Before this game the crew anticipated a pretty close contest. This was the first week of Conference play, and both squads were 1-4 coming off their first victory. We expected both teams to be hungry for a win. But (you knew there was a but coming) apparently only one team wanted to play. The final score was 55-21 after three hours of misery.
On several levels this was the worse college game I worked so far. First of all, the home team A.D. was nowhere to be found, we had neither a clock operator nor a chain crew until after the coin toss was completed. The chain crew consisted of three females from the Basketball team, one of which had her young child with her. Our White Hat quickly shut that down. Basically, the game started late while all this administrative BS took place.
At halftime the chain crew announced they were not coming back for the second half. Are you kidding! So, we had to find four more people to assist and the second half started late. Oh, what else -- the 25 second clock never started on the kick-offs, the ball boys were in la-la land, we did not have our security escort, and the locker room was not open at halftime or at the end of the game. And remember, this is NCAA, not High School.
As bad as all that was the game itself wasn't any better. The visiting coach was one of these guys who thinks calling a fair game means the fouls should be equally distributed. He was given a Sideline Warning three minutes into the game, so you kinda knew what kind of an ass he was going to be. So, since most of the fouls were against his team, we apparently were not being 'fair'. I didn't get the final count, but there were at least 35 fouls in total and I would guess 25 were against his team. Most of these were Personal Fouls or Unsportsmanlike. These fouls went both ways, as this was really an ugly game, but his team was hit harder because they deserved it. They were just playing dirty. I could have thrown more fouls on his team, but the White Hat asked us to only call 'big' things.
When the visitors finally scored a TD, during the Try, a home team player jumped into the neutral zone and then jumped back before the snap. After the Try, when I have to run up the sideline for the kickoff, the coach was screaming at me that the defender contacted his player when he entered the neutral zone. I politely said, "Coach I did not see contact" and kept running up the field. Now, how he could possibly see what really happened from the sideline 25 yards away is beyond me. What really happened is when the defender entered the neutral zone and his player false started. In that order. But since there was no flag by the wings who really cares. The player who is at the most disadvantage is the defender on his heels not his offensive player. The coach of course questioned how I could not see the contact when it was right in front of me. I learned long ago there is no point discussing these things. I clearly saw what didn't happen. I asked the wings later if they saw contact and they both said, hell no.
Later in the game he actually said, "this is not the PAC-10, why are you guys calling that?". Well, lets see, your man was holding in the end zone and your team scored a TD. Even in High School we would make this call. Now granted, there was 1:30 left in a game that was 55-21, so ya, he has a point. But, a foul is a foul ,and because he had been a prick all night, no cheap scores for you friend.
And just maybe we make these call because we all WANT to get into the PAC-10. It wasn't my flag, but I would have made the same call in that situation.
There is a lot more I could say about this coach, but I save that for WAMO.
Now, to be honest, this was not my best game either. My biggest blunder was not walking off two penalties properly. The first was a half-distance from the 24 yard line. How hard is this. Go to the 12 dumbass. I stopped at the 17. The side judge caught this one so I didn't look like a complete fool. Then we had a spot foul two yards beyond the LOS. I went from the LOS. I had to pick-up the ball and move it. A big time no-no for the Umpire. I'm sure I'll get marked down for that. And I should.
A few times in the first-half I was dwelling on these blunders too much and forgot which side to relay the ball from on a change of posession. No one in the stands will notice this and it won't be on film, but it shows my head is not in the game. Overall, my first-half was terrible and if I was and observer, I would say I did not appear to have control of the game and at times, I appeared confused. I got my act together in the second half and did not make any more stupid mistakes.
I threw three flags -- Roughing the Snapper, Block in the Back, and a False Start.
Luckily I don't have either of these teams again this season,
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
A Rough Game - Part 1
Last night's game was another blow-out 45-0, but we finished in under three hours. We threw twenty penalties. Which I still find difficult to believe is less than the average of 24 per game. Even 20 seems like a lot to me. One of the crews this season had 39 fouls. If you have 120 plays a game, how can 1/3 of the plays have fouls? Somethings not right.
Speaking of fouls, I threw three flags - dead ball personal foul against a defenseless player, roughing the snapper during a scrimmage kick, and a chop block.
The personal foul was easy. It was right in front of me and after the whistle.
The roughing the snapper was easy too - he ran right-up the middle of the long snappers head and knocked him on is ass. But, I screwed this up. I did not get the number of the player who roughed the snapper.
This was a bonehead mistake on my part since I'm looking right at the guy. The simple fact was I got caught-up in the play and didn't look at the number. What I should have done is made a mental note of the number before the ball was snapped. I saw him line up directly over the snapper and the idea of him roughing entered my mind. Then, when I saw him make helmet-to-helmet contact, I completely forgot about his number and began considering whether this should be an ejectionable foul. By the time I collected my thoughts, I forgot all about the number.
What made this play even more interesting is there were three unrelated flags, all on 'B', during this down. Since mine was 15 yards and auto first down, 'A' obviously accepted this one.
The chop block - I may have missed one earlier in the game. The one I missed, I think was with the center blocking high and then a non-adjacent linemen (the tackle) came low. This was on a sweep to my right and I keyed on the pulling guard focusing on the point of attack. The tackle went to my left away from the ball. It caught my attention, but not until after the block occurred. I really don't know if it was a chop or not.
But I caught them second time.
Enough for now. I blog more about this game later in the week.
Speaking of fouls, I threw three flags - dead ball personal foul against a defenseless player, roughing the snapper during a scrimmage kick, and a chop block.
The personal foul was easy. It was right in front of me and after the whistle.
The roughing the snapper was easy too - he ran right-up the middle of the long snappers head and knocked him on is ass. But, I screwed this up. I did not get the number of the player who roughed the snapper.
This was a bonehead mistake on my part since I'm looking right at the guy. The simple fact was I got caught-up in the play and didn't look at the number. What I should have done is made a mental note of the number before the ball was snapped. I saw him line up directly over the snapper and the idea of him roughing entered my mind. Then, when I saw him make helmet-to-helmet contact, I completely forgot about his number and began considering whether this should be an ejectionable foul. By the time I collected my thoughts, I forgot all about the number.
What made this play even more interesting is there were three unrelated flags, all on 'B', during this down. Since mine was 15 yards and auto first down, 'A' obviously accepted this one.
The chop block - I may have missed one earlier in the game. The one I missed, I think was with the center blocking high and then a non-adjacent linemen (the tackle) came low. This was on a sweep to my right and I keyed on the pulling guard focusing on the point of attack. The tackle went to my left away from the ball. It caught my attention, but not until after the block occurred. I really don't know if it was a chop or not.
But I caught them second time.
Enough for now. I blog more about this game later in the week.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
One Down, Six to Go
Well, successfully completed my second college game. This score-fest ended 54-32.
Both wing officials and the Side Judge were from my local area and I've worked many high school games with these three officials. Whether real or imagined, I felt the eyes of scrutiny would be more severe during this game than my first game last week. At this stage, I think it's almost easier working with guys you don't know.
I had never met the White Hat. This always make the pre-game a bit strange. The Referee and Umpire have a unique relationship. There is a lot of give-and-take as far as how the game will be run. As I gain more confidence at this level, I can see where I will soon be saying something along the lines of 'this is how I plan on doing X' and the WH can override me if he wishes. Right now, I'm taking the approach of 'how would you prefer me to do X'. In some cases the WH asks me what I would like and then we go with my preference. Clearly, you need to able to adjust to the crew you are working with.
Although the WH is the boss, I have control over most of the game adminstration - how fast the ball gets set, relay the ball from the sideline, marching off penalties, doublchecking the ref does not do anything foolish, confirming with the Linesman on penalities, digging for fumbles, often helping on short passes over the middle, etc.
I only made two mistakes I am aware of. The big one was on a long punt where we had two live ball fouls and did a re-kick down back around the 10. I put the ball on the wrong hash mark. My down indicator indicated the left hash, but I put the ball on the right hash. On some plays where a lot of things happening, the balls gets rushed in, the WH rushes the 'ready', some players asks me a question, etc I may forget to reset my marker. I second guessed myself when I reset the ball. I was wrong and should trust my ball marker next time or ask for help.
The second one was minor. On a change of possession a ball was marked on sideline. When placing the ball on the field, because players were blocking my view, I used cross-field mechanics to put the ball down. But, when the ball marked on the field I should have used the ball and not cross-field. Make sense to me and easy to fix going forward.
The White Hat told me more that once I showed 'good hustle' and I made his job easy during the game. I never told him I was a Candidate and this was only my second college game. I take this a compliment.
Both wing officials and the Side Judge were from my local area and I've worked many high school games with these three officials. Whether real or imagined, I felt the eyes of scrutiny would be more severe during this game than my first game last week. At this stage, I think it's almost easier working with guys you don't know.
I had never met the White Hat. This always make the pre-game a bit strange. The Referee and Umpire have a unique relationship. There is a lot of give-and-take as far as how the game will be run. As I gain more confidence at this level, I can see where I will soon be saying something along the lines of 'this is how I plan on doing X' and the WH can override me if he wishes. Right now, I'm taking the approach of 'how would you prefer me to do X'. In some cases the WH asks me what I would like and then we go with my preference. Clearly, you need to able to adjust to the crew you are working with.
Although the WH is the boss, I have control over most of the game adminstration - how fast the ball gets set, relay the ball from the sideline, marching off penalties, doublchecking the ref does not do anything foolish, confirming with the Linesman on penalities, digging for fumbles, often helping on short passes over the middle, etc.
I only made two mistakes I am aware of. The big one was on a long punt where we had two live ball fouls and did a re-kick down back around the 10. I put the ball on the wrong hash mark. My down indicator indicated the left hash, but I put the ball on the right hash. On some plays where a lot of things happening, the balls gets rushed in, the WH rushes the 'ready', some players asks me a question, etc I may forget to reset my marker. I second guessed myself when I reset the ball. I was wrong and should trust my ball marker next time or ask for help.
The second one was minor. On a change of possession a ball was marked on sideline. When placing the ball on the field, because players were blocking my view, I used cross-field mechanics to put the ball down. But, when the ball marked on the field I should have used the ball and not cross-field. Make sense to me and easy to fix going forward.
The White Hat told me more that once I showed 'good hustle' and I made his job easy during the game. I never told him I was a Candidate and this was only my second college game. I take this a compliment.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Losing my Virginity
Well I lost my college football virginity yesterday. It was a lot like losing the other kind of virginity. A lot of anticipation ending in an anti-climatic malaise... but this doesn't stop you from wanting more and more of it.
I was hoping to have some real juicy news about my first real game as a college official. I'm somewhat disappointed to report the game was actually pretty easy and I only made a few minor mistakes. There were five penalties and only two were live ball - illegal formation and a DPI. Although this contest was not a real test of my abilities, there is still a story to the game.
First, College games are long... the first quarter lasted 43 minutes! Both teams thought they could pass - they couldn't... and shouldn't.
Next, I was not the only rookie official. Our Linesperson (who was female) was also a rookie. She actually did a very good job. This was only the second game for the Field Judge. With only two vets on the crew, my expectations were low. Turns out, we did a great job.
One area that really slowed the game down was the ball mechanics. On almost every change of possession or long pass out of bounds, I had to call for a new ball when it should have been shuttled in immediately. This was partly due to the lack of experience of the wings, but mostly the ball boy on each side of the field was not paying attention. It often took 5-10 seconds to get the ball in. Multiply this times 25 change of possessions and it adds up.
I did throw one flag - ineligible receiver down field. Number 77 ran past me as I went to the LOS, then I saw the QB dump the pass to someone in the flats. I had not reached the LOS when the receiver, who was parallel with me, caught the ball. Number 77 was definitely past the expanded neutral zone, but the receiver was probably within it - more or less. We decided to waive it off, however the White Hat said it was a good flag, and should the same thing happen again, throw the flag. It is always better to throw a flag and wave it off than to let something go you should have called.
The game was tied at the end of regulation, so we went into overtime. The team that ultimately lost had a chance to win the game with a 34 yard field goal with 10 seconds remaining. Of course, they missed. My first college game and it goes into OT. At this point we were over 3 hours into this thing. It was hot, tired, and just wanted to get off the field.
As a crew, we screwed up the OT by carrying over the unused timeouts. Both teams had unused, so this was a tragic mistake. Carrying over is a HS rule, not a college rule. All six of us can be blamed for this blunder. The visiting coach even called us on it. His team ended up winning, so no real harm done. Our White Hat sent an email later that night saying we made a mistake.
That's it for my first real game. I wish there was more dirt on me screwing this all up.
Next weeks game is unfortunately with one these same teams. It always sucks working the same team two weeks in a row.
I was hoping to have some real juicy news about my first real game as a college official. I'm somewhat disappointed to report the game was actually pretty easy and I only made a few minor mistakes. There were five penalties and only two were live ball - illegal formation and a DPI. Although this contest was not a real test of my abilities, there is still a story to the game.
First, College games are long... the first quarter lasted 43 minutes! Both teams thought they could pass - they couldn't... and shouldn't.
Next, I was not the only rookie official. Our Linesperson (who was female) was also a rookie. She actually did a very good job. This was only the second game for the Field Judge. With only two vets on the crew, my expectations were low. Turns out, we did a great job.
One area that really slowed the game down was the ball mechanics. On almost every change of possession or long pass out of bounds, I had to call for a new ball when it should have been shuttled in immediately. This was partly due to the lack of experience of the wings, but mostly the ball boy on each side of the field was not paying attention. It often took 5-10 seconds to get the ball in. Multiply this times 25 change of possessions and it adds up.
I did throw one flag - ineligible receiver down field. Number 77 ran past me as I went to the LOS, then I saw the QB dump the pass to someone in the flats. I had not reached the LOS when the receiver, who was parallel with me, caught the ball. Number 77 was definitely past the expanded neutral zone, but the receiver was probably within it - more or less. We decided to waive it off, however the White Hat said it was a good flag, and should the same thing happen again, throw the flag. It is always better to throw a flag and wave it off than to let something go you should have called.
The game was tied at the end of regulation, so we went into overtime. The team that ultimately lost had a chance to win the game with a 34 yard field goal with 10 seconds remaining. Of course, they missed. My first college game and it goes into OT. At this point we were over 3 hours into this thing. It was hot, tired, and just wanted to get off the field.
As a crew, we screwed up the OT by carrying over the unused timeouts. Both teams had unused, so this was a tragic mistake. Carrying over is a HS rule, not a college rule. All six of us can be blamed for this blunder. The visiting coach even called us on it. His team ended up winning, so no real harm done. Our White Hat sent an email later that night saying we made a mistake.
That's it for my first real game. I wish there was more dirt on me screwing this all up.
Next weeks game is unfortunately with one these same teams. It always sucks working the same team two weeks in a row.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Home Work Before the Game
My first game will be this Saturday. And yes, I am anxious. Mostly because I am working with five other guys I have never met. I'm not worried about the game at all. I just don't want to make the crew look bad.
The game starts at 1:00 and we have to be dressed as ready at 10:45. This means I need to leave the house by 8:30 or so. I doubt I'll be home before 5:00pm. This will be a long day. I've heard some people complain about how much officials are paid. But when you break it down on a per hour basis, I'll only make the equivalent of $14/hr. Then I have to pay for gas and food. I'd do this for free, but the point is I ain't getting rich doing this that is for sure.
The White Hat for the game sent an email outlining what each of us will cover during the pre-game. Unlike my HS experience, during the College pre-game, each official leads a 3-5 minutes on a particular topic related to the position they are working that game. I was asked to cover player equipment, adornments, socks (yes, socks), spats, gloves, jewelry, tinted eye shields, etc. I am also covering how I will signal the ball is in the end zone and how I will be marching off penalties.
I'll finish my lecture in the next few days. I'll let you know how it goes.
The game starts at 1:00 and we have to be dressed as ready at 10:45. This means I need to leave the house by 8:30 or so. I doubt I'll be home before 5:00pm. This will be a long day. I've heard some people complain about how much officials are paid. But when you break it down on a per hour basis, I'll only make the equivalent of $14/hr. Then I have to pay for gas and food. I'd do this for free, but the point is I ain't getting rich doing this that is for sure.
The White Hat for the game sent an email outlining what each of us will cover during the pre-game. Unlike my HS experience, during the College pre-game, each official leads a 3-5 minutes on a particular topic related to the position they are working that game. I was asked to cover player equipment, adornments, socks (yes, socks), spats, gloves, jewelry, tinted eye shields, etc. I am also covering how I will signal the ball is in the end zone and how I will be marching off penalties.
I'll finish my lecture in the next few days. I'll let you know how it goes.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
The Season Finally Begins
Finally, the season started and it's great to be back on the field. I worked three HS games on a Saturday. It was friggin HOT... and the games sucked. I was White Hat for the first game and worked with three people I never worked with before.
This was the first game as a football official for my Line Judge. He later confessed he never even played football. It showed. He clearly does not understand the game.
Nothing really strange happened outside of a 'first touching' that one of the coaches just could not fathom. Understanding the depths of first touching is not unusual for a freshman coach. Or varsity for that matter.
In the Var game, the losing coach came unglued when there was a fumble forward on a punt return. He was screaming that you could not fumble forward and advance. We politely reminded the coach that although we were playing on Sat., we are still using Friday night rules. This team is on its 12th straight loss.
I did go to the college game and worked with the Umpire. He gave me a lot of good advice, tips, etc I'll share as the season goes along. The game was 48-7 at the half and the first half took 2:00 hours. It was a incomplete passing-fest, scoring-fest(at least for one team), penalty-fest, and lets-not-run-the-clock-fest.
This was the first game as a football official for my Line Judge. He later confessed he never even played football. It showed. He clearly does not understand the game.
Nothing really strange happened outside of a 'first touching' that one of the coaches just could not fathom. Understanding the depths of first touching is not unusual for a freshman coach. Or varsity for that matter.
In the Var game, the losing coach came unglued when there was a fumble forward on a punt return. He was screaming that you could not fumble forward and advance. We politely reminded the coach that although we were playing on Sat., we are still using Friday night rules. This team is on its 12th straight loss.
I did go to the college game and worked with the Umpire. He gave me a lot of good advice, tips, etc I'll share as the season goes along. The game was 48-7 at the half and the first half took 2:00 hours. It was a incomplete passing-fest, scoring-fest(at least for one team), penalty-fest, and lets-not-run-the-clock-fest.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Let's get this thing started
As far as College goes, we did have a scrimmage on Sat. but this was pretty lame. We only got about 45 minutes of work. It was really a waste of time.
One of the College White Hats invited me to his game Sat night so I can work with the Umpire. This Umpire has moved up to DII and is very well respected. He was in our HS association for many years until he moved to another area. This was great news because we do not have another UMP in our area I can work with.
Well, a HS crew meeting Monday, and the last College meeting on Tuesday... and then this all becomes way too real.
One of the College White Hats invited me to his game Sat night so I can work with the Umpire. This Umpire has moved up to DII and is very well respected. He was in our HS association for many years until he moved to another area. This was great news because we do not have another UMP in our area I can work with.
Well, a HS crew meeting Monday, and the last College meeting on Tuesday... and then this all becomes way too real.
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