Officials Will Make Mistakes
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Officials Will Make Mistakes
Sports
Oct 29, 2002, 15:27
By Trev Alberts http://www.espn.go.com

Monday, October 28
 
Face it: Officials will make mistakes

By Trev Alberts
Special to ESPN.com

Before we talk about any specific games, let's talk about officiating.

This has been a hot topic nearly all season and last weekend did nothing to douse the flames. Things continued to be bad for the Big Ten, which has already dismissed incompetent officials this year and had a crew in Tallahassee for the Notre Dame-Florida State game. That group promptly blew an early call by ruling a first-quarter Florida State fumble an incomplete pass.

But it doesn't stop there. Ohio State's Chris Gamble was let off the hook when officials failed to call pass interference against him on a play that ended a Penn State comeback bid. And the SEC saw its officials allow Alabama's Brodie Croyle to pitch the ball from his backside to a kneeling Santonio Beard, who then took the ball to the Tennessee 8-yard line.

What I would do if I were the commissioner of the Big Ten or any other conference is take all the officials at a not-so-nice resort and have them review every game from this season. Someone needs to explain the game of football to them, and if they are too old then maybe they ought to be replaced. Football is a fast game and every conference needs to evaluate those kinds of things.

The worst thing that could happen to college football, though, would be for everyone to fall in love with instant replay. Football is a game of momentum and teams work hard to get things going their way. Anyone who has seen an NFL game knows how much momentum is killed when a team is grinding out a long drive and suddenly has to stand around for three minutes while there is a review.

No matter how bad the calls are they even out over the course of the season. I don't care how bad it gets, at the end of the day it all works out. Officials are human and there is no such thing as a perfectly called game. There is a missed holding call on virtually every play in every game, so should we go back and look at every snap?

What happens when the debate is this public is that officials end up second-guessing themselves and over-analyzing things. They lose confidence and become afraid to make calls for fear of looking bad. They need to do just what struggling players do: go back to basics. Officials know the rules and need to trust their judgment and make the calls. The fact of the matter is there will continue to be bad calls and we will continue to point them out.

All we can ask is that the officials do the best they can.

Patience paying off early for ND
It has been amazing to watch Notre Dame's progression this season. What we saw in last Saturday's 34-24 win at Florida State was weeks of patience coming to a head. What the Irish did in holding Greg Jones to 34 rushing yards was expected, but we also saw was a confident Carlyle Holiday completing passes in a hostile environment.

Tyrone Willingham, Kent Baer and the rest of the staff knew it would take time to implement the West Coast attack and that Holiday would need some time to grasp the offense, but they have everything falling into place better than they ever could have envisioned.

We will keep reading about how poor Notre Dame's offense is, but now is the time of year statistics can deceive and this offense is becoming difficult to defend. The Irish have three talented wide receivers in Arnaz Battle, Maurice Stovall and Omar Jenkins, and the offensive line is playing well while getting Ryan Grant 100 yards rushing per game.

When rating teams I look at who is playing well now, and Notre Dame is playing like the No. 2 team in the nation. You cannot overstate how dominant the Irish were against Florida State. At the end of the game, Willingham expressed jubilation that the Irish are undefeated but also made sure to express his disappointment with the way they handled themselves at times. He does a great job of keeping that team on an even keel and not letting them think they are that good or bad.

That has a steadying effect on a team and I see a lot of my old coach, Tom Osborne, in Ty Willingham's stoic, subdued demeanor. Football has so many peaks and valleys that if the leader of the team remains unfazed at all times he is a steadying influence, and that is the effect Ty is having on his players right now.

Florida State, on the other hand is like a number of other programs around the country that have to take a hard look at themselves. Some of the Seminole players were throwing fits after the game, talking about changes that need to be made, and I assume they were talking about Chris Rix at quarterback.

But he did not lose that game. He had committed some important turnovers, but early in the game some of his receivers got alligator arms and dropped a few passes. Maybe Rix should be talking about some of those guys, because they did not perform, either.

Look to Notre Dame's domination of the Florida State offensive line if you want a reason for the outcome.

Crowded at the top
Seven of the top eight teams in the coaches poll are undefeated and things will be much different this year than last. Ohio State, NC State, Georgia and Notre Dame could all realistically wind up undefeated along with Oklahoma and the Miami-Virginia Tech winner. Two of those teams will be playing in the national championship game, but there could also be a matchup of unbeatens in other BCS bowls.

And here's the worst-case scenario for Miami fans: because of the struggles of Florida, Florida State and Tennessee, strength of schedule could kill an undefeated Hurricanes team and let an unbeaten Notre Dame into the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

We could end up seeing a Miami-Georgia matchup in the Nokia Sugar Bowl, with the undefeated, defending national champs playing in a consolation game, and teams like NC State and Ohio State also on the outside looking in. Maybe then we could blow up the BCS and never have to hear those three letters in the same sentence again.

Coming up 10s
The one thing that upsets me about the Pac-10 conference is that I can't see all the games. I have to read in the morning about Washington State's comeback win and Arizona State's win over Washington. It's hard to get the whole picture when I can't see Andrew Walter throw for 500 yards or Jason Gesser fight through injuries.

Let's just be honest with the West Coast fans: most people are sleeping when your teams are playing. This week we'll get to see Arizona State and Washington State go at it, and USC has a big game later this year with Notre Dame, but we just don't see enough games from out there.

And as far as the Big Ten is concerned, it infuriates me that Iowa will not play Ohio State this year. The Buckeyes have the best defense in the conference, and for them to shut down the Penn State offense the way they did says a lot, but Iowa is the best team.

That's the problem with having 11 teams in the league. The rotating schedule is unfair. If Ohio State goes undefeated and doesn't play in the Fiesta Bowl, it ends up in the Rose Bowl and Iowa is knocked down to the Capital One Bowl. They have to get another team in that league because it is wrong that a team like Iowa is getting shut out of a chance to go to the Rose Bowl.

But the Hawkeyes can only blame themselves. They were up 24-7 against Iowa State, and a bad third quarter in that game cost them a win and an unbeaten record.

So instead of having a shot at the Fiesta Bowl they don't even control their own destiny.

'Pack looking powerful
North Carolina State slapped me in the face Thursday night. I said before the Wolfpack's 38-6 rout of Clemson that there was no way it could win and I was dead wrong. I am now officially on the bandwagon, but I'm not sure they want a lot of people jumping on. Coach Chuck Amato has rallied his troops around the "no respect" theme and they are just fine with no one saying just how good they are.

Philip Rivers and T.A. McLendon are in the top five on my Heisman list because I look for guys who don't have any duds, and these guys are getting it done. Rivers keeps having good games and McLendon was out there running over Clemson players with a cast on his broken wrist!

But I was most impressed with the defense. Clemson has a good offense with some talented skill players and the Tigers were held to 229 total yards. And they did something telling by calling a reverse on the first play, because when a team is going to trickeration early it means there is not a lot of confidence in the offense.

Picking up the pieces
Florida State showed signs of becoming a fragmented team with the public complaints after last weekend's loss, but the Seminoles are not the only team with that problem. The same thing is happening at Tennessee with Kelly Washington and Casey Clausen popping off and Washington is also in there as a team that needs to do some soul-searching.

But give kudos to Nebraska for its 38-31, come-from-behind win at Texas A&M. Frank Solich and his staff deserve some credit for holding this team together. The Huskers could have easily splintered after early struggles and the talk that followed, but for the most part there were no excuses and everyone just kept working. And if Nebraska beats Texas this week they have a shot at finishing with three losses and salvaging the year.

Last week's win came against the same A&M team that slowed Virginia Tech down earlier this year, and for the Huskers to go to Kyle Field and dig out of a 31-14 hole looking like the Nebraska of old says a lot about their heart and determination. They were dominating along the offensive line and stuck with the running game, and the defense was flying around having fun. If this keeps up NU has a real shot at taking down Texas this week in Lincoln..

Longhorns a disappointment
In all honesty, the Texas offense should be much better than it is. Cedric Benson got going with 199 rushing yards in the 21-10 win over Iowa State, but they are not great statistically and Chris Simms has yet to have a huge, breakout game. With the talent they have at wide receiver and in the running game the Longhorns should be more potent.

The defense played well against the Cyclones, but Seneca Wallace still made some plays and this is just not as good a team as I thought it would be. They have yet to bust out and Simms has not had the type of year I expected. But this is a decent team and things are shaping up for a good game against Nebraska this week in Lincoln.

ESPN Deportes.com


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