SEC officiating? Will it ever be correct?

I really do not know what to say anymore. I never thought that the SEC officiating crews could be in bed with Florida and Alabama but it seems more and more like that. Lane Kiffin and Dan Mullen were both reprimanded by the SEC today for speaking out against the SEC officials. Both of them had very good arguments.

In the Mississippi State vs Florida game, Florida intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. This TD sealed the game for Florida, however when you look at the replay Dustin Doe, of Florida, was stripped of the ball right before he scored. If this had been overturned the touchdown would have been negated and Mississippi State would have had the ball at the 20. Mullen spoke out about this after the game and stated that the replay official should be suspended. The SEC did not see it the same way and reprimanded Mullen instead.

Next, in the Tennessee vs Alabama game, after Alabama blocked a field goal by Tennessee Terrence Cody of Alabama took off his helmet and threw it in the air. The game had not yet ended. This should have been a personal foul for unsportsmanlike conduct. Lane Kiffin spoke out about this and was reprimanded by the SEC also. When Kiffin was asked Sunday about him maybe being fined by the SEC Kiffin replied with "I'm sure we'll get one of those letters that means nothing, that Bobby Petrino got last week, but Florida and Alabama live on".

This is now two weeks in a row that Florida has had to been bailed out by the SEC officials. Lets not forget that LSU had help from the officials when they were a top 5 team. I am really starting to wonder now, do the SEC officials just really want a SEC team in the BCS National Championship? Do they want Alabama and Florida to meet in the SEC Championship game? Are they placing bets on the game and making sure that their teams win? Are they just that bad at there job?

I am not sure which one it is if any. I do know one thing though SEC commissioner Mike Slive has his hands full. It is not just the fans anymore that are in an up roar about the SEC officiating now he has SEC coaches becoming very outspoken about how bad the officiating has been. I hope that Slive knows that even the media is all over this now. He better do something or the NCAA is going to start an investigation if they have not already.

SEC Player of the Week

Geno Atkins was named the SEC defensive player of the week. Atkins recorded 8 tackles and one tackle for a loss. Atkins currently is tied for the lead on the team with 17 quarterback pressures.

SEC officials have done it again.

Anybody who watched the Florida vs Arkansas game and saw the personal foul call on Malcolm Sheppard of Arkansas knew right away that the SEC officiating crew had blown another call. I am very tempted to watch the game again and count how many times I saw Tim Tebow do the Gator Chomp after running for a first down, but as everyone knows there is no official that will ever throw a flag against "the best player ever in college football", according to some people in the media. I am sure that most SEC fans know now that this was the same officiating crew that called the Georgia vs LSU game. There are quite a few things about this that I am pretty fired up about.

1. How many times is the SEC going to come out and admit that there officials made a mistake when calling a game and not do anything to penalize the official or officials that made the mistake?

2. The SEC has come out and stated that there definition for "excessive celebration" is when a player directly makes a gesture towards the crowd or an opposing player. If this is what they are trained to call then why do only certain players or teams get this called against them?

3. Why would an officiating crew that blew a major call in a nationally televised game against two highly ranked teams be assigned to another game of the same magnitude? They should have been calling the Mississippi State vs Middle Tennessee State game last week. Supposedly this week they are calling the Tennessee vs Alabama game. You probably would not want to be the Tennessee Volunteer's this week. With the reputation the crew is getting if Tennessee is about to upset a top 5 SEC team they will make sure that it does not happen.

As many SEC fans know, we do have the worse officials in the NCAA, which I think is pretty sad considering that the SEC is year in and year out arguably the best conference in the NCAA. You do have to start asking yourself questions after the calls this year. Are there things going on with the SEC officials that people do not know. I have been reading some pretty interesting conspiracy theories over the past two days as to why the SEC officals are so bad but more importantly why nothing is being done to correct these errors. Perhaps the NCAA should be in charge of all officals and the conference no longer has a say.

Not just the Bloggers anymore

After the humiliating defeat the Georgia Bulldogs took at the hands of the Tennessee Volunteers it is not only the bloggers and fans that are turning on Willie Martinez, but the media is now also calling for his job. Here is an interesting article I read today:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/269939-by-the-numbers-is-willie-martinezs-job-safe-at-georgia

They stated the same stats that I put up a few weeks ago. They did state an interesting fact though that the winner of the SEC Championship game over the past years has been ranked constantly either #1 or #2 in total defense in the SEC.

What to do about the coaching staff?

Well, this has been an interesting season. First I would like to point out the fact that Georgia could easily be 0-6 right now, but our players have had such heart and determination that they pulled out 3 wins for us.  I am not putting blame on the players for any of the three losse. They have been playing there hearts out. As far as our coaches are concerned I am holding them totally responsible for everyone of our losses.

Coach Martinez again and again has proven that he does not know how to prep our team for games. We made Crompton look like an all-SEC QB this week with him having a career day against our defense. Pretty much every team, except LSU, has put up outstanding numbers against out pass defense. Today was the third time this year that our defense has given up over 37 points in a game. Martinez has always stated that he plays a "bend don't break defense". Well, Willie guess what, our defense has been broken and humiliated three times this year. Martinez must go no questions asked. If Richt will not do this then AD Evans needs to step in and take control of the situation.

Coach Bobo needs to do something about the offense, it has been completely stagnant the past two weeks. Joe Cox is not the answer, yes he did look very good against Arkansas but everyone can have a good game, also Arkansas's defense is worse than ours. Cox stares down his receivers every play. He is gone after this season, why not give some PT to the others QB's. Supposedly the word in Athens is that our two freshman QB's are not ready to play. Since Bobo is the QB coach I hold him totally responsible for them not being ready to play. He needs to also change up the play calling I can usually guess what play we are going to run before it is run. If I can do this so can every other DC is the SEC.

I am starting to get concerned with Coach Richt, he has no fire right now and looks almost like he does not care on the sideline. If Rich does not fire Martinez after this season there is a big problem. He has not changed the coaching staff since he took over. Changes need to happen and this is the responsibility of the Head Coach. 

Season is not even close to over

The fact that all I have been reading in blogs lately is that we are destined for a 7-5 or 8-4 season is just ridiculous. The Bulldogs are not in the position where I would like them to be, but are in the position that they are in. The Bulldogs are still in total control of their own destiny right now which is where any team would like to be. The only team that does not have a SEC East loss is Florida. The Bulldogs are tied with South Carolina right now in the East with one loss each. The Bulldogs do have a tough road ahead of them with Tennessee, Florida and Auburn still on the schedule, but they are very capable of running the table and finishing 10-2 for the season. If the Bulldogs win the rest of the games they will be in the SEC Championship game.

The Bulldogs have to adjust a bunch of things especially the kick off coverage. David Hale wrote a good article about our recruiting and kickoff coverage at http://dawg-extra.blogspot.com

Mark Richt needs to unleash the Dawgs and let them get more aggressive and play free. I am not saying that he needs to lose control but showing some emotion and letting the boys get after it would definitely help. 

Three things to get to the SEC Championship:

1. Establish some type of running game

2. Kickoff coverage has to get better

3. TURNOVERS; these have to stop

What has happened to loyalty?

I have always watched college football over NFL due to the fact that there use to be loyalty in college football. People are more loyal towards college football programs than NFL. This is true in regards to players and coaches. You tend to see programs recruiting former players brothers or sons if they are available. At the University of Georgia we have had brothers and sons all go to the University. Some examples are the Bailey brothers, Stinchcomb brothers and the Tereshinski family. The reason I am talking about this is in regards to Bobby Bowden.

How can Florida State University even start to listen to a board member about calling for Bowden's retirement or even forcing him to step down. Yes, Bowden might be off to rough start this year but overall he was the person who single handily put Florida State on the map and made them a national powerhouse. Since taking over the Florida State program he has 18 ten win seasons, won 20 bowl games, has an award named after him and has won two National Championships. He is also second all-time in wins behind Joe Paterno. When a coach has a resume like Bowden's you do not force him out, you let him retire when he is good and ready. Florida State needs to remember that without Bobby Bowden they would be getting stomped by Florida and Miami every year and not able to bring in top recruits every year. 

I can see something like this happening in the NFL but not in college. The NFL is all about money and wins. Coaching changes happen every year, sometimes you can even lose your job when you win 13 games, as Marty Schottenheimer found out in San Diego a few years ago. Bowden has nothing but good intentions for the program when he thinks he is no longer able to bring in top recruits and compete for the ACC and National Championships he will step down.  The board of trustee's needs to just sit back and let Bowden do his job and stay out of the football program. 

Caleb King Injury

It has been confirmed that Caleb King fractured his jaw and suffered a concussion in the loss to LSU. He is day-to-day right now. Mark Richt has not ruled out King playing against Tennessee this week if he is cleared by doctors of post concussion symptoms. Richard Samuel will be starting against Tennessee.

Tebow's Concussion

I have never in my life seen such media attention to a concussion as there has been since Tim Tebow was leveled by a Kentucky linebacker a little over a week ago.  If I did not know any better I would think that he had fractured his skull or had been injured in a way that no player has ever been injured before. Tim Tebow is not the first player to ever have received a concussion and I am sure that there have been worse concussions to happen in college football than Tebow's.

I am not a fan of Tebow at all but I will give credit where it is due. Tebow is good football player but is not the second coming of Fran Tarkenton, Dan Marino or any other great NFL quarterback.  Tebow as of right now is a low first round or high second round pick.  I do not understand why every time I turn on ESPN all I ever hear is Tebow this and Tebow that.  He is a great leader and a very good COLLEGE football player. I would not put him though in the same category as Jim Thorpe, Herschel Walker, Vince Young or Red Grange.  These players could single handily win games for their team.  Tebow will never be a good NFL player he will join the league of Florida QBs that amount to nothing in the pros.  Must I remind everyone of Jesse Palmer, Rex Grossman and Danny Wuerfell.

I just do not understand why they are making such a hype about all this.  I had a concussion in high school that knocked me out cold for a couple minutes and was back playing the next day.  I admit that concussions are serious but I do not think that anyone players deserves 24 hour coverage about if he can eat or read yet due to an injury.  However, every one commentator and expert in football worships the ground that Tebow walks on. 

On a side note, I just hope that the next time Tebow scores and does the Gator chomp towards the ground that he is called for unsportsmanlike conduct due to making a "gesture" towards the crowd.  I mean that is what the rule states but some how when Tebow does something it is ok. I mean it should be he is TIM TEBOW.  

What to do about the celebration rule?

As I am sure everyone has already heard the SEC has officially come out and stated that they made a mistake and A.J. Green should not have been flagged after his touchdown catch against LSU. I appreciate the apology but that does not change that fact that this single call might have cost Georgia the game. I have watched the replay a dozen times and do not see anything close to what the officials stated they saw. Supposedly A.J. Green was penalized because he gestured toward the crowd. How could he have made a gesture toward the crowd he was getting hugged from all his teammates and could not even raise his arms. This is not the first time that the new celebration rule has cost a team a win. Washington was robbed of win last year against BYU for the same call.

I see there are two things that need to be done:

1. They NCAA needs to change this rule and adopt the NFL rule. This is what I think should be done. Pretty much, the NFL states that players can not use props when celebrating a touchdown. They are allowed to make "gestures towards the fans", they can jump in to the stand like in Green Bay and they can dance all they want. Only thing as I stated earlier is that they can not use props.

2. The review booth needs to be able to review calls made by the officials. Coaches are allowed to challenge certain calls that the officials make, so why can coaches not challenge when a referee throws a flag. I understand that officials are only human and mistakes will be made. I do not think though that these mistakes should be able to change the outcome a game.

I am pretty certain that both of these will not happen but the NCAA seriously needs to do something about this rule. If the outcome of two games have already been changed due to this rule why would you not change it. Also if you are not going to change the rule then officials need to be fined for making bad calls. 

Should Oregon sacrifice its program?

I have been pretty opinionated about the situation that happened to LaGarrette Blount and the Oregon football team in its season opening loss to Boise State. For those who have not been following college football this year, LaGarrette Blount a RB for Oregon, punched a Boise State player and knocked him to his knees after Oregon lost to Boise State. Blount while walking to the locker room, was being taunted by the Boise State fans, went after a couple fans in the stands and had to be restrained by one of his coaches and security personal. Blount was suspended from the team for the rest of year the next day by the University of Oregon. Blount was also suspended in February from the team for "failure to fulfil team obligations".

Chip Kelley, the head coach for Oregon, has released an announcement stating that if Blount fulfils all the requirements that he and the University of Oregon have laid out for him, they will consider reinstating him for the Nov. 7th game against Stanford. I think this is huge mistake on the part of Chip Kelly and the Oregon program. Perhaps they should have not suspended him for the year, but since they did they need to stick to the punishment. You can not go back on your punishment once it is handed out. If you say he is suspended for the year then stick to this. The message you are sending to all your players and future players is that you can do what you want when you are a part of this program as long as you are remorseful afterwards. This is not the message that you want to associated with your program. I think the punishment fit the crime, if Blount had just punched the Boise State player suspend him for 4-6 games, but the fact that he went after the fans is totally unacceptable. Blount should be happy that he did not have assault charges brought against him for the punch he threw. I know if I was out and a guy started mouthing off to me and I knocked him to his knees with a punch there is a pretty good chance I could be spending the night in jail. Blount needs to just stay in shape and enter the draft in April and hope that someone drafts him, this will be a bigger problem then most think since he is going to be known now as a player with character issues.

I firmly believe that Kelly and Oregon Football need to seriously reconsider reinstating Blount, they will sacrifice there program and how University of Oregon Football is viewed nationally if they do reinstate him. Next time something like this happens take more than 24 hours to issue a punishment and make sure you issue the right one, but you can never go back on a punishment once it is handed down or you lose all control of your players and what they think they are allowed to do.