Texas-Nebraska: Officials got it right
There is a belief among some that Texas beat Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game for reasons best explained by Mark Mangino.
BCS. That’s right. BCS.
Mangino, remember, when nuts at the officiating in the 2004 KU-Texas game, when the Longhorns were trying to get to a BCS bowl and Mangino’s biggest problem was reminding Jayhawk fans that yes indeed, football remained a varsity sport in Lawrence.
Texas quarterback Colt McCoy (12) prepares to pass as Nebraska safety Courtney Osborne (12) chases a receiver in the first half of an NCAA college football Big 12 Conference championship game, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Mangino cried foul, and now so do Nebraska fans at the extra second put back on the clock Saturday night, which allowed Hunter Lawrence to kick a 46-yard field goal that beat the Huskers 13-12.
The rationale of Husker fans and Texas haters is that the replay review rules don’t specifically allow officials to check the clock in game-ending situations. That’s true. But that’s not the rule that allowed the second to be placed back on the scoreboard.
A college football official who knows the game and knows the rules and follows officiating very closely, but who was not involved in Nebraska-Texas, told me that everything was above board. And you can find the support in the NCAA football rulebook. Rule 12, Section 3, Article 6.
It’s a relatively new rule, added just a year or two ago. Egregious timing errors can be corrected by officials, even without replay help or even with replay help in which there is no other reason to go to replay.
Here’s the explanation I received. The clock is operated by a timekeeper in the pressbox, who is trained to react to officials’ signal to stop the clock. But that is not a fool-proof system. Think about it. The clock operator scans the field at the end of plays, looking for the signal, but maybe his eyes aren’t immediately on the official who first signals the timeout.
Officials are trained to signal clock stoppage then immediately look at the clock to see 1) what time shows; and 2) that the clock is stopped. If the clock doesn’t stop at the right time, the official thus knows how much time there is supposed to be. And this entire scenario plays out INDEPENDENT OF REPLAY. In other words, replay has made timing issues much easier on officials, but they’ve got a system down to get things right even without video help.
My officiating source asks to remain anonymous because he’s not supposed to talk to the media but think it’s important to get more information out to the public. He said he would have expected the Big 12 crew to put a second back on the clock even without replay; given the chance to watch the video, the officials absolutely saw that Colt McCoy’s hit something out of bounds with one second left on the clock.
So this entire controversy comes down to one thing. How do you define egregious? Did the Texas-Nebraska play rise to the level of egregious?
Who could possibly argue that it did not? If there was a second left in the game when McCoy’s pass landed, how could anyone say Texas didn’t deserve that second?
And yes, a second in that situation is more valuable than a second in the middle of the second quarter, because teams in the middle of the second quarter do not react to the status of the game clock. The difference between 7:38 and 7:39 in the second quarter is nothing. It has no effect on a game. The difference between 0:00 and 0:01 is everything. Heck, the difference between 0:29 and 0:30 is huge, because strategy is completely determined by the clock in the final minute of a game or half.
Texas deserved that extra second. The officials knew it and acted accordingly. That’s all a football fan on either side could ask for.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Doesn’t change the fact that Texas gets ALL the calls in this conference. If the shoe had been on the other foot, I have serious doubts that Nebraska would have been given the extra second.
You may be right Berry but I still don’t like it. It was probably Soh’s fault though for chasing McCoy too hard or McCoy would have held the ball another second.
I would like to add that if it had been OU instead of Nebraska, we would have probably torn the seats out of the stadium and thrown them on the field for giving Texas another second. We have, in my opinion, lived through many questionable calls South of the Red River for decades!
“Officials are trained to signal clock stoppage then immediately look at the clock to see 1) what time shows; and 2) that the clock is stopped. If the clock doesn’t stop at the right time, the official thus knows how much time there is supposed to be.”
Oh Berry. If that official immediately looked at his clock AFTER the ball touched it still would have read 0.
If the ball went out of bounds on the far side, why was it placed at the near hash mark for the field goal kick? That made it easier for Texas to make the field goal.
I’ve never read such uneducated responses to an article. To the last poster “Jerry” . Hunter Lawrence kicks best from the right hash mark. That is EXACTLY why McCoy ran to the right. If you listened to post game, you would have heard that very fact. The fact the the officials screwed up and placed the ball on the left hash mark made it (psychologically) even more difficult for Lawrence.
New rule amendment as of the start of the 2008 season; “allows for replay of the clock on crucial plays 2 mins before the end of the half and 2 mins before the end of the game. The clock has been “reset” in at least 3 games I’ve watched this year.
Texas DOES NOT get all the calls. Nebraska was GIVEN their 1st three points by POOR officiating. Go to YOUTUBE and type in “Nebraska Football Fist Down” in the search engine and watch a vid that proves the incompetence of the officiating crew.
Please have a clue before making a post…all of you !!!
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I didn’t get to see the game and was wondering if everything was above board or not. I’m satisfied now that the proper ruling was made. Thanks Berry! and Boomer Sooner!