Refs spot ball on wrong 45, how the hell does not a single coach notice?

quote:

---

Needs to be a question for Coach O at TJ ribs…

---

quote:

---

The SEC has to deal with its officiating crisis Targeting? Pass interference? An untimely hold? These are all judgment calls left to officials, people who study the rulebook each year and try to apply it the best they can. But “What down is it?” is usually a question with a clear answer that doesn’t require any judgment. And yet, the SEC crew presiding over Auburn’s trip to Penn State missed it, causing a down to disappear and prompting the Nittany Lions to punt on third down. Worse, the replay booth confirmed the error committed on the field. The SEC acknowledged the mistake afterward, saying it was discovered during the following media timeout. By that time, there was no way to correct it. It didn’t decide the game, but a mistake earlier in the day elsewhere had a much bigger impact. The SEC crew officiating Mississippi State’s trip to Memphis began to rule a downed punt dead before Memphis’ Calvin Austin sprinted in, scooped up the ball on a heady, risk-free play and returned it 94 yards for a touchdown to put the Tigers up 28-17 with 5:36 to play in a game they eventually won, 31-29. “The inadvertent signal aspect of the play is reviewable and replay should have stopped the game to review for a potential inadvertent signal,” the SEC said in a statement just after the game was completed. “The subsequent review would have placed the ball at the spot where the signal was made.” Additionally, a review found Memphis should have been penalized for having two players on the punt return team wearing No. 4. The apology will do nothing to soothe Mike Leach and the Bulldogs, who can fairly wonder “What if?” after the egregious error. “We’ll have to look at that on film,” Leach said. “And maybe some others will, too.” I’ve never subscribed to theories about one conference’s officiating versus another. Every league’s fans believe their conference’s officiating is the worst. But there’s no way to erase those two errors, which badly erode the league’s credibility moving forward. The most concerning element is the replay booth failed to correct both, despite the opportunity to do so, plus the discovery of a second error in the Mississippi State game. There’s no way to fix it, but in situations like these, especially ones that influence the game in such an acute manner, making promises to improve in the future seems meaningless. And yet, what else is there to say?

---