want to fix ARE fixed?

So if you actually believe there's some kind of corruption, why would we EVER be able to overcome it? You think they're taking this enormous risk of some underpaid ref blowing the whistle and NOT getting exactly the results they want?

C'mon. The risk is huge of such a scandal. They'd have the games they wanted nowhere near a situation where they could go wrong.

It doesn’t have to be planned corruption. All it takes is personal bias in an official when making a split second decision. Like the infamous Jabar Gaffney “touchdown” for Florida to “win” against the Vols in 2000 by a Zebra who graduated for Vandy I believe

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

It doesn’t have to be planned corruption. All it takes is personal bias in an official when making a split second decision. Like the infamous Jabar Gaffney “touchdown” for Florida to “win” against the Vols in 2000 by a Zebra who graduated for Vandy I believe

Are there isolated bad officials? Sure. They do exist.

Is there some kind of Birmingham based conspiracy? That's ridiculous.

You keep moving the crossbars, of course, because you know it's not true that "the refs are against us but we can overcome."

No. If there was a widespread conspiracy with the refs and Birmingham and Alabama and Georgia, there would be zero chance the outcomes would be left to chance. The risk is huge of a rogue ref or two writing an absolute "blow the top off the NCAA" book and making millions. Also, there's ZERO chance someone could and would orchestrate such a conspiracy without making sure the results were ALWAYS known. In short, with that kind of risk you either make sure or don't do it at all.

I think there are bad calls and occasionally a truly biased ref but mostly....... we don't execute.

 

[volanatic]

The Lads in Lines have not been friendly at all to our Vols this season. Most of us agree that the reffing has been particularly egregious so far.

Although I am concerned about O-Line, Secondary, etc. - more than anything this Saturday night, I fear that an unfair whistle may tilt this game in the wrong direction.

What do yall think? Are we gonna get a decent whistle against the Gamecocks? Or will SC jr be allowed to hold, grab and run amok like our other opponents?

I don’t expect fair refereeing the rest of the season. Honestly I expect sometimes for it to come down to the shear luck of seeing vs not seeing. And it’s not just us. Like many of you I’ve watched a ton of CFB this year and I’ve seen it all over. Incredible non calls that a blind man could see……. on the flip side calls that you wonder if the refs were blind or just paid off. We will always see bad calls and we’re all aware of that fact. Refs are humans too. Not perfect. But for whatever reason it seams to be worse across the sport the first few weeks in this season. I don’t expect it to get better.

 

[lifeisdeep]

The Lads in Lines have not been friendly at all to our Vols this season. Most of us agree that the reffing has been particularly egregious so far.

Although I am concerned about O-Line, Secondary, etc. - more than anything this Saturday night, I fear that an unfair whistle may tilt this game in the wrong direction.

What do yall think? Are we gonna get a decent whistle against the Gamecocks? Or will SC jr be allowed to hold, grab and run amok like our other opponents?

Somebody needs to accidentally take a couple or five of these refs out behind the stadium after a game like two weeks ago and have some nice words with them and then help them to fall down some stairs.

 

[lifeisdeep]

I think you already know the answer.

Here's another thought. I'm beginning to think that the officials absolutely hate our up-tempo offense because it puts a ton of stress on them trying to accommodate our pace. The solution?...start slinging the laundry, accidentally kick a football (yeah right), etc. in order to slow the game down to something they can manage. Not stating it as a fact, just a random thought.

That would be too neat of an explanation. It's much more likely that it's tied to Vegas. I doubt they would make fools of themselves and reveal on national TV that they have no integrity or conscience, just from being annoyed and having to work fast. This crap has been going on for a long time, but it definitely seems to have become more common and more blatant since betting became more widespread.

 

[lifeisdeep]

Going after the refs as "corrupt" is among the weakest of excuses for our own inefficient, foot shooting offense.

They miss calls. It happens. Always has and always will. If you truly believe it's WWE, why watch unless you just want to be entertained?

If that's what you believe, you're wasting your time watching college football and expecting it not to be rigged.

Spoiler alert: it's not rigged. The refs don't hate us. ESPN doesn't hate us. It's a game played by imperfect players and reffed by imperfect refs.

If you think that UF game wasn't fixed, you're either not watching closely or are in some serious denial. I don't want games to be being regularly fixed, because it makes it harder to justify watching, to your point. But just because I really, really, really don't want something to be true, doesn't make it not true.

If a child is being charged by a pit bull and the child covers his eyes, does that make the dog go away?

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

If you think that UF game wasn't fixed, you're either not watching closely or are in some serious denial. I don't want games to be being regularly fixed, because it makes it harder to justify watching, to your point. But just because I really, really, really don't want something to be true, doesn't make it not true.

If a child is being charged by a pit bull and the child covers his eyes, does that make the dog go away?

I get it and good for you if that's how you feel. If you think any game in the SEC is fixed, they may as well all be fixed so I assume you just watch the SEC like a movie or something?

Again, if one is fixed then there's no way to know they all aren't fixed so that would ruin it as sport and make it just like WWE, at least in my eyes.

But I appreciate your viewpoint and I'll ask, if a pit bull has previously charged a little girl when she saw it, how can she be sure she's not being charged (and not seeing it) every time she goes out? PTSD, basically.

If UT has been cheated against FL, what's to keep UT from being cheated in any SEC game? Kinda ruins it, doesn't it?

 

[lifeisdeep]

The calls that were missed against AUP, Florida, and UTSA were so atrocious.

They need to be held accountable and people need to stop making excuses for their screw ups.

Just the fiasco of kicking the ball and then having the audacity to stop play and allow UF to substitute because of it is enough to make the corruption obvious to anyone who thinks and is not determined to refuse to believe corruption is possible no matter how strong the evidence. That level of incompetence is akin to a doctor accidentally removing the wrong organ, or a lawyer telling a judge to **** off, or a bus driver showing up to his bus raging drunk and driving the bus and passengers off a bridge. That level of ****-up is a one-strike-and-you're-out mistake in the real world. People get sued and go to jail for ****-ups that blatant and cavalier in the real world.

 

[GAVol]

Just the fiasco of kicking the ball and then having the audacity to stop play and allow UF to substitute because of it is enough to make the corruption obvious to anyone who thinks and is not determined to refuse to believe corruption is possible no matter how strong the evidence. That level of incompetence is akin to a doctor accidentally removing the wrong organ, or a lawyer telling a judge to **** off, or a bus driver showing up to his bus raging drunk and driving the bus and passengers off a bridge. That level of ****-up is a one-strike-and-you're-out mistake in the real world. People get sued and go to jail for ****-ups that blatant and cavalier in the real world.

Play was stopped for the re-spot, but there was nothing stopping us from snapping the ball while the subbed and getting a free 1st down.

 

[lifeisdeep]

I get it and good for you if that's how you feel. If you think any game in the SEC is fixed, they may as well all be fixed so I assume you just watch the SEC like a movie or something?

Again, if one is fixed then there's no way to know they all aren't fixed so that would ruin it as sport and make it just like WWE, at least in my eyes.

But I appreciate your viewpoint and I'll ask, if a pit bull has previously charged a little girl when she saw it, how can she be sure she's not being charged (and not seeing it) every time she goes out? PTSD, basically.

If UT has been cheated against FL, what's to keep UT from being cheated in any SEC game? Kinda ruins it, doesn't it?

By your logic, the little girl can protect herself from all future pit bull attacks simply by refusing to believe in pit bulls. How's that going to work out for her if her dad loves pit bulls?

Wanting a certain reality, and refusing to believe in anything else regardless of what other reality hits you in the face or runs over you, is not a great life strategy.

 

[lifeisdeep]

The incompetence wouldn’t have mattered if Milton had gotten to the line and snapped the ball while they were subbing and gotten the free 1st down.

The official didn't allow him to snap the ball. He stood over the ball to allow UF time to substitute.

 

[lifeisdeep]

It it was just “imperfection”, one would assume the number of incorrect calls IN out favour would approximate those going against us. However, I cannot seem to recall a single egregious call in any of our preceding four games that has went against our opponents. “Mistakes” that tend almost exclusively in one direction rapidly begin to resemble something else entirely.

This is just about an airtight argument. A perfect example is the constant holding UF got away with against us. If holding were never called against us in that game, it could be said that that crew just was lax on holding; but they called it on us, and called multiple other penalties that were highly suspect (such as the 15-yard unnecessary roughness on a textbook block to the UF defender's chest) on us, but didn't call any of those same penalties on UF.

 

[lifeisdeep]

Ever see the jerk? Maybe the officials aren’t just shooting at cans
Eventually you figure out they are shooting at YOU
View attachment 582155

Top five comedy all time.

"You should call him sh-thead."

 

[lifeisdeep]

And of course it was in a critical situation. As were the two uncalled DPIs (critical situations) (one a pass in the endzone), the falsely called "crackback" block (critical situation), the no call on the facemask on Milton's 2-point conversion attempt (critical situation). I think most people who noticed the pattern believe that we would have gotten a come-back win without Birmingham's interference.

And it is NOT a valid objection to be too timid to state this because we played so poorly in the first half. That simply means that someone is afraid their friend would mock them, etc.

By the way, and speaking of the first half: did anyone notice the obvious holding (uncalled) that sprung FL's long touchdown run?

UF was holding practically every play. I didn't look for it constantly, but pretty much every time I looked for it when they had the ball, I saw it.

 

[GAVol]

The official didn't allow him to snap the ball. He stood over the ball to allow UF time to substitute.

That didn’t happen.

It was re-spotted and immediately the refs backed away… Then Florida subbed. Heupel was waving his arms wildly at Milton to get the play off and get the free yards. Milton just stood there.

It was an officiating screwup, but it actually would’ve handed us a 1st down if we were thinking out there.

 

[lifeisdeep]

It is not a binary choice between 100% pure and mafia style corruption you know. There is a continuum at play and there are certainly people in the halls of the SEC offices in Birmingham that are (how shall we put this) not exactly enamored with the Vols. There is a definite pecking order in the SEC and we have not been admitted to the “cool kids” table. And there are people there who wish to keep it that way

I'm sure the SEC office being located in the state that is home to our biggest rival, and just coincidentally a rival that blames us for sanctions they had to endure about the time our big slide started, has no bearing whatsoever on any of this. No human being has ever influenced behind closed doors what he couldn't do out in the light for fear of going to prison. There's absolutely no chance that some rich Bama booster would ever slip some money to someone in the league office to put us in our place. Nothing like that has ever happened in the history of the world. Certainly it couldn't happen in football, simply because we like football and don't want it to be corrupt.

 

[lifeisdeep]

That didn’t happen.

It was re-spotted and immediately the refs backed away… Then Florida subbed. Heupel was waving his arms wildly at Milton to get the play off and get the free yards. Milton just stood there.

It was an officiating screwup, but it actually would’ve handed us a 1st down if we were thinking out there.

I think you saw something different than the actual game. Heupel went onto the field to confront the ref and get an explanation for why the ref had just stood over the ball. Coaches don't generally go running onto the field to chew out a ref for a player's mistake.

 

[GAVol]

I think you saw something different than the actual game. Heupel went onto the field to confront the ref and get an explanation for why the ref had just stood over the ball. Coaches don't generally go running onto the field to chew out a ref for a player's mistake.

Uh, no. I literally just went back on YoutubeTV and subjected myself to that complete grease fire of a sequence. I’ve got it exactly right… They didn’t stop us from snapping it while Florida substituted.

 

[lifeisdeep]

Uh, no. I literally just went back on YoutubeTV and subjected myself to that complete grease fire of a sequence. I’ve got it exactly right… They didn’t stop us from snapping it while Florida substituted.

Then why did Heupel get in the official's face?

 

[GAVol]

Then why did Heupel get in the official's face?

Because they stopped play when we were going to go fast against a gassed D-line.

 

[zooguy]

Every team’s fans complain about the refs.
Except ‘Bama and texasss.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

By your logic, the little girl can protect herself from all future pit bull attacks simply by refusing to believe in pit bulls. How's that going to work out for her if her dad loves pit bulls?

Wanting a certain reality, and refusing to believe in anything else regardless of what other reality hits you in the face or runs over you, is not a great life strategy.

My logic is: why do you bother caring if it's all a ruse? If it's all set up to screw certain teams (as if TN needed screwing over in the Dooley or Butch years) then it's worthless to watch unless it IS like WWE for you.

As an aside, a younger man I know has a son training or perhaps competing now in lower level wrestling (TCW or something like that) and it's not entirely scripted, apparently. Much of it is worked out: "signature" moves need to be included, usually a beatdown then a little comeback, then the winner wins in the allotted time so the show isn't too short or long. That's nice, but I wouldn't watch that.

Why do watch SEC football if you believe it's as corrupt as you seem to think?