I love opening day. I make my preparations, get in the car and cruise up to Athens surrounded by hundreds of happy Dawg fans all looking forward to the same experience. I park, spin up some tunes, spread out the chairs, do the beer and fried chicken thing and speculate on what’s coming with friends. The expectations grow. The time comes to pack it all up and take that pleasurable first-of-the-season walk to Sanford Stadium. The crowd grows. We’re all excited. I get inside, go down to my seat and take it all in. Vince Dooley walks in a special football and hands it to Allison Schmitt, who takes it up to a big crowd assembled at mid-field for the coin toss. It’s all good. And then I see this man’s puss on the big board.
Why, SEC? Why you gotta go and spoil my day like that?
Get The Picture 
I was happy when a ref had to go into the tunnel in the third I believe. Then I was sad because I realized it wasn’t Penn and I had wished harm on someone undeserving. Not proud of my actions.
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That’s alright. The talking head on TV replayed to show the UGA player stepping onto the field when the ref ran into him. The talking head said that players should stand back from the line during the game and it was the player’s fault. Pome d’ Rue. The player was entering the playing field, the ref didn’t look where he was running.
The player was kind enough to help him since he was bending over him and asking if he was “OK?”.
Then again, he might have thought it was Penn and was saying, “Watch where you’re going, asshole.”
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Man…when I saw the title of this thread, I thought someone might have murdered Buzz. Maybe VT will take care of it on Monday night.
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Nice.
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When we saw that, my brother and I went over/under on number of plays before a penalty on us? I went with 2, but I believe it was actually 4….
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Just fyi, the game didn’t sell out. It was 300 short.
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Andre Ware said during the telecast that Mr. Wagers was one of the best refs in the country. When I heard that it made me think of GTP!
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Your first problem was believing anything that comes out of Andre Ware’s mouth. Listening to him call a game hurts.
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I don’t know if it was him or his counterpart that exclaimed of Morgan’s first PAT, “And he splits the uprights!” Um, yeah, after he clanked it off the left one. Also, how much research does it take to learn that “Todd Graham” isn’t our defensive coordinator?
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You’ve never heard of Grantham”s Crackers? It’s easy to get mixed up.
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Man I hate that guy, last year he was regulated to the lower tier games, hopefully that will continue to be the case. We can survive his antics more readily against Buffalo et al than we can against someone decent. He should be investigated he honestly tries to influence games.
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I love relegation. In general, it is an excellent idea. Maybe next year we can get him relegated to the ACC or something. By the way, Penn, put your arms in the air when it’s a touchdown, you dufus.
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Apparently signaling a TD with your arms is passe’. I went to the Texas-Wyoming game last night and the officials never put their arms up. Somebody made a stupid decision. I blame Penn.
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I blame Penn…..I hope you haven’t copyrighted that phrase because I’m going to steal it regardless. That is a mantra that can be worked into many discussions unless it’s all made up and flagellant. +1
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If his arms are in the air, he would be regulated.
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I too was bummed when I saw the hurt ref wasn’t Wagers. God, I hate that prick. Any surprise Buffalo was allowed to grab our D lines jerseys all day?
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Some of players said they heard booing during the two Buffalo TD drives. The fans weren’t booing the dawgs, they were booing the refs. Dawgs would have had two or three more sacks – including the first touchdown pass – had Wagers and crew removed there heads from their rectal cavity. The long punt return was sprung by two blatant blocks in the back as was the long run on 94 yd drive.
SEC officiating is embarrassing in general.
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Crown was definitely booing the refs, not the players.
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Agreed, one time the hold happened so blatantly in the open filed I figured it had to be called, but wasn’t. Crow was definitely booing refs. (although that last few minutes of the half….!!)
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Well, what’s the deal on Wagers then? Is he another of these GT guys that has insinuated himself into the SEC officiating ranks?
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The only time any of us should see his picture is when we look at the back of a milk carton. He truly enjoys screwing UGA over. Is it true that he went to Tech and lives in Columbia, South Carolina? What a worthless shred of human debris.
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He’s from Summerville, S.C. but went to Trident Technical College (wherever that is)
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Thanks for the info. I still hate that guy anyway. I bet he is a bachelor-like his father.
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Charleston
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He’s a Tee Tee er?
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Well, looks like I should just have read on! Always such good info on here.
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Here’s the question, is Wagers a worse ref than Brent Musberger is an announcer….what’s the over and under?
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That is like setting odds on which pig’s asshole smells worse!
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Vern is worse than Brent, What is Britney doing?
Actual text sent Saturday “been a good weekend Verne (Lundquist) is in Ireland, BS.. U (Boise) lost and Wagers rotation is for a cupcake”
Glad we had Wagers for this game rather than something important like Vandy.
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“What is Britney doing?” is Mike Patrick’s signature line, not Uncle Verne’s.
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Mike Patrick was so good earlier in his career, but not anymore.
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I stand corrected, I was thinking it was the 1st black out but it was the Bama OT game. All 3 announcers mentioned suck.
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It is interesting, and totally correct, to consider that the Vandy game WILL be important.
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… South Carolina = Lucky
… Vanderbilt – Underrated
… Auburn = Sucks
… Alabama = Might be the real deal in the West
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“… Alabama = Might be the real deal in the West”
Hah, hah, hah, tooooooo funny……MIGHT BE?
I assume that was purposeful understatement….I still want to know when Meeeechigan moved to Division 1.
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I can still hear that insipid, weasel voice, as Shockley is driving us through the night, down the field, for the essential touchdown that we desperately need in 2005.
“Pass interference. Offense. Number 81. Repeat Second Down.”
For the love of God. For the love of Leonard Pope. For the love of Tra Battle’s concussed brain and 4th and 10 and that goddamn slant over the middle and the noodled arm Brandon Cox…keep that flag in your pocket you over-officious jerk.
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My advise to you is to start drinking heavily….
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Amen, Otter.
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Wagers would be a great NCAA investigator. Completely random, uneven punishment.
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Two officiating questions from yesterday:
1. When our receiver was forced out of bounds by the DB using his hands while the ball is in the air? I know the boundary is the DBs friend but he moved our WR from 2 yards in bounds to a full yard out of bounds and it took place in the open.
2. I think the WR and DB have an equal (somewhat) right to the ball in the air but when the Buffalo receiver realized we were going to intercept an under thrown pass he went through our DB and broke up the play. There was too much contact to be missed so, is it different for the offensive player, or shouldn’t it have been offensive pass interference?
And a comment on the new helmet rule: are you sheeting me? That is the worst rule change I believe I have ever seen. In the day of coddling every possible thing in our society, even this is hard to believe. How does sending a player to the sideline to buckle their helmet back do anything to protect players’ safety retroactively? Promise you this will become a deliberate tactic by defensive coaches to get key players off the field at critical times. Clemson’s QB had to miss three plays, two when they really needed him, in last night’s game.
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Note: Rephrase the first question in your mind to make it a real question. Stayed up to see if UTEP could pull the upset and didn’t have enough sleep.
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Auburn was doing it deliberately last night. Boyd even changed his helmet and had it cranked down, it still came off nearly taking his ear with it. It saved Auburn from being beaten by 4 more points.
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Riping a player’s headgear of is against the rules. That would be dirty play and we all know that the Wartigersmen would never play dirty.
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LOL. They are the one “SEC team” I enjoy seeing lose. But then again, I expelled them from the SEC two years ago when the NCAA and SEC decided to not enforce the rules and sneakily collaborated with The aU and reinstated Cammy as if everyone couldn’t see that charade. By not being a member any longer, I can legitimately enjoy their losses OOC.
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You know Mac I still do not understand that. A player being shopped by a family member was and is still against NCAA and SEC rules. They caught Cammie’s father red-handed shopping his kid. Automatic suspension required–period. But both the SEC (which initially tried to sweep it under the rug) and the NCAA completely ignore the rules and let the Newtons and Auburn off the hook. Why? This from an organization that suspended AJ Green for 4 games for selling his own property. I have always felt that what really occurred was that Auburn simply outbid Mississippi State for Newton’s services. Cam and his poppa got paid about $200,000 by Auburn. That’s why Newton went to Auburn: “Cause the money’s too much.”
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Dead on Cojones, it was an open and shut case but they muffed it. And the orchestrated suspension then instant reinstatement shows they were in collusion. Just pathetic.
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Meant to ask you the other day : what’s an “igersman”?
Mac, your #1 question was the result of Murray missing him with the pass beyond the sideline. If he had 6-ft arms, he might have had a chance with his feet inbounds, but it would still be a tossup.
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As to your second question, I thought it was an obvious case of offensive PI.
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No question about it, at least from what I could see from the many replays, but then what do I know?
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A great deal more than the announcers. They thought it was a great play on the O player’s behalf.
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I had the same exact observations regarding 1 and 2. The DB “helping” our WR out of bounds could possibly be explained by incidental contact. Not saying it’s right, just that it could. Maybe.
As far as Buffalo’s WR on the underthrown ball…I was questioning whether they did away with Offensive Pass Interference and I just missed the rules change somehow. Especially when the announcers didn’t mention it, and in fact, were praising the WR.
The officiating was just horrible yesterday. I’m pretty sure our defenders jerseys are at least a size bigger after all the stretching they were subjected to yesterday.
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In response to #1 I couldn’t tell if the ball was deemed uncatchable since he caught it several steps out of bounds anyways, but that amount of contact was crazy.
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The reason for the rule is to get the players to buckle their chinstraps tight so that their helmets won’t fall off on routine hits in an effort to prevent concussions. Getting your helmet ripped off and deliberately removing your helmet are both penalties. The 1 play sit out rule is to penalize the player. IMO it makes complete sense. Like any other rule, it could be taken advantage of but is illegal and “should” be penalized if caught. And bravo to the hitter if he knocks a properly worn helmet off of someone.
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I am all for player safety, and preventing concussions is right at the top of the list. I just don’t see how it has any impact on safety to have him sit out a play after the fact. I cans see having him penalized if his chin strap isn’t buckled before a play begins but concussions do not seem to be caused because a helmet flew off.
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The only good thing about the officiating was they didn’t call penalties on us usually they let them slide and call us for nothing.
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Did anyone else notice that Big Blues defenders were piling on after each tackle. They made it look like they fell down but after awhile it happened too many times to be an accident. Unlucky for them the Alabama runners were tougher than any they will face all year. All in all most of the refs sucked this wekend.
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The announcers for the GA game wore rose colored glasses. They even put up a mug shot of Penn W. and gave him a flowering review as “one of the best officials in the SEC”…go ahead and puke, I did. They criticised nothing, Every call was good.
BTW…please see my post concerning CMR and the refs, way down in the comments column on the Senator’s “Observation from the GA/Buff game”.
I would have put them here, but didn’t know this thread was on this subject.
In short, I wrote that it’s time for CMR to take off the kid gloves with the refs and pull a Bobby Cox. His team deserves it.
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