Tag: Pac-12 refs

Lincoln Riley gives firm, defiant response to roughing-the-passer calls which hurt USC

Lincoln Riley could not have been clearer in his opinion of the two roughing-the-passer calls made by #Pac12Refs against the Trojans versus Utah.

When a coach answers questions in front of the assembled press right after a game, he does not have the benefit of looking at the full game film and being able to make careful observations of plays. He can’t use the coach’s clicker to rewind the tape and break down each play in all its elements and its smallest components.

Once a coach is able to look at the film, he can offer a much more precise and informed verdict on various plays: how well they were executed, how well the opposition scouted out his scheme, and how poorly they were officiated by the Pac-12 refs.

What did Lincoln Riley have to say about the two roughing-the-passer penalties which went against USC versus Utah on Saturday? Find out what he said about that topic and various other USC notes of importance:

One thing USC and Utah fans can definitely agree on: officiating is broken, and fixes are available

Claims about officiating are the surest way to annoy rival fan bases … so let’s try to do something productive: Utah fans should agree with this specific reform proposal.

We are now three days removed from the USC-Utah game. Was it really just a spur of the moment reaction to say that officiating decided the game and that Pac-12 refs hammered the Trojans?

Nope. I still genuinely feel that while there was no conspiracy on the part of Pac-12 game officials, their impact on the game was still disproportionate.

They admitted they were wrong in levying a targeting penalty on USC in the fourth quarter, but somehow failed to rescind the 15-yard penalty attached to a roughing-the-passer call which — without targeting — did not meet any definition or criterion of a personal-foul penalty.

It wasn’t late. It wasn’t out of bounds. It didn’t involve helmet contact of any kind. Why was the 15-yard penalty kept in place? It was more than just missing a call, as on a holding penalty; this was procedural malpractice with a chance to review the play on replay (something which also doesn’t apply to holding penalties, which went both ways in this game).

That is uniquely bad, and it carries more weight in assessing the severity of calls against one team and for another.

Utah fans have predictably reacted with withering contempt for such a line of thought. That’s fine. Any opposing fan base would react the same way. I don’t expect anything else, and I certainly don’t think anything less of Utah fans. This is normal and natural.

Having gotten into a dust-up about officiating, and now that emotions have poured out for the past 72 hours, let’s move forward and try to do something productive.

Utah fans might think we’re whiners here, but we’re actually interested in improving the product of college football. What follows is a collection of reform proposals which can actually address the problem of bad officiating and a flawed procedure for getting calls right:

Pac-12 refs made themselves the center of another firestorm in USC’s loss to Utah

The debate surrounding two atrocious roughing-the-passer calls on #USC is a separate issue. Everyone agrees on this: #Pac12 refs were horrible in Trojans-Utah.

We have discussed the two brutal roughing-the-passer calls which went against USC on Saturday night against Utah. We’re not going to relitigate them here. However, there is a larger point to make about the Pac-12 officiating crew in Salt Lake City, and about Pac-12 refs in general:

They were really bad in Week 7. Really bad … and not just from a USC perspective.

Journalists who were on site at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City were laughing in the press box at how bad the officiating crew was. Time-clock problems, administrative problems, and other matters beyond getting calls right (which the crew obviously struggled to do) were all part of a giant mess.

Here’s how journalists and analysts reacted to the unfolding trainwreck in Salt Lake City:

Utah made many great plays, but let’s be real: Pac-12 refs crushed USC in this game

In a 1-point game, two obviously awful calls handed Utah 14 points. We can debate other calls, but two roughing penalties totally changed two Utah possessions.

Let’s be clear to say this, just so no one can perceive that we won’t give credit where due: Utah’s tandem of tight end Dalton Kincaid and quarterback Cam Rising were spectacular against USC on Saturday night in Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

Those two young men are celebrating a victory over the Trojans, and no one should tell them they didn’t deserve it. They did absolutely everything they could, and so no one should tell them they didn’t earn their win. Utah certainly fought and scratched for this victory in a game it trailed by 14 points earlier in the proceedings. Utah stepped up, and that’s definitely part of the story here.

Yet: USC was wronged. Severely. We can all admit that, too.

Let’s go through the most important details of Saturday night’s debacle in Salt Lake City:

Social media reacts to Pac-12 refs big blunder that gave WSU extra plays

The Pac-12 refs might have outdone themselves this time.

Just when you think the Pac-12 Conference has fixed its referee problem, they seem to just get worse.

In the second quarter of the Oregon-Washington State game, the officials lost track of the down situation and ultimately the Cougars lost a down. But instead of fixing it right then and there, they waited for two plays where WSU eventually had to punt.

You’re not supposed to be able to go back a couple of plays and pretty much go back in time that far to correct something like that. So after the Ducks had received a punt, Washington State was able to have a 3rd-and-17 all over again.

Fortunately for Oregon, it didn’t cost the Ducks as WSU failed to convert the third down, again, and had to punt, again.

On the telecast, official “expert” claims the replay official can determine something like this as long as possession didn’t change hands. Did it did change hands with the punt and no one has ever seen a situation like this before.

Only in the Pac-12.

Mykael Wright still isn’t over the Pac-12 refs in Oregon’s loss to Stanford

Do you remember the numerous crazy flags at the end of Stanford vs. Oregon that cost the Ducks the game? Mykael Wright does, and he isn’t over it.

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Hopefully by now, you’ve been able to move on from the Oregon Ducks’ brutal loss to the Stanford Cardinal back at the start of October. At the time, the No. 3 Ducks fell to the unranked Cardinal on the road, 31-24 in OT after a game where offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead was sidelined due to a medical emergency, and RB CJ Verdell was lost for the season with a dislocated ankle and broken fibula.

The loss felt like Oregon coming back to earth after their triumphant win over Ohio State earlier in the year, and while they were able to bounce back and win 5-straight games after, it was still a tough one to swallow, particularly for how it happened.

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If you’ll remember, the Pac-12 referees were characteristically bad in that game. With the Ducks leading 24-17 late in the game, Stanford was trying to drive for a game-tying touchdown. A bogus roughing-the-passer penalty on Kayvon Thibodeaux and a completely missed false-start on Stanford gave the Cardinal a goal-to-go opportunity from the 4-yard line with less than 10 seconds left. That’s when the most egregious call of all came.

With no time on the clock, CB Mykael Wright was called for a holding penalty in the endzone, giving Stanford one untimed down, where they were able to convert and tie the game, sending it to OT. We know what happened then, with the Ducks being sent packing after their first loss of the season.

It’s a swinging doors moment for Oregon in the 2021 season and something that Wright is still not over.

Now that Wright is heading off to the NFL, he may soon be able to put that memory past him, but it’s fair to still be salty about a victory being snatched away from you. I know that many Oregon fans can agree.

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REACTION: Twitter goes crazy over Pac-12 refs and blown calls in Oregon’s 31-24 OT loss to Stanford

The referees had a lot of “questionable” calls in Oregon’s loss to Stanford, causing Twitter and social media to go crazy.

You never want to blame the referees for a loss because there are plenty of other reasons why Oregon suffered its first loss of the season, a 31-24 defeat to Stanford in overtime.

But on the Cardinal’s last offensive drive in regulation, there were plenty of “questionable” decisions from the Pac-12 officiating crew. From Kayvon Thibodeaux’s targeting call that turned out to be an ejection to Brandon Dorlus being flagged for roughing the passer where he barely touched the quarterback.

Then the most egregious call came on 4th-and-goal where Mykael Wright was called for pass interference in the end zone with no time remaining. It looked like Wright was pushed instead of him doing the pushing. The call caught the eyes of people on Twitter, and rightly so.

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