I really, truly am tired of whining about the officiating… but then I come across this blurb from David Hale’s blog,
Cox also said that what Tennessee Tech was doing to get Georgia to jump was clearly against the rules and that Georgia’s players pointed it out to the refs several times, but the refs refused to call it. So during practice this week, Cox said that Stacy Searels is making a point of mimicking Cox’s cadence to try to get the line to jump…
and can’t help but wonder what Penn Wagers and Co. are getting paid to do exactly.
The reason I find that exasperating is because it fed right into the team policy of benching players who committed penalties. That’s fine, but there’s a price you pay when the offensive line is getting killed with false start calls.
The policy of pulling a player from the game after a penalty will continue again this week, Richt said, but he wasn’t sure if he would stick to keeping players out for the entire series. Joe Cox said the constant changes last week made thing particularly problematic on the offensive line, with A.J. Harmon coming in at one point having no idea what was going on.
Well, that would hardly make him the only one on the field last Saturday with that problem.
Get The Picture 
man i hate penn wagers.
refused to call it? if that’s true, that’s some serious bullshit.
is that really against the rules? it might be kind of mean, but im not sure i see any reason for it to be illegal anyway. football has some strange rules, so it’s possible i’ve just never heard of this one. maybe penn wagers and his crew haven’t heard of it either?
just… weird.
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It is against the rules for the Defense to simulate the offenses snap count. It is not against the rules for the defense to shout out its own calls so it comes down to the officials and us against them has not been a fair fight for years.
The UF center in the LSU game was jerking his head sharply to the left just prior to snapping the ball and LSU’ s D jump a couple of times until the nose tackle laid out the UF center while he was doing it. Then and only then did the UF center quit the move.
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There’s only one thing that pisses me off more than the penalties and that’s AJ Harmon coming in clueless.
Are you kidding me?
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My thoughts, too. Just absurd.
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“with A.J. Harmon coming in at one point having no idea what was going on.”
Maybe we should give Harmon the benefit of the doubt because (1) he probably still thinks he plays defense and, after all, (2) who on our team other than the other A.J. does have any idea of what is going on?
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Well played, sir.
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I’m not ready to become a referee conspiracy theorist regarding the SEC office yet, mainly because I think they are inept and consistently get exposed.
That said, Penn Wagers, as an individual, has completely tried to screw Georgia for years. This is just beyond rediculous.
Former Redcoat, it is against the rules for exactly the reason witnessed Saturday. It disrupts the flow of te game and unnecessarily penalizes one side.
Why didn’t we try a silent count?
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Penn Wagers was on the grassy knoll.
Just win. Quit whining about big bad TTU causing false starts. Give me a break.
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Screw off, LH. What they were doing was illegal, it was pointed out to officials, who are ostensibly required to call penalties, and they did not do it.
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Boy, didn’t you learn your lesson before? Why wouldn’t you want teams to play by the rules? No question these Georgia boys have become a whiney bunch, but for once they have a legit complaint. That is just cheating, and very obvious at that. Even a fool like ol’ Penn should know this. May have to give him a gut shot too!
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That Wagers guy is a pain in the a$$. Boy would I like for him to referee a game in Havana and to not call that sh*t.
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Penn Wagers was not on the grassy knoll. Penn Wagers and his crew did not miss any calls last weekend. Penn Wagers is an excellent referee and his crew is an excellent crew, as are all SEC officials. The SEC referees are having a great year. You got that? I SAID–YOU GOT THAT?
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“More grits for the SEC officiating mill”
Area 51, New Mexico, The SEC Officiating Training and Proving Grounds
Unbeknownst to most The SEC has a ‘Top Secret-Cleared for Ridiculous’ training and proving grounds for its officiating crew members inside a mildly radioactive portion of Area 51 which is, not by coincidence, close to where the bookmakers are in Vegas. At that training and proving grounds officiating crew applicants are well-fed with speckled heart grits, slab bacon, JimmyDean biskits and gravy to keep them from getting homesick for being out of Dixie. Before chow the first morning they are put through a gruelling sequence of three side-straddle hops, two push-ups, and walking in place for fifteen seconds. Then they are lined up and directed to repeat the phrase they are given by expert WAC officials so that they may command respect and find the key to ‘good’ officiating which according to Commisar Slive is equal to if not better than most of the other haphazard stuff that goes on in other NFL feeder conferences around this great college football loving country of ours.
Usually the training sessions are closed and are for their eyes only but recently some malcontent whistleblower leaked what happens in a typical NFSW, and as a matter of fact not safe for anything except for Little Wayne’s lyricist, first day of training about how our guys are hard at work to find the key to the ‘good’ officiating that we, or at least Florida and Alabama, get the benefit of each week…
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In the 2008 NCAA rules (which I’m guessing this one didn’t change for the ’09 season) is this little gem, under Rule 7-1, Snapping and Passing the Ball, number three below covers what TTU was alleged to be doing.
Defensive Team Requirements
ARTICLE 5. The defensive team requirements are as follows:
a. After the ball is ready for play and before the ball is snapped:
1. No player may touch the ball except when moved illegally as in Rule 7-1-3-a-1, nor may any player contact an opponent or in any other way interfere with him. An official shall sound his whistle immediately (A.R. 7-1-5-I-III) [S7 and S18].
2. No player may enter the neutral zone causing an offensive lineman to react immediately. An official shall sound his whistle immediately [Rules 2-18-2-a and 7-1-3-a-4-(c) Exception] (A.R. 7-1-3-VIII and
IX) [S7 and S18].
3. No player shall use words or signals that disconcert opponents when they are preparing to put the ball in play. No player may call defensive signals that simulate the sound or cadence of (or otherwise interfere with) offensive starting signals. An official shall sound his whistle immediately [S7 and S21].
4. Player(s) aligned in a stationary position within one yard of the line of scrimmage may not make quick or abrupt actions that are not part
of normal defensive player movement in an obvious attempt to cause an offensive player(s) to foul (false start). An official shall sound his
whistle immediately [S7 and S21].
PENALTY—Dead-ball foul. Five yards from the succeeding spot [S7, S18 or S21].
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In case you were wondering, here’s how Cox explained it: “You could see it on film. The guy right in front of Ben Jones — there was one clip where, it was when we were down on the goal line, normally when they were saying something, the line would shift, but you could see the guy right in front of Ben Jones in a three point stance, you could see him (flinch) and yell something, and that’s when the whole line moves, and no one on their defense moved. And that’s a penalty. He said, “Set, go.” I remember that. And we all pointed right at him, looking at the referee saying, ‘He’s yelling out the snap count.'”
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Dang. You beat me to it.
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It’s the same in the 2009 rules (my post, below). I can’t find the link, but I downloaded the 2009 book at the beginning of the season.
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Click to access Football_Rules_5_2204c0005d-845f-4813-8391-54f15136079d.pdf
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When describing the weather on the summary document.. it’s labeled as ‘positively autumnal’… Why the positively?
Sorry.. carry on everyone.
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I couldn’t find a specific rule against what they’ve been talking about. There are general rules covering “unfair tactics” and “unfair acts” (Rule 9, Section 2, Articles 2 and 3), where you can find such things as the prohibition against “simulated replacements or substitutions” used to confuse the opponent (like what Tech did earlier this year against — was it Clemson?). There’s a catch-all provision in Article 3 for an “obviously unfair act not specifically covered by the rules”.
Oops. My bad. Found it conveniently in the Rule (7) regarding “Snapping and Passing the Ball”:
Rule 7-1-5-a-3: “No [defensive] player shall use words or signals that disconcert opponents when they are preparing to put the ball in play. No player may call defensive signals that simulate the sound or cadence of (or otherwise interfere with) offensive starting signals. An official shall sound his whistle immediately.”
It’s a dead-ball foul, penalized by 5 yards. I reckon it’s like being offside vocally.
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If you want to stop that kind of stuff, then jack the guy up before the snap, like LSU did on two consecutive plays when UF’s center was bobbing his head.
It forced the refs hand. They began to penalize UF for the move.
Not surprisingly, UF stopped doing it.
Of course, LSU has a savvy DC and a head coach with an attitude.
Not sure if this UGA staff has it in them to force the issue.
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/unrelated/
Senator, I don’t know if you say Smart Football’s post on the run-and-shoot by Hemlock, but it was a pretty interesting read including the comments. There were some interesting comments about Paul Johnson that related to this.
My guess is that Hemlock was at Nebraska during the last regime.
It got me thinking about UGA & Bobo and having a system and committing to it despite the success. I think all of us have felt Bobo is sometimes very good at leading the offense, but at times, he’d do just as good drawing plays out of a hat.
Enjoy.
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thanks guys. it seems like a rule to stop a team from being annoying and exploiting something that just about every team would fall for.
just don’t think i’ve ever actually seen someone do it before. and i’ve see alotttttt football. grew up in valdosta and was watching us win national championships in elementary school and state championships in middle school. and watching FSU and UGA. and Dallas and Atlanta.
guess it didn’t happen to often. it’s certainly not very sporting, at the very least.
back to what i was saying –
i HATE penn wagers.
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