Post by gatordynasty on Nov 22, 2010 10:03:04 GMT -5
Borrowed this from another Gator poster on the Scout forums.
Never forget November 29 2003. I'm still p!$$ed off!
Miami Herald on ACC idiot refs: "But on balance, it was hard not to reach this conclusion: The last athletic event this poorly officiated featured Andre The Giant."
Miami Herald on how badly the Gators beat the Semi's on the field before the All Cheating Crew of refs stepped in with the Hose Job of all time:There is no instant replay in college football, so Florida had to accept each call. Had the five calls gone the other way, Florida likely would have won in a rout. Two of the Seminoles' fumbles occurred just before they scored touchdowns (14 points), and a Florida fumble was recovered and returned for a score (seven points). Subtract 21 points and FSU is left with 17 points. Also, the Gators were in a position to return two fumbles for touchdowns (14 points), and a third would have given them field position to kick a field goal (three points). Add 17 points to UF's total, and the final score would have been Florida 51, Florida State 17. If you are an FSU fan and you read that score, you are furious right now, because, of course, it's all irrelevant. The Seminoles won because Chris Rix hit P.K. Sam with a 52-yard TD pass with 55 seconds left. The idea of reading the 51-17 score is infuriating, so imagine just how angry the Gators were after the loss --- because all five calls did go the other way." Do you get it now, Nole fans?
Matt Hayes on Instant replay and how it would have shown the Gators Beat The Semi's in the Swindle in the Swamp: Either pay up now, or pay later like Florida, which watched officials blow at least four fumble calls in a last-minute loss to Florida State. With a win over the Seminoles, the Gators would have gone to the Capital One Bowl ($5.1 million payout) instead of the Outback Bowl ($2.65 million). Now that's blasphemy.
Paul Finebaum, Bama homer, on ACC crooked Refs and the job Ron Zook did: He came within a whisker of winning at Miami and if you discount any one of the several absolutely criminal officiating calls by the ACC refs, the Gators would have beaten FSU
Semi homer Lee Corso interviewed 12/11 on how ACC cheating Refs prove we need instant replay: "They need to have instant replay in the Sugar Bowl this year. After seeing what happened in the Florida State-Florida game, we cannot afford to have incompetency be a part of the national championship game.
Gene Frenette 1 week after on ACC cowardly stonewalling: A week has elapsed since the officiating uproar during Florida State's 38-34 win at Florida without any response by the Atlantic Coast Conference regarding the performance of Jack Childress and his crew. An ACC spokesman said it won't issue one unless a "game management/technical error" transpired, whatever that means. General protocol is for matters like this to be handled internally and minimize the attention. But for the ACC to not publicly address what may be the most controversial game of the 2003 season only raises the element of suspicion. If the ACC thought the officials did an adequate job, then Childress and his colleagues deserve some kind of vote of confidence from the people who employ them. And if the league felt the officiating warranted disciplinary action, then at least the ACC would look proactive and add integrity to a highly sensitive process. ACC commissioner John Swofford is considered one of the foremost leaders in college athletics. This is one of those instances in which his conference needs to exude leadership and accountability. It's doubtful that whatever the ACC's stance is, it will not eventually come out. So why not be up-front about an issue that's not going away no matter how long the ACC chooses to be silent? ...
Matt Hayes, The Sporting News on Ref$u Abysmal Cheating Crew of refs : "The crew, headed by referee Jack Childress, made punching-bag Big Ten officials look like Rhodes Scholars and blew numerous calls in the game -- all of which went against the Gators."
Kirk Herbstreit (From an Online Chat): I don't know where you live but everywhere I have turned this week, Jeremy Foley the AD at Florida and Dave Hart the AD at FSU have been quoted since the end of that game. Every national analyst and talking head from one time to another has had an opinion about how horribly officiated that game was. We can't go back and change the 5 or 6 blown calls that affected the outcome of that game. I said after the game Sat. night that was the best game in college football this year, but unfortunately it was also the worst officiated game I have seen all year. I don't know if I can ever recall so many game-changing blown calls. If you are a Florida fan, I feel for you .. but at this point, I don't know if anything can be done.
Mike Lopresti of USA today on the hand jobbing of UF by the refs: "The ACC head of officiating said Sunday he will study the tape. Just like bank officials do after a robbery."
Stewart Mandel of SI on ACC cheating refs: "I've always made fun of the NFL's clunky instant-replay system, which delays the game a good 10 minutes every time a coach decides to throw his silly flag, which most of the time seems to come on a play he's got almost no chance of reversing. Therefore, as you can probably guess, I've always scoffed at the idea of instant replay in college. Let the kids decide the game on the field. However, the officiating in Saturday's Florida State-Florida game was so overwhelmingly bad, so costly to one of the participants, that I can't help but rethink my stance. Normally bad calls have a way of evening themselves out over the course of a contest, but not this time. Not to take anything away from the Seminoles' effort, especially since Florida still had every opportunity to win the game, but the Gators did get severely screwed right from the opening kickoff, when Florida's Dallas Baker clearly stripped FSU return man Antonio Cromartie, only to have the officials rule Cromartie was down. If it had stopped there we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But, no, the hits kept coming for poor Florida. Like the 'Noles tying the score late in the third quarter on a 25-yard fumble return that wasn't a fumble because Gators running back Ciatrick Fason had hit the ground about a full second earlier. Or Gators linebacker Channing Crowder emerging from the pile with a Leon Washington fumble, stopping an FSU drive at the Florida 3, only to have the refs credit Washington with retaining it."
Tally's Randy Beard on the refs making sure the Nolies won: While the game had countless big plays, an ACC officiating crew headed by Jack Childress made sure this game will be talked around the office water cooler for weeks and months to come. Many of the game's biggest plays involved the referees, including: • Antonio Cromartie's fumble on the opening kickoff in which he was ruled down by officials before losing the football. A replay showed otherwise. • Chris Davis' fumble on FSU's first drive. The pass was ruled incomplete. Florida was assessed a 15-yard personal-foul penalty on the play; • A second fumble by Cromartie, this one on FSU's second kickoff return. Florida's Billy Latsko picked it up and dashed into the end zone, but Florida was called for offsides and the touchdown was negated. • Florida tailback Ciatrick Fason's fumble. He appeared to be on the ground when he lost the football, but former Lincoln standout Pat Watkins scooped it up and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.
CNNSI on The Refs sodomizing the Gators: ACC observer Earnest Benson declined comment on the calls, but said games are reviewed weekly by the league. The ACC's director of officials probably won't like what he sees from his guys when he gets this tape, although he certainly will get to watch a great game.
Mike Bianchi on refs screwing UF vs fsu: You can understand refs missing 1 call, but 6?
Gene Frenette on fsu refs hosing UF out of win: Ratliff's touchdown gave the Gators a 24-17 lead before FSU's Pat Watkins returned a controversial Ciatrick Fason fumble 25 yards for a score. Replays appeared to show that the Fletcher High grad was already down. It was the last of four disputed calls involving fumbles or non-fumbles -- all going in FSU's favor -- that cast a bad light on a well-played game.
Pat Dooley on ACC refs cheating UF out of win: But today you are not talking about Troupe and Leak and Ratliff or Rix-to-Sam as much as you are about the seven blockheads of granite. Samples and Childress and Roden. Jackson and Foley and McGee and Key. Those are the names of the ACC officials Florida fans will be cursing into the holidays. ... Certainly, many of the plays in question were arguable. But every one of them went the way of the Seminoles. Those of you who believe in conspiracies probably thought all of those first-down signals were the head referee doing The Chop. “Paging, Mr. Stone. Page for Oliver Stone.” There were six plays in all, no, make that six fumbles that turned a majestic game into a boo-fest.
SEC Head of Officials on the screw job done by the ACC refs against the Gators: "Obviously we don't want to make a mistake, like the Florida-Florida State game on the very opening kickoff. They [the ACC officials working the game] just flat [out] missed it. You'd like to see those things changed."
COMMENTARY ON THE SWINDLE IN THE SWAMP
BY THE NATIONAL MEDIA
Eddie Pells, AP, USA Today (two articles)
Pells refers to six key calls, ranging from questionable to "awful", and points out that they all went against the Gators. In his second article, he says: “Normally, tough calls even out over the course of a game. In this case, however, there were no fewer than six key calls, ranging from questionable to downright awful, all of which went against the Gators (8-4).” He mentions that the "worst" calls include the fumble on the opening kick-off, the so-called Faison fumble, and the Washington fumble. Here's an excerpt from his second article: "Among the worst of the calls came on the opening kickoff, when Florida State's Antonio Cromartie fumbled and the Gators recovered. Officials ruled the play over before the fumble, even though Cromartie's knee clearly hadn't touched the ground. In the third quarter, Florida State's Pat Watkins scooped up a fumble and returned it for a score, even though Florida tailback Ciatrick Fason appeared to be flat on the ground before the ball popped out. In the fourth quarter, Chris Rix ran for a touchdown and a 31-27 lead four plays after officials awarded the ball to the Seminoles, even though Gators linebacker Channing Crowder came out of the pile with the ball. Leon Washington, who fumbled, appeared to be sitting on the ball when officials made the call." In his first article, he has the following quote from Coach Bowden. "Bowden played it coy when asked about the calls. "I sure do like them when they go to me," he said."
www.usatoday.com/sports/c...rida_x.htm
www.usatoday.com/sports/c...refs_x.htm
Mike Lopresti, USA Today
In a November 20, 2003, column titled "Awards, attaboys and oddities at college season's end", Lopresti compares the FSU-UF game to a bank robbery: "Uproarious game of the year: Florida State State's 38-34 win over Florida had controversial calls, heroic plays, three lead changes in the last five minutes, and even a postgame fireworks show, when the Seminoles and Gators traded malice at midfield. With the Gators in full howl about all the calls that went against them, the ACC head of officiating said Sunday he will study the tape. Just like bank officials do after a robbery."
www.usatoday.com/sports/c...esti_x.htm
Dennis Dodd, CBS Sportsline.com
Dodd says that: “The lasting image of Florida State's 38-34 victory in The Swamp will be players fighting and officials gagging ... on what we don't know, but there was a definite lack of expertise among the ACC crew that officiated the game. Some observers counted five plays that involved fumbles that weren't called correctly.” He goes on to say: “There will have to be a review of why both teams brought their A-game and the officials seemed like they has been sipping sour mash in the parking lot. All five (or six, depending on your level of conspiracy theory) plays went in the favor of Florida State. The Seminoles already had qualified for a BCS bowl and couldn't win a national championship, so that wasn't it. It was pure incompetence at the least; bias, if you want to believe Bobby has got the officials in his hip pocket after all these years.” Dodd thinks this was a case of incompetence rather than bias and calls for instant replay.
www.sportsline.com/colleg...ry/6880031
Matthew Zemek of CollegeFootballNews.com
Zemek talks about how screwed up the sport of college football is right now. He then talks about seeing outrages everywhere. He says that Florida "witnessed highway robbery by a bunch of guys wearing the prison bars". He calls for instant replay, saying: "Can we say this now, once and for all? Get instant replay into college football. NOW.” Zemek concludes his commentary on instant replay by saying: “If the one monitor available can’t show a conclusive shot, then there’s no real controversy after all. But if the one monitor available in a stadium/press box clearly shows something like Florida’s Ciatrick Fason being down for a good half-second, well before the ball squirted from his grasp in the third quarter of Saturday’s showdown between the Gators and Noles, then darnit, a single guy watching a monitor should be able to radio the refs, make a simple overturn of the call, and move the game along. There’s no reason why instant replay has to be a costly, big-budget, game-stopping, momentum-squelching system at the collegiate level.”
http://www.collegefootballnews.c...ion_15.htm
Game Recap, CollegeFootballNews.com
Recap says that the game "will be remembered for some horrendous calls from the officials making the wrong call on several plays that would've turned the tide of the game, mostly for Florida." The Recap later says that "Gator fans will complain, and rightly so, that the team got hosed by bad play call after bad play call . . . "
http://www.collegefootballnews.c...lorida.htm
Pete Futiak, CollegeFootballNews.com
Regarding the weekend games, Futiak says: "The disappointment was the officiating in the Florida State-Florida game. This was one of the best games of the season that will be remembered as much for the missed calls as for the brilliant final drive by Chris Rix."
http://www.collegefootballnews.c.../Dec_1.htm
Who's Hot, Who's Not, CollegeFootballNews.com
Under Who's Not: "Officials in the Florida State-Florida game. There's always the adage that officials don't win or lose games, but Florida Gator fans might want to disagree after several badly missed fumble calls highlighted by a down Ciatrick Fason fumble that was returned for an FSU score by Pat Watkins. Florida would have own going away if at least two of the calls had gone its way . . ."
http://www.collegefootballnews.c...nd_not.htm
Dan Shanoff, The Daily Quickie, ESPN Page2
"For instant replay. Atrociously one-sided officiating in Florida State's undeserved win over Florida single-handedly convinced me that college football needs a limited form of instant replay."
sports.espn.go.com/espn/p...e=20031201
Mock Play-Off, ESPN Page2
Comment regarding FSU vs. Kansas State: "The 'Noles better import their hometown ACC crew of refs from the Florida game; after a mediocre (by FSU standards) year, they'll need it."
espn.go.com/page2/s/colle...u_ksu.html
Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN.com
After a question during a Chat session, Herbstreit says: "Every national analyst and talking head from one time to another has had an opinion about how horribly officiated that game was. We can't go back and change the 5 or 6 blown calls that affected the outcome of that game. I said after the game Sat. night that was the best game in college football this year, but unfortunately it was also the worst officiated game I have seen all year. I don't know if I can ever recall so many game-changing blown calls. If you are a Florida fan, I feel for you .. but at this point, I don't know if anything can be done."
proxy.espn.go.com/chat/ch...nt_id=4424
Terry Bowden, ESPN.com
Bowden refers to "questionable calls" and says that "the biggest story in this game has become the officiating. It seemed that every play involving a turnover featured a call that went against the Gators, from an FSU fumble on the opening kickoff that was ruled down to another on the goal line that was ruled recovered by running back Leon Washington. There was also some question about Florida fumble was also returned for a touchdown, and with ACC officials working the game you can imagine how enraged the Gator nation is." He then spends the rest of the column doing damage control for the ACC and FSU. He actually praises the ACC officials. His main point is that he thinks "it is ridiculous to assume they would deliberately favor one team". It's noteworthy that he never says what he thought of the officiating himself.
sports.espn.go.com/ncf/co...id=1676217
Stewart Mandel, SI.com
Mandel lists FSU as his Team of the Week, but notes that they "got a little help from the refs". Lists FSU vs UF as the Game of the Week and says: "And, of course, the game wouldn't have been complete without some extra story lines, mainly several blown calls on fumbles that all went against the Gators, and a post-game brawl . . ." In his Closing Thought, he devotes four paragraphs to calling for instant replay. Here are his 2nd and 3rd paragraphs: "However, the officiating in Saturday's Florida State-Florida game was so overwhelmingly bad, so costly to one of the participants, that I can't help but rethink my stance. Normally bad calls have a way of evening themselves out over the course of a contest, but not this time. Not to take anything away from the Seminoles' effort, especially since Florida still had every opportunity to win the game, but the Gators did get severely screwed right from the opening kickoff, when Florida's Dallas Baker clearly stripped FSU return man Antonio Cromartie, only to have the officials rule Cromartie was down. If it had stopped there, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But, no, the hits kept coming for poor Florida. Like the 'Noles tying the score late in the third quarter on a 25-yard fumble return that wasn't a fumble because Gators running back Ciatrick Fason had hit the ground about a full second earlier. Or Gators linebacker Channing Crowder emerging from the pile with a Leon Washington fumble, stopping an FSU drive at the Florida 3, only to have the refs credit Washington with retaining it."
sportsillustrated.cnn.com...index.html
Matt Hayes, the Sporting News
Hayes says it time to quit worrying about tradition and start using instant replay in college football. He says: "It's about getting it right when one call can be the difference between a BCS bowl and a trip to San Antonio. It's about putting the game in the hands of players and coaches, not officials." He then reviews initial steps by the Big 10 to request a waiver to allow instant replay. He points out that many dollars are at stake in these games and then ends the article this way: "Either pay up now, or pay later like Florida, which watched officials blow at least four fumble calls in a last-minute loss to Florida State. With a win over the Seminoles, the Gators would have gone to the Capital One Bowl ($5.1 million payout) instead of the Outback Bowl ($2.65 million)."
msnbc.msn.com/id/4307622/
Joey Johnston, NBCSports.com
Under Game of the Year, Johnston says: "This game may be best remembered for questionable officiating (the ACC crew seemed to miss six calls on fumbles or non-fumbles, all going against the Gators) and an ugly post-game brawl at midfield (the Seminoles broke out a Gator-head, then taunted their opponents by dancing on the midfield "F' logo in Gainesville)."
msnbc.msn.com/id/3671428/
MSNBC staff
In a column titled, Ask the College Football Expert, there is a question and response about the UF/FSU game. I've copied the question and first paragraph of the response for brevity: "Q: In light of the poor officiating in the Florida State-Florida game, why aren’t crews from neutral conferences regularly used in non-conferences games, especially the marquee ones? — From Don in Denver A: Good question, Don. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, the Florida State-Florida game in Gainesville employed ACC officials (from the conference of visiting FSU) as per the contract agreed upon by both schools. You’d like to think there’s impartiality, but such sensibilities often are washed away in a fiery rivalry like FSU-Florida. All the questionable calls (involving fumbles or non-fumbles) went against Florida. After a while, you had to scratch your head."
msnbc.msn.com/id/3661124/
Jim Rome on Rome is Burning
This week’s meltdown goes to the ACC officiating crew that just about ruined last week’s Florida-Florida State game. While it may have been the best game of the year, it certainly was the worst officiated game of the year, if not ever. Not only did the officials butcher no less than 6 calls, every single one of them went against the Crocs. They were jammed up from the opening kick to the final whistle. And yes, I’m the first guy to scream "Scoreboard" whenever someone cries about the officiating, but that was brutal.
"The United States of America - Saving the World Since 1776!"
Never forget November 29 2003. I'm still p!$$ed off!
Miami Herald on ACC idiot refs: "But on balance, it was hard not to reach this conclusion: The last athletic event this poorly officiated featured Andre The Giant."
Miami Herald on how badly the Gators beat the Semi's on the field before the All Cheating Crew of refs stepped in with the Hose Job of all time:There is no instant replay in college football, so Florida had to accept each call. Had the five calls gone the other way, Florida likely would have won in a rout. Two of the Seminoles' fumbles occurred just before they scored touchdowns (14 points), and a Florida fumble was recovered and returned for a score (seven points). Subtract 21 points and FSU is left with 17 points. Also, the Gators were in a position to return two fumbles for touchdowns (14 points), and a third would have given them field position to kick a field goal (three points). Add 17 points to UF's total, and the final score would have been Florida 51, Florida State 17. If you are an FSU fan and you read that score, you are furious right now, because, of course, it's all irrelevant. The Seminoles won because Chris Rix hit P.K. Sam with a 52-yard TD pass with 55 seconds left. The idea of reading the 51-17 score is infuriating, so imagine just how angry the Gators were after the loss --- because all five calls did go the other way." Do you get it now, Nole fans?
Matt Hayes on Instant replay and how it would have shown the Gators Beat The Semi's in the Swindle in the Swamp: Either pay up now, or pay later like Florida, which watched officials blow at least four fumble calls in a last-minute loss to Florida State. With a win over the Seminoles, the Gators would have gone to the Capital One Bowl ($5.1 million payout) instead of the Outback Bowl ($2.65 million). Now that's blasphemy.
Paul Finebaum, Bama homer, on ACC crooked Refs and the job Ron Zook did: He came within a whisker of winning at Miami and if you discount any one of the several absolutely criminal officiating calls by the ACC refs, the Gators would have beaten FSU
Semi homer Lee Corso interviewed 12/11 on how ACC cheating Refs prove we need instant replay: "They need to have instant replay in the Sugar Bowl this year. After seeing what happened in the Florida State-Florida game, we cannot afford to have incompetency be a part of the national championship game.
Gene Frenette 1 week after on ACC cowardly stonewalling: A week has elapsed since the officiating uproar during Florida State's 38-34 win at Florida without any response by the Atlantic Coast Conference regarding the performance of Jack Childress and his crew. An ACC spokesman said it won't issue one unless a "game management/technical error" transpired, whatever that means. General protocol is for matters like this to be handled internally and minimize the attention. But for the ACC to not publicly address what may be the most controversial game of the 2003 season only raises the element of suspicion. If the ACC thought the officials did an adequate job, then Childress and his colleagues deserve some kind of vote of confidence from the people who employ them. And if the league felt the officiating warranted disciplinary action, then at least the ACC would look proactive and add integrity to a highly sensitive process. ACC commissioner John Swofford is considered one of the foremost leaders in college athletics. This is one of those instances in which his conference needs to exude leadership and accountability. It's doubtful that whatever the ACC's stance is, it will not eventually come out. So why not be up-front about an issue that's not going away no matter how long the ACC chooses to be silent? ...
Matt Hayes, The Sporting News on Ref$u Abysmal Cheating Crew of refs : "The crew, headed by referee Jack Childress, made punching-bag Big Ten officials look like Rhodes Scholars and blew numerous calls in the game -- all of which went against the Gators."
Kirk Herbstreit (From an Online Chat): I don't know where you live but everywhere I have turned this week, Jeremy Foley the AD at Florida and Dave Hart the AD at FSU have been quoted since the end of that game. Every national analyst and talking head from one time to another has had an opinion about how horribly officiated that game was. We can't go back and change the 5 or 6 blown calls that affected the outcome of that game. I said after the game Sat. night that was the best game in college football this year, but unfortunately it was also the worst officiated game I have seen all year. I don't know if I can ever recall so many game-changing blown calls. If you are a Florida fan, I feel for you .. but at this point, I don't know if anything can be done.
Mike Lopresti of USA today on the hand jobbing of UF by the refs: "The ACC head of officiating said Sunday he will study the tape. Just like bank officials do after a robbery."
Stewart Mandel of SI on ACC cheating refs: "I've always made fun of the NFL's clunky instant-replay system, which delays the game a good 10 minutes every time a coach decides to throw his silly flag, which most of the time seems to come on a play he's got almost no chance of reversing. Therefore, as you can probably guess, I've always scoffed at the idea of instant replay in college. Let the kids decide the game on the field. However, the officiating in Saturday's Florida State-Florida game was so overwhelmingly bad, so costly to one of the participants, that I can't help but rethink my stance. Normally bad calls have a way of evening themselves out over the course of a contest, but not this time. Not to take anything away from the Seminoles' effort, especially since Florida still had every opportunity to win the game, but the Gators did get severely screwed right from the opening kickoff, when Florida's Dallas Baker clearly stripped FSU return man Antonio Cromartie, only to have the officials rule Cromartie was down. If it had stopped there we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But, no, the hits kept coming for poor Florida. Like the 'Noles tying the score late in the third quarter on a 25-yard fumble return that wasn't a fumble because Gators running back Ciatrick Fason had hit the ground about a full second earlier. Or Gators linebacker Channing Crowder emerging from the pile with a Leon Washington fumble, stopping an FSU drive at the Florida 3, only to have the refs credit Washington with retaining it."
Tally's Randy Beard on the refs making sure the Nolies won: While the game had countless big plays, an ACC officiating crew headed by Jack Childress made sure this game will be talked around the office water cooler for weeks and months to come. Many of the game's biggest plays involved the referees, including: • Antonio Cromartie's fumble on the opening kickoff in which he was ruled down by officials before losing the football. A replay showed otherwise. • Chris Davis' fumble on FSU's first drive. The pass was ruled incomplete. Florida was assessed a 15-yard personal-foul penalty on the play; • A second fumble by Cromartie, this one on FSU's second kickoff return. Florida's Billy Latsko picked it up and dashed into the end zone, but Florida was called for offsides and the touchdown was negated. • Florida tailback Ciatrick Fason's fumble. He appeared to be on the ground when he lost the football, but former Lincoln standout Pat Watkins scooped it up and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.
CNNSI on The Refs sodomizing the Gators: ACC observer Earnest Benson declined comment on the calls, but said games are reviewed weekly by the league. The ACC's director of officials probably won't like what he sees from his guys when he gets this tape, although he certainly will get to watch a great game.
Mike Bianchi on refs screwing UF vs fsu: You can understand refs missing 1 call, but 6?
Gene Frenette on fsu refs hosing UF out of win: Ratliff's touchdown gave the Gators a 24-17 lead before FSU's Pat Watkins returned a controversial Ciatrick Fason fumble 25 yards for a score. Replays appeared to show that the Fletcher High grad was already down. It was the last of four disputed calls involving fumbles or non-fumbles -- all going in FSU's favor -- that cast a bad light on a well-played game.
Pat Dooley on ACC refs cheating UF out of win: But today you are not talking about Troupe and Leak and Ratliff or Rix-to-Sam as much as you are about the seven blockheads of granite. Samples and Childress and Roden. Jackson and Foley and McGee and Key. Those are the names of the ACC officials Florida fans will be cursing into the holidays. ... Certainly, many of the plays in question were arguable. But every one of them went the way of the Seminoles. Those of you who believe in conspiracies probably thought all of those first-down signals were the head referee doing The Chop. “Paging, Mr. Stone. Page for Oliver Stone.” There were six plays in all, no, make that six fumbles that turned a majestic game into a boo-fest.
SEC Head of Officials on the screw job done by the ACC refs against the Gators: "Obviously we don't want to make a mistake, like the Florida-Florida State game on the very opening kickoff. They [the ACC officials working the game] just flat [out] missed it. You'd like to see those things changed."
COMMENTARY ON THE SWINDLE IN THE SWAMP
BY THE NATIONAL MEDIA
Eddie Pells, AP, USA Today (two articles)
Pells refers to six key calls, ranging from questionable to "awful", and points out that they all went against the Gators. In his second article, he says: “Normally, tough calls even out over the course of a game. In this case, however, there were no fewer than six key calls, ranging from questionable to downright awful, all of which went against the Gators (8-4).” He mentions that the "worst" calls include the fumble on the opening kick-off, the so-called Faison fumble, and the Washington fumble. Here's an excerpt from his second article: "Among the worst of the calls came on the opening kickoff, when Florida State's Antonio Cromartie fumbled and the Gators recovered. Officials ruled the play over before the fumble, even though Cromartie's knee clearly hadn't touched the ground. In the third quarter, Florida State's Pat Watkins scooped up a fumble and returned it for a score, even though Florida tailback Ciatrick Fason appeared to be flat on the ground before the ball popped out. In the fourth quarter, Chris Rix ran for a touchdown and a 31-27 lead four plays after officials awarded the ball to the Seminoles, even though Gators linebacker Channing Crowder came out of the pile with the ball. Leon Washington, who fumbled, appeared to be sitting on the ball when officials made the call." In his first article, he has the following quote from Coach Bowden. "Bowden played it coy when asked about the calls. "I sure do like them when they go to me," he said."
www.usatoday.com/sports/c...rida_x.htm
www.usatoday.com/sports/c...refs_x.htm
Mike Lopresti, USA Today
In a November 20, 2003, column titled "Awards, attaboys and oddities at college season's end", Lopresti compares the FSU-UF game to a bank robbery: "Uproarious game of the year: Florida State State's 38-34 win over Florida had controversial calls, heroic plays, three lead changes in the last five minutes, and even a postgame fireworks show, when the Seminoles and Gators traded malice at midfield. With the Gators in full howl about all the calls that went against them, the ACC head of officiating said Sunday he will study the tape. Just like bank officials do after a robbery."
www.usatoday.com/sports/c...esti_x.htm
Dennis Dodd, CBS Sportsline.com
Dodd says that: “The lasting image of Florida State's 38-34 victory in The Swamp will be players fighting and officials gagging ... on what we don't know, but there was a definite lack of expertise among the ACC crew that officiated the game. Some observers counted five plays that involved fumbles that weren't called correctly.” He goes on to say: “There will have to be a review of why both teams brought their A-game and the officials seemed like they has been sipping sour mash in the parking lot. All five (or six, depending on your level of conspiracy theory) plays went in the favor of Florida State. The Seminoles already had qualified for a BCS bowl and couldn't win a national championship, so that wasn't it. It was pure incompetence at the least; bias, if you want to believe Bobby has got the officials in his hip pocket after all these years.” Dodd thinks this was a case of incompetence rather than bias and calls for instant replay.
www.sportsline.com/colleg...ry/6880031
Matthew Zemek of CollegeFootballNews.com
Zemek talks about how screwed up the sport of college football is right now. He then talks about seeing outrages everywhere. He says that Florida "witnessed highway robbery by a bunch of guys wearing the prison bars". He calls for instant replay, saying: "Can we say this now, once and for all? Get instant replay into college football. NOW.” Zemek concludes his commentary on instant replay by saying: “If the one monitor available can’t show a conclusive shot, then there’s no real controversy after all. But if the one monitor available in a stadium/press box clearly shows something like Florida’s Ciatrick Fason being down for a good half-second, well before the ball squirted from his grasp in the third quarter of Saturday’s showdown between the Gators and Noles, then darnit, a single guy watching a monitor should be able to radio the refs, make a simple overturn of the call, and move the game along. There’s no reason why instant replay has to be a costly, big-budget, game-stopping, momentum-squelching system at the collegiate level.”
http://www.collegefootballnews.c...ion_15.htm
Game Recap, CollegeFootballNews.com
Recap says that the game "will be remembered for some horrendous calls from the officials making the wrong call on several plays that would've turned the tide of the game, mostly for Florida." The Recap later says that "Gator fans will complain, and rightly so, that the team got hosed by bad play call after bad play call . . . "
http://www.collegefootballnews.c...lorida.htm
Pete Futiak, CollegeFootballNews.com
Regarding the weekend games, Futiak says: "The disappointment was the officiating in the Florida State-Florida game. This was one of the best games of the season that will be remembered as much for the missed calls as for the brilliant final drive by Chris Rix."
http://www.collegefootballnews.c.../Dec_1.htm
Who's Hot, Who's Not, CollegeFootballNews.com
Under Who's Not: "Officials in the Florida State-Florida game. There's always the adage that officials don't win or lose games, but Florida Gator fans might want to disagree after several badly missed fumble calls highlighted by a down Ciatrick Fason fumble that was returned for an FSU score by Pat Watkins. Florida would have own going away if at least two of the calls had gone its way . . ."
http://www.collegefootballnews.c...nd_not.htm
Dan Shanoff, The Daily Quickie, ESPN Page2
"For instant replay. Atrociously one-sided officiating in Florida State's undeserved win over Florida single-handedly convinced me that college football needs a limited form of instant replay."
sports.espn.go.com/espn/p...e=20031201
Mock Play-Off, ESPN Page2
Comment regarding FSU vs. Kansas State: "The 'Noles better import their hometown ACC crew of refs from the Florida game; after a mediocre (by FSU standards) year, they'll need it."
espn.go.com/page2/s/colle...u_ksu.html
Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN.com
After a question during a Chat session, Herbstreit says: "Every national analyst and talking head from one time to another has had an opinion about how horribly officiated that game was. We can't go back and change the 5 or 6 blown calls that affected the outcome of that game. I said after the game Sat. night that was the best game in college football this year, but unfortunately it was also the worst officiated game I have seen all year. I don't know if I can ever recall so many game-changing blown calls. If you are a Florida fan, I feel for you .. but at this point, I don't know if anything can be done."
proxy.espn.go.com/chat/ch...nt_id=4424
Terry Bowden, ESPN.com
Bowden refers to "questionable calls" and says that "the biggest story in this game has become the officiating. It seemed that every play involving a turnover featured a call that went against the Gators, from an FSU fumble on the opening kickoff that was ruled down to another on the goal line that was ruled recovered by running back Leon Washington. There was also some question about Florida fumble was also returned for a touchdown, and with ACC officials working the game you can imagine how enraged the Gator nation is." He then spends the rest of the column doing damage control for the ACC and FSU. He actually praises the ACC officials. His main point is that he thinks "it is ridiculous to assume they would deliberately favor one team". It's noteworthy that he never says what he thought of the officiating himself.
sports.espn.go.com/ncf/co...id=1676217
Stewart Mandel, SI.com
Mandel lists FSU as his Team of the Week, but notes that they "got a little help from the refs". Lists FSU vs UF as the Game of the Week and says: "And, of course, the game wouldn't have been complete without some extra story lines, mainly several blown calls on fumbles that all went against the Gators, and a post-game brawl . . ." In his Closing Thought, he devotes four paragraphs to calling for instant replay. Here are his 2nd and 3rd paragraphs: "However, the officiating in Saturday's Florida State-Florida game was so overwhelmingly bad, so costly to one of the participants, that I can't help but rethink my stance. Normally bad calls have a way of evening themselves out over the course of a contest, but not this time. Not to take anything away from the Seminoles' effort, especially since Florida still had every opportunity to win the game, but the Gators did get severely screwed right from the opening kickoff, when Florida's Dallas Baker clearly stripped FSU return man Antonio Cromartie, only to have the officials rule Cromartie was down. If it had stopped there, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But, no, the hits kept coming for poor Florida. Like the 'Noles tying the score late in the third quarter on a 25-yard fumble return that wasn't a fumble because Gators running back Ciatrick Fason had hit the ground about a full second earlier. Or Gators linebacker Channing Crowder emerging from the pile with a Leon Washington fumble, stopping an FSU drive at the Florida 3, only to have the refs credit Washington with retaining it."
sportsillustrated.cnn.com...index.html
Matt Hayes, the Sporting News
Hayes says it time to quit worrying about tradition and start using instant replay in college football. He says: "It's about getting it right when one call can be the difference between a BCS bowl and a trip to San Antonio. It's about putting the game in the hands of players and coaches, not officials." He then reviews initial steps by the Big 10 to request a waiver to allow instant replay. He points out that many dollars are at stake in these games and then ends the article this way: "Either pay up now, or pay later like Florida, which watched officials blow at least four fumble calls in a last-minute loss to Florida State. With a win over the Seminoles, the Gators would have gone to the Capital One Bowl ($5.1 million payout) instead of the Outback Bowl ($2.65 million)."
msnbc.msn.com/id/4307622/
Joey Johnston, NBCSports.com
Under Game of the Year, Johnston says: "This game may be best remembered for questionable officiating (the ACC crew seemed to miss six calls on fumbles or non-fumbles, all going against the Gators) and an ugly post-game brawl at midfield (the Seminoles broke out a Gator-head, then taunted their opponents by dancing on the midfield "F' logo in Gainesville)."
msnbc.msn.com/id/3671428/
MSNBC staff
In a column titled, Ask the College Football Expert, there is a question and response about the UF/FSU game. I've copied the question and first paragraph of the response for brevity: "Q: In light of the poor officiating in the Florida State-Florida game, why aren’t crews from neutral conferences regularly used in non-conferences games, especially the marquee ones? — From Don in Denver A: Good question, Don. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, the Florida State-Florida game in Gainesville employed ACC officials (from the conference of visiting FSU) as per the contract agreed upon by both schools. You’d like to think there’s impartiality, but such sensibilities often are washed away in a fiery rivalry like FSU-Florida. All the questionable calls (involving fumbles or non-fumbles) went against Florida. After a while, you had to scratch your head."
msnbc.msn.com/id/3661124/
Jim Rome on Rome is Burning
This week’s meltdown goes to the ACC officiating crew that just about ruined last week’s Florida-Florida State game. While it may have been the best game of the year, it certainly was the worst officiated game of the year, if not ever. Not only did the officials butcher no less than 6 calls, every single one of them went against the Crocs. They were jammed up from the opening kick to the final whistle. And yes, I’m the first guy to scream "Scoreboard" whenever someone cries about the officiating, but that was brutal.
"The United States of America - Saving the World Since 1776!"