September 23, 2004

SEC Officials “Goofed”… Almost Need Therapy

In the past three weeks, sport officials have come under scrutiny… First there was the reversal call in the US Open Tennis tournament, which eventually cost Serena Williams her match against Jennifer Capriati.  The tournaments head of officiating, removed that official from further matches, and personally called Serena Williams to apologize for the bad call.  Then there were the “goofed”   calls between Tennessee and Florida in a SEC matchup.

Just this past weekend, during the SEC matchup between Florida and Tennessee, we got to see another mistake up close which eventually cost the game for Florida.  The SEC supervisor of officials Bobby Gaston admitted that the crew working the game “goofed” making two serious mistakes that may have affected the game…

According to the reports, the entire crew is one of the league’s most highly rated had has worked league championship games together… so then, Gimme ‘A Break and tell me how they could have “goofed” on two calls, which did affect the game.

To say that this officiating crew was one of the league’s most highly rated is an understatement… they’re inept. Point blank – bottom line. Side judge Bobby Moreau and referee Penn Wagers were the two officials responsible for making the “goofed” calls… First call, only assessing one personal foul instead of two, and secondly Wagers failed to start the clock after the 15-yeard penalty was walked off.

Moreau saw both fouls committed… Tennessee’s Jonathan Wade threw the first punch, but wasn’t given a penalty – it was only when Florida’s Dallas Baker retaliated that a penalty was called.  Gaston said that Moreau’s initial explanation in calling just the one personal foul was that he felt Wade’s hit to the facemask was incidental, while Baker’s was premeditated.  Meanwhile, Bobby Moreau has admitted that his judgment was poor…

In this situation, how can an official determine if the hit was incidental or premeditated?  Maybe Baker’s hit was incidental… But to make a no-call on one and a call on the other is a load of bull.  Either you call offsetting penalties or no-call at all.

Adding insult to injury, Wagers then failed to start the clock after the penalty was walked off.  Because the penalty followed a running play, the clock should have started immediately after it was assessed.  By starting the clock, Florida would have probably run off at least 20-seconds before they had to punt… instead the clock didn’t start until Florida snapped the ball, and instead of punting from their own 38-yard line with about 30 seconds left, the two officiating errors forced the Gators to punt from their 23-yard line with 55 seconds left.

 

SEC supervisor of officials Bobby Gaston stated that the two mistakes could have affected the game – well, that’s a lie… those goofs, committed by an inept officiating crew did affect the game in more ways than one… it unjustly dropped the Florida Gators seven spots in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' rankings and five spots in the AP Top 25 writers' poll, to No. 16 in both, and it allowed Tennessee to move up five spots to No. 13 in the coaches' poll and two spots to No. 11 in the writers' poll.

 

Gaston acknowledged that he and the SEC crew that worked the game felt awful about the officiating mistakes. He was quoted as saying, “They almost need therapy.” Come on here… Gimme ‘A Break - they almost need therapy, how about going back to officiating class and learn how to officiate the game.