Generally speaking, this is more a condemnation of SEC officiating than anything to do with Alabama.
https://twitter.com/tj_lsudad/status/1049464483075317760
I saw three plays in Sanford Stadium Saturday night when a Vandy offensive lineman grabbed the leg of a Georgia defender as he went by. No penalties were called. Not that that’s particularly unique to Georgia, either.
I just wish Steve Shaw would man up and explain what exactly SEC refs consider offensive line holding these days.
Get The Picture 
Takes me back to last year’s championship game when our defensive players were being tackled from behind with no flag being thrown.
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Wasn’t it 2012 when Alabama didn’t have a holding call go against them the entire season? For Bama fans who believe they don’t get preferential treatment (or worse, think the refs are out to get them), that’s just delusional.
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Barn and LSU have been tracking that forever. I realize Bama is more disciplined and prolly doesn’t commit as many, but no one can get that few holding calls. Just missed calls where they didn’t should be higher. I believe in some leeway here for all teams, but when the jersey is stretched, or the DE is trying to tap out, you really should call it.
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“or the DE is trying to tap out,”
I got a good laugh out of that comment.
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Out of all the egregious no calls, the most consequential one that almost never gets mentioned is RS3 being tackled just as he was about to sack Tua on his critical third down scramble. Would have changed the game for sure
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ35xo7f5o_Vd6jP-7ZDQU_zIAQ-7eQgjCp3LU8Kcd8Y5cPWuKFug
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May be the wrong screenshot…
First play of this clip:
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Is that you, 31?
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Oh, wow. I’ve never seen that clip. I was at the dome so I never watched my recording, just straight deleted it. That was a perfect form tackle. Well, now, I’m mad all over again.
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Just a cursory glance thru those “hilites” posted by Sanchez reminds me why I have resisted going back to watch that tragedy. It was a very exciting game, no doubt. But the unexplainable blunders by UGa and outright luck of Bama are maddening. What the Hell is Thompson (#78) doing on the 3rd down Tua scramble? If he opens up his arms he could have swallowed him.
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….. not to mention, of course, McGhee and the punt block.
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I wish Trenton had stuck around. I bet he does too now.
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He might have improved his tackling, yup!
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I just noticed that too. Trent dives at him with his head rather than wrapping up. No excuse for that. There would have been no opportunity for a block in the back if Trent form tackles. Even so, screw those crappy refs. They were in Bama’s back pocket that 2nd half.
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^^This!!
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Ellis, wherever you are buddy, I am holding a Bulldog Turvis Cup full of Tequila and Topo Chico with an enormous lime slice…packing for my Venice/Baton Rouge trip.
I will get right back to you next week to discuss more holding situations as I believe there will be many this weekend!
Go You Damn Silver Britches!!
PS…Loren, get well soon sir, you are a DGD!
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I was at the game Saturday since Fayetteville is the only SEC game Bama plays that is remotely doable as a road trip for our family. The officials were horrid, but to give the devil his due, at least they were consistent. Our defense linemen were dragged all the way to the ground by their jerseys half a dozen times on Arkansas passing attempts. There were repeated egregious holds on both sides, and the refs just simply didn’t call it. It is infuriating to watch (especially when it’s the other team getting away with it), but at least it’s “fair” if both teams get to do the same thing. I guess. Given the money the SEC has, it sure seems like they could afford full time, trained, and competent officials.
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“…full time, trained, and competent officials…”
What would that be like? I am having a hard time comprehending the concept. 😉
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I am completely shocked Bama is getting favorable calls.
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Steve Shaw is an Alabama graduate. If you are an SEC ref are you going to try to please your boss? Boss is happy when Bama wins.
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Our crew was flag happy and they did not call it but maybe once.
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It’s been going on for decades, the conference always helps out the top teams. It’s all about money. The SEC is not going to let some underdog upset a top team and knock them out of the championship race because they called penalties on the favorite.
It seems to me the best solution would be for refs to be employed by the NCAA and randomly selected weekly from a national pool to officiate games.
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That’s true. Arkansas got hosed at Gainesville back in the Corch days. Without help from the zebras, Arkansas had Florida beat at home.
Oh, and I did see Bama get called for holding once this season. I thought I had it on the DVR, but the recording had a mysterious glitch during that part of the playback.
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I firmly believe that there was a meeting held in some room in Birmingham and the SEC decided that our referees would de-emphasize the holding call. It simply isn’t called anymore on the offensive line. I almost typed “unless it’s egregious” but really, there are a lot of egregious holds that aren’t called. Maybe it’s that way in other leagues, too. But I know that every SEC team has elevated offensive line holding to an art form at this point, and Georgia is just as guilty of it as the other teams. And the reason why is simple, really, if the line holds then we get bigger pass plays and bigger run plays and more offense and that’s what sells tickets and tunes in viewers.
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I disagree GD. Bama gets virtually no holding calls. But the refs still call holding on Georgia and other SEC teams, just not as often as they should. Personally I wish they would just legalize holding by the OL if they aren’t going to enforce it. It’s the selective enforcement that’s the real problem. No holding calls all day but when an opposing team’s RB snaps off a 50 yard TD against Bama out comes the flag, particularly at a crucial part of the game. DLs could adjust to holding on every play. At least it would be fair because no calls could be made selectively.
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This is from a Reddit post comparing holding calls drawn by a defense to their defensive sack rating. It was created by MGoBlog. It demonstrates that Michigan is drawing far fewer holding calls despite an excellent defensive line than opponents with much less accomplished D lines.
That dot way up to the right is Alabama. And it means Alabama’s opponents never get called for holding. Like, ever.
Here’s the post:
https://mgoblog.com/diaries/offensive-holding-b1g-and-beyond-part-deux
Alabama finished dead last in the NCAA the last two years in flags called on their opponents. Every other FBS team in the country had more flags thrown on its opponents than Alabama. Every one on them. Georgia drew more fouls. Vandy. App State. Tennessee. Kansas.
http://www.cfbstats.com/2017/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category14/sort01.html
http://www.cfbstats.com/2016/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category14/sort01.html
This is the problem with officiating. We talk about it as a conspiracy to favor one team over another – which is ludicrous and easy for Birmingham to ignore – rather than simple competency and product quality, which is directly an issue conference offices have to respond to.
Because if we want to use the data to argue that teams are being favored, then we’d have to conclude the SEC is rigging the game against Alabama, not in favor of the Tide.
I suspect the real culprit is trying to shave time off of games. Alabama is on prime TV all the time, and they’re so good that ignoring holding both ways speeds up the game and pumps scoring. And Birmingham sees that as a win.
Don’t like it when it happens to Georgia? Then complain when it happens anywhere in the SEC. That’s the only response Sankey and Shaw will have to honor..
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Funny, my brother-in-law who went to Bama claims Bama gets held all the time but never gets holding calls on the opponent. Maybe he’s right. My eyes tell me otherwise though.
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Alabama’s 2016 defense – which featured how many high end draft picks in the front 7? – generated 3 holding penalties in 15 games.
As a poster noted below, Clemson’s DL this year, which was considered pre-season as dominant a position group as CFB has seen, hasn’t generated a single holding penalty all season.
They might as well just scratch the rule from the book at this point.
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From the comments. . .
umich1 December 29th, 2017 at 4:47 PM ^
The top 5 most screwed programs were Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Utah, and Boise State.
Notable lucky programs? There really aren’t any – they aren’t big names. Top 5 are Coastal Carolina, USF, Temple, Arizona, and Tulane.
To your point – It seems the better defenses tend to get less calls, while the lesser defenses get more.
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It’s the one penalty that could be called on every play so the solution is not to call it. The real problem is when they do call it the call is too often ticky-tack compared to everything they ignore.
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That’s because the refs use the holding call to fix game outcomes.
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If it’s consistent, fine, but it’s never consistent. Therefore, I would rather see the rules enforced as written rather than whatever the conference wants as “areas of emphasis.”
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Shaw’s Area of Emphasis – don’t slow down games, especially ones where the outcome is in zero doubt. If you’re not slowing down games and helping to put a few extra points on the board, all the better.
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Then he must be really pi$$ed at that crew in Sanford on Saturday night if they are trying to speed up games that are no longer in doubt.
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Then why did the ref call a penalty on UGA in the Vandy game with 4 seconds left and Vandy was able to score?
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Probably felt sorry for them. And probably got ripped for it.
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I certainly hope he got ripped for it.
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Had the over?
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Sympathy calls. Some refs don’t understand that they aren’t there to help even things up.
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Some are blatant…..but honestly, you probably could find a penalty on every play if you looked hard enough.
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I turned on the tv Saturday and the first play I saw was the first clip in the video, with the Arky guy in the choke hold. I watched it again, then decided I’d seen enough football until Georgia-Vandy, and turned off the tv.
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Alabama is by in large a very disciplined football team so they get subconscious credit for being a disciplined football team by the refs even when they commit penalties, personal fouls, and unsportsmanlike conduct.
I don’t think referees see the penalty and purposely don’t call it (unless it’s the second half of a possibly runaway national championship with a lot of mob money going one way) as much as it is they don’t look as hard because they have a preconceived notion that Saban runs such a tight ship and Alabama is so much better than everyone they don’t need to break the rules to win.
Perception is reality. It’s good to be King and to be the man you’ve got to beat the man.
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Have you truly heard opinions that the Mob angle is what did in the Dawgs last season?
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I’ve been tellin’ ya! It’s a conspiracy…
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Supposedly a bunch of mob money got bet on Bama the day before the game after the line had moved Georgia’s way. The mob supposedly bet heavy on Georgia when the line was 4 and then bet heavy on Bama when the line went down to 2 1/2. That way the mob won both ways when Bama won by 3. It’s a little too pat to just be a coincidence. Sure looks and smells like someone was controlling the outcome.
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Nah, I came to that conclusion as soon I heard it was a big 10 crew and the fact that the big money poured in on Alabama the day of the game but it seems plausible. It’s completely unsubstantiated bullshit made up on the internet but the fact that it even sounds like it could’ve happened just adds to the misery that is UGA fandom.
You have to assume that was the best officiating crew in the country and it’s just hard to imagine that the best crew could be so bad all one way for one half but that’s probably what happened.
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The “feel” of the 2nd half came off as made-for-TV-dramatic. And in an overwhelming way…
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It used to be you had to tackle the rusher at the Ref or the other officials feet to get called for it. Unless of course your a TE which gets called every time. Based on the clip I was wrong. We have always been flagged for being Georgia but the SEC refs are just damn bad period. Time to move the SEC headquarters out of Alabama for the good of the league. Hell move it to Atlanta a neutral city.
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ACC city, Paul Johnson is in charge of the ATL. Never will go there, Birmingham much more logical, easy to get to.
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Holding….holding….I seem to remember something like that existed, but it’s been a long time. Just hold all day until they start calling it.
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It’s just like a pullups for a Marine Corps PFT… Chin doesn’t top the bar? Arms don’t fully extend? Doesn’t matter; keep doing it until they stop counting them.
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Simple explanation – allowing holding = more scoring.
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Simpler explanation–allow holding until you want to stop a drive of an opponent against the team you want to win = control the outcome of the game.
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Good old fashioned play ’em how they cal ’em.
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No call – late hit on Fromm in the Mizzou game was all I needed to see, to know nothing has changed with respect to zebras and georgia.
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UGA QBs wearing #11 don’t get the benefit of late hit / unnecessary roughness calls.
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Each Wednesday or Thursday on Sirius 84 Mark Packer has Dabo on for a segment. Last week Packer asked Dabo if the officials have thrown the flag for Clemson’s opponents holding the Tigers. Dabo said not yet.
So Clemson’s defensive line which is one of the best in the nation has not been held on a single play during this entire season. That is truly amazing.
When we played S Carolina, I thought there at least a 1/2 done times where a Gamecock offensive lineman had two hands around the neck and shoulders of one of our pass-rushers which resulted in no calls.
I wonder if there has been a gentlemen’s agreement amongst all of the officials across D1 to call less holding penalties to keep QB’s safer? If lineman know that they won’t get called for holding even if their blocking assignment is blatantly held to prevent free runs at QB’s, then why not hold every play?
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Well, if you’ve been reading GTP for awhile, it’s no secret that I think the SEC has at least a few really bad refs.
But maybe the thinking on not calling holding on pass is this..
If SEC linemen are conditioned (by calling it) not to hold, they will be at a huge disadvantage when they play OOC teams in bowl games and in the national championship games where neutral refs from other conferences don’t even know what holding means.
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You are too kind, Ug. The SEC has at least a few CROOKED refs.
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Penn Wagers literally had a smirk on his face every time he made an egregious call.
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Wow. Those aren’t just a nip and tuck type…these are the train wreck type.
Coupled with the $hit sandwich calls Saturday in our game…SEC is officially the absolute worst.
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