A Watched Clock Never Runs

Saturday's game took me back to the school where the season started. One thing I failed to mention previously - there is no scoreboard at this college. There are also no bleachers, no press box, no cheerleaders, and no PA system. There is brand new portable game clock everyone seems to be very proud of. Until it stopped working in the 3rd quarter.

This was yet another lopsided game ending 43-28. I mention this because the officials organization I am candidate for wants us to keep games under 3 hours. But with 70+ points scored, and the clock stopped for at least 2 minutes per score, these expectations are bit misplaced. Add the 35 fouls with and average of 30 second clock stoppage per foul and the 'dead' time really adds up. We also had a few injury delays and each team used all their timeouts.

Then the clock stopped running late in the 3rd quarter. We had to stop play three times adding or taking away time before the clock just died. Finally, we ran the time on the field for the remainder of the 3rd. I'm not sure why our White Hat waited so long to this. At the start of the 4th we waited for another 2-3 minutes while the ground crew promised it would be start. It finally did. Again, I don't know why we just didn't start the quarter with the time on the field and adjust the clock when it started early. This whole fiasco burned another 5 minutes.

My performance was on par with my previous games. Once I ran up the wrong sideline following the Try once and on two occasions turned to the wrong sideline to accept a new ball.

I am finding I am not alone with this problem - forgetting which color is offense. I've asked dozens of officials about there experience and they have all said the same thing. It is easy to forget which team is on offense and which direction they are going. For example, on scrimmage kicks, I am constantly have to say to myself "white is going to be stupid". Meaning, if White are the receiving team, they will be the ones doing the blocks in the back or the holding or the 'stupid' stuff. The kickers will often be guilty of personal fouls, but these are easy to catch because they usually are at the end of the play.

I did have any flags this game. The inside was clean and players on both sides were tired and lazy. There was a lot of passing in this game, so the offensive linemen just backed-up and the defenders were too tired to charge hard.

The home team coach complied there were some chop block. What happened was a lineman had fallen to the ground and the center/nose guard tripped over him. Looked really ugly and I don't know how it will look on film, but the act was not deliberate. Just something that happened during the course of the game.

I do think I missed a spearing. This was very late in the 4th quarter at around the 5 yard line. Some kid come in helmet first into the pile so hard hit feet were up in the air. This is an ejectionable act and a big deal. In the 10 milliseconds you have to make a decision, I decided I did not see the entire act. If someone questioned me 'did you see if he was pushed from behind' I could not say yes. There were also the wing and the deep official on that side (we were at the has mark) who had better angles than me, since I was looking inside out. Bottom line is I think we missed a call and I'm sure we will be on the training film next summer.

Overall, I feel I am doing a decent job at this level. I have no real feedback other than White Hat's saying 'good hustle'. I still have a long way to go before I would consider myself a GOOD college umpire. I still have to ask about some of the penalty enforcements (however I do it under the guise of 'confirming'). I should not have to do that.

Weekly Update Coming

I haven't been home all weekend, so no time for an entry yet. This weeks game was... come back in a day or two and see.