I couldn’t resist setting the record straight with the SEC’s Communications Director.
SEC! SEC! SEC!
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UPDATE: More from your conference.
Here’s my question for Shaw: as you’re drawing these distinctions, how much does player intent enter into your analysis?
Get The Picture 
Classic. Can’t wait to see the response.
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Nice response Senator. You speak for all of us.
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Speaking of tweets, our friends at the AJC are KKKeepin’ it KKKlassy!
http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2013/10/23/ajc-ga-lottery-winner-can-can-get-40-acres-and-a-whole-lotta-mules
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I must have missed something. Who is blaming a loss on the refs?
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In part, we are.
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If you did not watch the game, you don’t know anything about the 2nd call.
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You obviously missed the game if you’re asking that question
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GATA Senator!
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With regards to the response from Shaw, what did we really expect? Part of the rule is meant to cover the Ref’s @$$, and so Shaw keeps in line with that sentiment. Does it make us feel any better? Not in the least. However, let this affect the MNC game, and I bet we see a change. Put this assenine rule out there in a primetime spot when the world is watching. Let enough egg fly and we’ll see something, I have no doubt.
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Sh!t, the bad call on Ramik Wilson affected the SECCG from which the BCSNCG winner has come for 7 straight years! We’re out now as a practical matter and we were favored to win the East. I’m betting a 1 conference loss Georgia team still would have won the East. By the time of the SECCG several injured players will be back. UGA almost won it last season. Who’s to say UGA wouldn’t have been the SEC Champion this year without the referees’ shenanigans?
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Whereas I understand your point, all eyes were not on this game from a National perspective. My point was, let this crap happen when everyone is paying attention, and the outcry will (hopefully) carry more weight.
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Although I appreciate your point…and agree the calls were bad, we stunk bad enough to lose it all on our own. The O is the same as last year, but this young D was very unlikely to match last year to get within 5 yds of a NC.
Love my Dawgs, but as they say in the racing forms, “no threat”
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Sorry but unless UGA somehow managed to be in the MNC game, you’ll never see a targeting call
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So if it’s overturned, then why in god’s name is it a penalty?
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To protect the feelings of the officials who called the penalty. Nothing more.
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Well, that’s not entirely true. It’s also to be able to point to something in defense of the inevitable concussions lawsuit. Better to do something stupid in the name of reducing potential liability than do too little in the name of reasonableness and fair play.
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Well it’s a big relief, and was surely a big help to us, that the one call was properly overturned. 15 yard breath Shaw.
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I feel like I should know the answer to this, but in a targeting ejection, the player in question only has to sit out the remainder of the game in which he committed the penalty, right? Is it correct that ejection for another reason (e.g. fighting) mandates suspension from all or part of the following game?
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Targeting is ejection for the current game. If foul occurs in 2nd half, ejection extends to first half of the next game.
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If the targeting ejection takes place in the second half, he sits out the first half of the next game.
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So, if I’m figuring this correctly, in effect, the penalty costs a player anywhere from a full game (less 1 play) to half a game (plus 1 play).
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right…in your first example, it happens on the opening kick-off. In the second example, it happens on the last play of the game (although I could see that they might step in and suspend the player for the entire next game if its an extreme situation after time has expired in your hypothetical).
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I’m not even sure it has to be first and last plays of a game, so much as first and last plays of any half. One observation from this is that the suspension policy favors greater aggressiveness at the ends of each half.
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The penalty was not properly overturned. The ejection was properly overturned. The penalty was improperly called and enforced. Ignoring the difference does not mean there is no difference.
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Exactly!
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A-freaking-men!!
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The silence that would follow the bewildered looks on the faces of the SEC officials, when faced with this conundrum, would bring a tear to my eye..
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The targeting rule must then have two facets. One is intent and the other execution.
Since we did not actually strike the opposing player in an illegal fashion, the execution part of the rule and subsequent ejection was overruled.
However SEC officials were also able to read the player’s minds and judge the intent to strike the player in an illegal manner, therefore the 15 yard penalty remains.
That is the only way that one can make sense of it. And by ‘making sense’ I am being generous to a fault.
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Let me give you the SEC/Shaw’s response to your question, Senator:
Intent? A player intended to target if one of our officials throws a flag for targeting. Feel better? You can be rest-assured that the ejection is warranted because we threw the flag. Just to make you feel extra secure in the infallibility of the SEC’s process, all targeting calls will be reviewed by a replay official who will assume intent (b/c the official threw the flag) and will uphold any targeting penalty in which some part of the targeted player gets touched above his belly-button. If we call this the “gray area,” will that make you feel better? God knows, we’re trying.
Sorry, we can’t overturn the 15 yard, game-changing penalty though….we’d like to, but the “purists” wouldn’t like it. I’m sure they’re fine with the rest of this bullshit though.
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Steve Shaw has always been at war with Eurasia.
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Eastasia friend.
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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous….and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.” G. Orwell.
Eventually, I knew that would have something to do with targeting and penalty
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If the SEC is Big Brother, I’m pretty sure I got scheduled for re-education on Saturday afternoon.
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Saturday re-education camp was a two-phase four-step process:
a. drop trou;
b. bend over;
c. this won’t hurt much and
d. here’s some Kleenex
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What were the other two targeting calls in other SEC games? Would like to compare myself to see if I can tell whether Drew’s was, in Shaw’s eyes, clearly targeting or in the gray area.
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One was on the very first play of the Florida-Missouri game and I believe the other occurred in the SC-Tenn game.
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http://www.bleacherreport.com/articles/1817169-floridas-cody-riggs-south-carolinas-kadetrix-marcus-ejected-for-targeting
You are correct, senator. UF’s Riggs got the maximum sentence, as WF Dawg ably calculated above. From the gifs in the link, it’s pretty obvious that Shaw was referring to Drew as the gray area play.
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“…how much does player intent enter into your analysis?” How fast does football played at full speed enter into your analysis? How is a defensive player supposed to discern the position of the opponents body, angle he is running, etc. when both are moving as fast as they can? What is the defensive player to do, just pull off and not hit the guy? THAT”S HIS JOB!
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Even “IF” these penalties had not been called, we are still not good enough or consistent enough to even begin to compete with a CNS Bama team, so we are only kidding ourselves again. UGA will “NEVER” win a MNC with CMR!
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You’ve already made this point. There’s no reason to hijack a thread to make it again.
That’s not an observation, by the way. It’s friendly advice from the blog administrator.
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Boy, losing to Vanderbilt sure sucks.
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Good thing never is in quotes, I almost took you seriously for a second but then I remembered 2003, 2007, and 2012. I’d rather have Richt as a coach than you as a “fan”.
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This should be the copy and paste response to any of the “fire CMR idiots”, unless video footage comes out of CMR diving at the knees of our players while in Knoxville..
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A much clear cut case was in the FSU vs. Clemson match up. A Clemson player came off the edge after the pass was off and leaped helmet first into the FSU QB and helmets collided. That is clear cut Mr. Shaw. That should be shown as the penultimate example. What Drew did was grey enough to just call it a personal foul/roughing the passer. Wilson’s was just plain good football you @$$ hat!
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This should be shown as the second to last example?
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He deos not seem to understand the rule if he thinks it was “properly overturned” The 15 yard penalty was still applied. Doesn’t seem to be overturned to me. Only partially modified.
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What about all the helmet to helmet hits that were not called but fall under this rule? This rule is so inconsistently applied.
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I always thought Shaw was an excellent official, and would be good at his new position. I was wrong.
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He’s now a mouthpiece for Slive, who welcomes the opportunity to have more control of the outcome of games.
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Actually, Steve Shaw as Director of SEC Officiating is a bad thing because it took a good referee (perhaps the only good referee in the SEC) and turned him into a bureaucratic mouthpiece beholden to the conference office. Whatever integrity the guy had is gone now. Are you happy with yourself in your new position now, Steve?
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Next year they’ll be switching to velcro pull flags.
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Maybe the refs don’t like this new process to a point of emphasis either (the rule is not new, just the instruction to call it more and have the replay review is new). Maybe they are going to call it more to create a firestorm hoping some modifications happen. Maybe this is simply a form of protest.
Maybe monkeys will fly out of….well, you know.
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Let’s not get carried away. There was influence. A calculated form of insurrection? No. More likely a haphazard interpretation of marching orders. Just can’t figure out why asinine applications of new rules always seems to nail us.
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It’s all for future litigation. Look what we did we changed the game to make it safer. We won’t modify the outdated equipment because the equipment guys give the schools a lot of money in kind. Hey those sensors are expensive and then you would have to make the trainer actually pull someone out of the game whose brain is scrambled. Why should we do this when we can just call a few arbitrary penalties and further make the game about the refs and not the players. I know I love to see Penn and Curles strut their stuff.
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Wilson’s hit is textbook example of how to correctly hit someone. Headup, shoulder to shoulder, drive through the body without launching and wrapping up. His example is the reason they instituted this damn rule. he should of been rewarded for following the textbook execution of a proper hit/tackle, not penalized. His hit should be shown in every locker room college football….
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Not only that, it was Ramik’s best play ever,,,
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This!
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And the ref who threw the flag was on the Vandy sideline. The one nearest the play did not see it as a penalty. Home Cookin’?
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I feel certain that he was influenced by the Vandy bench to make the call.
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Funny. Hopefully, a sign of things to come.
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Can this ejection penalty only be called on defensive players? What about a running back lowering his head or a blindside block?
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If so, I’m sure it will involve another Georgia player getting tossed.
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I believe it can, though hard to think of an example of when a defender becomes “defenseless” other than maybe during an interception or similar action. It will be called on Gurley if they can find a way though.
Actually, Murray ought to go spear an Auburn player on the last play of the game. Revenge for all his career non-calls, and then we start the era of Hutson Mason early against the nats.
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If they really want of control this targeting thing, I suggest a flag and ejection for any player “considering” targeting an opponent. Just think of the possibilities….James Franklin can point to a player on the Georgia sideline and put a bug in the refs ear that “he’s considering targeting when he gets back in the game”.. A brand new way to screw the Dawgs!!!
Seriously..we have gotten away from the question of why on the first flag, was the official pulling the flag before the hit. That’s the question tht needs answering. That points to somehting ominous.
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Bad calls, but we have seen them over the years. Time ot move on to Florida. If “we” had made any of those third downs we burn the clock and some field. They are 4-3, they can change alot if they get wired and play as a team. Injuries have impacted the team, prep, and etc. But “we” had some time to get ready for Vandy “in the areana”.
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ARe there any takers that the Gators return a punt or k/o for a TD. Or they block a punt of FG try or we screw up one with a fumble? The deviation from the mean. Gators line up in a 4-3 3 deep zone. Shut down the run game. AM gets flustered and throws 3 picks. “We” got to focus and execute bettere in the next game.
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“Wilson’s hit is textbook example of how to correctly hit someone.”
It really was an almost perfect tackle, and some fuckwit SEC official 10 yards away flagged it, not the ref right on the play.
Fast forward to the next day, when the Falcons’ William Moore laid almost the exact same hit on a Tampa reciever that dislodged the ball. Ref threw a flag at first, was told he was wrong by the rest of the crew, and the penalty was waved off. Which means no new set of downs. How does the NCAA justify a replay saying no penalty, but then gives the yardage? What kind of nonsensical crap is that?
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