This Week in College Football 9/14 - 9/16

[Black Lushus 0]

I'll give you that, Dama...your boys were 100% screwed, no doubt

[Slayer 0]

"Hey man, it's gonna be a cold day in Oregon today, their game with Oregon St. will be tough!"

 

"yeah I know what ya mean, man, I get cold chills thinking about who OU's planning on recruiting for next year!"

If only the transitions were that smooth

[teke184 0]

Just came across the wire-

 

OU president wants game off books, Pac-10 officials suspended

 

 

Sep. 18, 2006

CBS SportsLine.com wire reports

 

 

NORMAN, Okla. -- University of Oklahoma president David Boren sent a letter to Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg on Monday, asking him to push for the Sooners' game against Oregon to be eliminated from the record books and having the Pac-10 officials involved in the game suspended for the remainder of the season.

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Two plays were reviewed on Oregon's game-winning drive -- an onside kick that gave the Ducks possession and a pass interference call one play before the touchdown that gave them a 34-33 victory.

 

"To describe the lapses in accurate officiating at the Oklahoma-Oregon football game last Saturday as constituting an outrageous injustice is an understatement," Boren wrote in the letter dated Monday.

 

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops has said he believes an Oregon player interfered with Oklahoma's ability to recover the onside kick by illegally touching the ball and a Sooners player before the kick traveled 10 yards. He also believes the Sooners recovered the kick, as tailback Allen Patrick had possession at the end of the play.

 

Stoops has also said he believes Oklahoma defensive end C.J. Ah You tipped a pass by Dennis Dixon that resulted in a pass interference call. If the ball was indeed tipped, the pass interference call would have been negated.

 

Both plays were reviewed using instant replay Saturday, and Pacific 10 commissioner Tom Hansen said an announcement will be made Tuesday on whether the calls were correct.

 

Pac-10 spokesman Jim Muldoon did not immediately return telephone calls for comment about Boren's letter.

 

Boren requested "an apology from the Pac-10 for the gross errors in officiating" and also called for the Pac-10 to change its rule that requires only Pac-10 officials be used for nonconference home games.

 

The letter also asks the Big 12 to place on the agendas of NCAA meetings and conference commissioners' meetings a discussion of how the review process should be implemented.

 

"It is truly sad and deeply disappointing that members of our football team should be deprived of the outcome of the game that they deserved because of an inexcusable breakdown in officiating," Boren wrote.

 

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said Sunday that the university would request a "comprehensive review of specific officiating decisions and use of instant replay" in the game.

AP NEWS

The Associated Press News Service

 

Copyright 2005-2006, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved

[jwest27 0]

Dave Boren demands satisfaction!

[CanadianChris 0]

I agree the officials should be suspended, but he'll never get the game wiped out.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

NORMAN, Okla. -- The Pacific-10 Conference suspended for one game the officiating crew and the instant replay officials that worked Saturday's Oklahoma-Oregon football game after finding mistakes were made in calls near the end of the contest.

 

Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen said Monday that a review by conference officials of video of the game revealed that both the instant replay officials and the game officials assigned by the conference made errors in the final minute and 12 seconds of the game.

 

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops argues with a referee following Oregon's onside kick in the fourth quarter on Saturday.

 

Oklahoma lost the game 34-33 after Oregon scored two touchdowns near the end of the game.

 

An onside kick by Oregon after its first late touchdown was touched by a Ducks player before it traveled the required 10 yards, and the Pac-10 ruled that the ball should have been awarded to Oklahoma. The league also said that video revealed that an Oklahoma player actually recovered the ball.

 

Officials on the field gave the ball to Oregon, and replay officials did not overturn that decision.

 

During a subsequent play, pass interference was called on Oklahoma, setting up the winning score. The Sooners argued that the ball had been tipped at the line of scrimmage, thereby nullifying the pass interference call.

 

Replay officials did not see indisputable evidence to overturn the penalty.

 

"The fact that the errors on the onside kick altered the outcome of the game is most unfortunate and unsettling," Hansen said in a statement. "We had a solid veteran crew assigned, and the instant replay official had a fine career as a referee in the Pac-10. We believe in the ability and integrity of each individual involved. It should be noted that not all of the seven officials were directly involved in the play in question, but the entire crew bears responsibility for every play. Game officials and replay officials have positions of great responsibility and must be accountable for their actions.

 

"Errors clearly were made and not corrected, and for that we apologize to the University of Oklahoma, coach Bob Stoops and his players. They played an outstanding college football game, as did Oregon, and it is regrettable that the outcome of the contest was affected by the officiating."

 

After the Sooners' practice Monday night, Stoops said the apology brought him no satisfaction.

 

"At least they have reacted to it and tried. Truly there can be no amends to it and it can't be corrected," Stoops said.

 

The loss was Oklahoma's first of the season and immediately lessens the Sooners' chances of making it to a third BCS title game in four years.

 

"I've made a million mistakes. I'll make a million more in each game, and in that game included, I wish there were things I could have done differently or changed," Stoops said. "Unlike officials, players and coaches don't have that opportunity. They had an opportunity to get it right and they chose not to. So I find it still absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable."

 

University of Oklahoma president David Boren sent a letter Monday to Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg, saying the officiating problems was beyond an "outrageous injustice," and asking him to pursue having the game eliminated from the record books and having the officials involved in the game suspended for the remainder of the season.

 

Weiberg responded with a statement saying the result of the game would stand.

 

"There is no provision under NCAA or conference rules for a game result to be reversed or changed as a result of officiating errors, nor do I believe there should be," he said.

 

Boren acknowledged the Pac-10's response to the situation.

 

"I appreciate the apology issued by the Pac-10 Commissioner and his action in penalizing the game officials," Boren said in a statement. "I hope this will lead to further national review of the responsibilities of replay officials and the way in which they interact with game officials on the field. I also hope this situation will lead the Pac-10 to change their policy of requiring that only officials of the Pac-10 officiate the home games of Pac-10 universities when they are hosting a non-conference opponent."

 

Weiberg didn't see the last concern being resolved either.

 

"This policy is well known nationally and institutions, including OU, know this to be the case at the time of entering into contracts to play Pac-10 opponents," he said.

 

Hansen said that the officials will be closely monitored in the future, but he acknowledged that they don't have an easy job.

 

"Officiating on the field is much more difficult than it appears from the stands, and certainly when watching repeated replays," Hansen said. "Plays occur at a high rate of speed. Decisions on the field must be made instantaneously. The training and experience of officials at this level enable them to work at a high degree of accuracy. Unfortunately, at the critical moment of this game errors were made."

 

Hansen said that officials are limited to the available television shots of the action, but "on the kickoff play ample views were available."

[Damaramu 0]

In the end it sucks because even though they admit that they were wrong and OU should've had the ball to win the game it doesn't change anything. Basically OU could run the table and be left out of the national title game b/c they have one loss.

Imagine if OU were to do that.....be a one loss team? The fans in Norman would be atomic. Then imagine if there were no undefeated teams? OU would've been guaranteed a place in the title game if that were to happen.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Did anyone here actually think Dama would stop mentioning the game when he said he would.

[Secret Agent 0]

*raises hand*

[MrRant 0]

You don't see them reversing games in pro sports due to a blown call, they shouldn't do it in the NCAA either.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Damn crazy Oklahomans

 

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The instant replay official whose failure to overturn a bad call led to a narrow Oregon victory over Oklahoma said Monday he feels like he is under siege after threatening phone calls, including a death threat.

 

Gordon Riese said he would make a decision soon about whether to finish the season, or even whether to return next year.

 

"I'm struggling with it," Riese said in an interview at his home. "I feel so bad I missed that call, it's driving me crazy."

 

A former college baseball pitcher in the 1960s who was inducted into the Portland State Hall of Fame in 1997, Riese said he never played football but always enjoyed the game during 28 years as a Pacific-10 Conference official.

 

"I loved it, I absolutely loved it," Riese said.

 

But that was before he became an instant replay official.

 

"I've felt much, much more pressure as an instant replay official than I ever did on the field," Riese said.

 

He said the equipment is not as sophisticated as NFL replay equipment, and does not allow the official to freeze the frame. But Riese lays the blame on himself after replays showed that an onside kick was touched by an Oregon player before it had traveled the required 10 yards. The Ducks went on to score the go-ahead touchdown.

 

"I can't sleep, I can't eat, my blood pressure is skyrocketing," Riese said, looking haggard and worn as he sat on the front porch of his house.

 

His wife is a registered nurse, and has been checking his blood pressure every four hours, he said.

 

Riese said he has stopped answering the phone, and police are investigating the threatening calls while keeping an eye on his neighborhood.

 

"They not only threatened me, they threatened my wife and kids," Riese said.

 

Riese has endured plenty of physical pain in his career. He said a torn rotator cuff ended his pitching days, all the ligaments in his right knee were torn when he was hit by an Oregon defensive back at Autzen Stadium in a 1984 game against Washington State, and he suffered a separated collarbone when he was run over by opposing linemen trying to block each other in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.

 

The knee and the collarbone still bother him, occasionally, he said.

 

But not as much as his ruling from the booth last Saturday, Riese said.

 

"I don't know how to deal with it," he said. "I guess it's just one of those things."

[Guest]

Fuck OU fans. It's just a game.

 

EDIT: It's probably not just them, but people that lost big money on the game.

[jwest27 0]

Lots of team's die-hard fans do shit like that. Like the Cardinals and poor Don Denkinger.

 

I can't imagine actually sending someone a death threat over a sports game. That's fucked up. You hear about that kind of thing waaay too much in sports. People need to take things less seriously.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Fortunately, SC's defense is great. Love the linebackers.

You're right about that, linebacker is the Trojans' deepest position -- at least seven guys could start. Josh Pinkard being out is a big loss but because it's so early, Taylor Mays has plenty of time to get acquainted as a Safety. Now get Sedrick Ellis back asap and the defensive middle should be perfectly strong.

 

The loss of Powdrell is big, but running back is the second deepest position and they'll probably throw Havili or Bradford in there when they need a fullback... and then go with Des Reed on purely passing downs. The O-line is very good and will only get better.

 

The biggest issue is really the maturation of John David Booty. His completion percentage HAS been stellar, but it's mostly because of the vanilla offense. One of my good friends made it to the game, and he said that the crowd in his section could pick out the receiver Booty was throwing to... that's how badly he stares receivers down. It will be imperative that, as Kiffin moves into the more complex plays, Booty improves his mental approach. His arm is stronger than Leinart's but he has a ways to go in intangibles. Not that I don't believe he'll get there.

[Damaramu 0]

Did anyone here actually think Dama would stop mentioning the game when he said he would.

 

Well seems how there's been new developments it kind of needed to be brought up. God damn. I mean the Pac 10 admitted OU was hosed and should've won the game. That had to be mentioned.

 

Oh and the death threats is stupid. It's just a game at the end of the day.

[MrRant 0]

Dama - Anger management consultant.

[Guest]

The loss of Powdrell is big, but running back is the second deepest position and they'll probably throw Havili or Bradford in there when they need a fullback... and then go with Des Reed on purely passing downs. The O-line is very good and will only get better.

I'm still surprised that they moved Bradford to the offensive side of the ball. Could really use him at safety.

[Damaramu 0]

Wow I didn't even see the reaction from ESPN until I saw it on the local news. Skip Bayliss, Tim Cowlinshaw, Tony Kornheiser, and Michael Wilbon all called it bullshit.

Wilbon said if he was a voter he wouldn't even count the loss because OU won the game according to him!

Even the Oregonian declared it a travesty and said OU should've won.

 

Now I ask the Oregon fans here........how can you be proud of this victory? After everyone media, conference officials, Oregon PLAYERS(Paysinger said he touched the ball first and touched it before it travelled 10 yards) admit that it was a farce and OU should've won the game!

Everyone is saying that it was a horrible ending to the game and that OU was dicked hard.

How can you be proud of it? I'd love to hear the reaction from Oregon fans. I'd like to have heard their talk radio today.

 

I didn't even know an OU player actually recovered the kick until I watched the video. That's even worse.

[Art Sandusky 0]

This is getting a tad out of hand.

[Jorge Gorgeous 0]

Wow I didn't even see the reaction from ESPN until I saw it on the local news. Skip Bayliss, Tim Cowlinshaw, Tony Kornheiser, and Michael Wilbon all called it bullshit.

Wilbon said if he was a voter he wouldn't even count the loss because OU won the game according to him!

Even the Oregonian declared it a travesty and said OU should've won.

 

Now I ask the Oregon fans here........how can you be proud of this victory? After everyone media, conference officials, Oregon PLAYERS(Paysinger said he touched the ball first and touched it before it travelled 10 yards) admit that it was a farce and OU should've won the game!

Everyone is saying that it was a horrible ending to the game and that OU was dicked hard.

How can you be proud of it? I'd love to hear the reaction from Oregon fans. I'd like to have heard their talk radio today.

 

I didn't even know an OU player actually recovered the kick until I watched the video. That's even worse.

 

This is getting fucking ridiculous. I pose this question to you...

 

How can you be proud of a team that couldn't play enough defense to preserve a 13 point lead with under 4 minutes left in the game? Hell, even if Oregon automaticly got the ball back everytime they scored... a championship defense wouldn't be allowing a touchdown every two minutes.

 

The onside kick call was probably wrong, but it certainly isn't as clear as night and day. Paysinger jumped before the ten yards, but to me (and I've watched the replay a million times) its not clear that he touched the ball before ten yards... I'm not saying thats what I think happened, but I can see how someone else could.

 

As for the pass interference call. Boo-fucking-hoo. You don't hear anyone complaining about the no-call on Malcolm Kelly's push-off to make that touchdown catch earlier in the game, and THAT was big push-off. PI calls are fucked up all the time.

 

You wanna know how I can be proud of this victory? Because the Ducks playing 4 turnover football were only down 13 to an Oklahoma team that was playing mistake free football. Then, when most teams (and it appears your Oklahoma team is on that list) would quit, Oregon kept trying. Even through Dixon fumbling a snap they kept trying. They put up 14 points to go up by one, and then, they blocked a fucking field goal.

 

Dennis Dixon, Jaison Williams, Patrick Chung... not one of those guys fucked up the call, an official fucked up the call. The players seized every opportunity they were given, and thats why I'm proud.

 

So Dama, please, shut the fuck up about the game already. Oklahoma is 2-1, and that isn't changing. Every team thats ever played a single game of anything has gotten "dicked hard" on some calls. Just stop.

[Guest TheJuice31]

Having paid attention to this thread and being an OU student myself, I came across an article that will appear in today's Oregonian. Needless to say, some more interesting developments have surfaced regarding the blown call:

 

Canzano: Official wasn't shown all replays shown on TV

 

The seventh threatening telephone call at Gordon Riese's home came a few minutes after eight o'clock on Monday morning. It was from an Oklahoma fan who told Riese, the Pacific-10 Conference replay official from Saturday's Ducks-Sooners game, he was going to fly to Portland, find the family home, and kill Riese and his wife.

 

"I called the police," said Riese, 64, "then, I unplugged the phone."

 

The deputy who arrived to take the report assured Riese that murderers don't typically alert their victims before flying in from out of state to commit the crime. Then, the deputy added, "Maybe you should leave town for a couple of days, if it makes you feel better."

 

Football is a game, you're thinking.

 

Right up to the point where an Oregon player touches an onside-kick attempt a step too early, turning the scramble for the ball into a melee where players are rushing the field celebrating, and the ball is squirting through everyone's legs like they were wickets in a human croquet match. Then, the officials on the field blow the call. Then, the review process, instituted to rectify situations just like this, upholds the bad call, causing many of us, including some self-important university president at Oklahoma, to wonder, "Was Mr. Magoo in the replay booth?"

 

Well, no.

 

It was Gordon Riese in the booth. He has a name, he has a life. And after visiting with him on Monday, and learning more from some others about what happened in that review booth, I'm convinced that every honk who criticized Riese in the last 72 hours owes the man a swift apology.

 

Said Riese: "I'm having a difficult time letting the blown call go. I always prided myself on getting it right. I didn't get the job done. I didn't get it right."

 

More on the blown call later.

 

First, you need to know that Riese met his wife, Susan, while they were students at Wilson High School. They had a math course together, and after an extended illness put her behind in school, the teacher assigned Gordon to be her tutor.

 

They've been married 42 years, had two children, and two grandchildren -- Jeff, 5, and Alex, 4. And you should know that Gordon's real job was teaching math at Benson and Gresham high schools for 34 years.

 

Until his retirement from on-field officiating two years ago, Riese was well respected. He worked Rose Bowls and Fiesta Bowls. When you officiate for three decades, you come to understand that you're going to make some mistakes. He just doesn't like making them, which is why he was one of the good ones.

 

In 1982, during the Cal-Stanford "Big Game," Riese was working as the line judge. He was running alongside the play during the wild finish, and should have been in position to see the fifth lateral, which appears to be forward. Ask Riese about it and he'll tell you that he was out of position. He'd mistakenly headed to the goal line, where he was swarmed by the Stanford band, and couldn't see the lateral.

 

Two years ago, after he'd retired, the conference talked him into the replay booth because it wanted someone familiar with the rules up there.

 

"It's a different pressure being in the booth versus being on the field," Riese said. "It's a whole different ballgame. Haven't learned to deal with that kind of stress."

 

Riese, who is paid $400 a game to work the replay booth, said he knew almost immediately that the call was blown. He called it "instinct." He'd looked hard at 10 plays during the game, stopped to analyze five of them, and overturned three of those five on-field calls, getting them right. But it was that terrible onside kick that he replayed in his mind, and agonized over as he drove his brown Toyota van the two hours back to Portland after the game.

 

Said Riese: "I was so unsettled, I probably shouldn't have driven."

 

When Riese arrived home, he discovered his wife had videotaped the game, but he couldn't bring himself to watch it. He already knew what would be on the tape. So Riese just sat on the sofa in a daze until the newspaper hit his driveway, and the sun came up. You should know, the man everyone is pinning this loss on didn't sleep after the game.

 

"We're so worried about his health," Karen Jackson, Riese's daughter, said Monday as her father and the rest of the crew was handed a one-game suspension by the conference. "Dad has high blood pressure and right now we can't get his diastolic under 100."

 

Nevermind that the on-field officials blew the call. Nevermind that Oklahoma's defense allowed Oregon to score two easy touchdowns in 26 seconds. Nevermind that there were other blown calls on the field, including a couple of bizarre play-clock issues, and a thousand on-field plays, and calls by both coaches, that could have altered the outcome of this game a hundred different ways.

 

Nope.

 

It's Riese's spleen the country wants.

So let's give it to them. But first you should know that Riese didn't see the ABC television feed that viewers watched at home, which you, your spouse and your children know showed an Oregon player touching the ball before it traveled the required 10 yards. And you should know that Riese will not talk about specifics on the call, but said: "My supervisor knows what happened up there and that's all that matters."

 

A source in the replay booth on Saturday said that Riese found himself crunched for time, pressured by television and the on-field referee for a rapid decision, and there was such a delay in getting the video feed to Riese that he never even got to properly review the play.

 

The Pac-10's coordinator of football officiating confirmed that Riese didn't get all of the replays that ABC was providing.

 

With all the cameras working the game that one half of the country was watching, Riese saw only a single frame of video, the source said. The angle was bad. But it appeared to show an Oklahoma player touching the ball with his helmet before it hit the Oregon player. (From other angles, clearly, it hits the Ducks player first.) With no other video immediately available, and television waiting, Riese did what he's told to do when he's out of time and has no conclusive evidence.

 

He upheld the call on the field.

 

The university president wants this to go down as a no-contest. Some Oklahoma fans want retribution. Some conference officials just want this to quietly go away because it smacks of a serious problem with the replay process. And what we're really probably entitled to any regular American fifth grader would tell you is a playground do-over.

 

Adults don't do those things, though.

 

Kill the umpire, right? Zebra hunt?

 

This is probably a good time to remind ourselves that sports isn't war. It's not life or death. College football is supposed to be a pleasant, passionate weekend diversion, void of death threats for sure. There's just something that doesn't feel right about villifying Riese, especially after further review.