Just My Opinion

Every weekend events unfold on the football field that make you shake your head and make you wonder. This includes officials calls on the field, coaches or players decisions on the field or the things that some announcers say in the booth.

One of the readers of this blog sent me a message for me to chime in on some of the calls I witnessed over the weekend so I'll take that as an opening to voice some opinions on that and some other topics.

First thing, I would like to voice some displeasure about a comment that ABC's Brent Musberger made during the Miami/Oklahoma match-up Saturday night. Musberger said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "That only one player has been arrested on the Miami team since coach Randy Shannon took over the program." I know Miami has had its share of problems and many arrests over the years but come on. Is just one arrest something to be proud of and to talk about on national television? Don't get me wrong I believe that Coach Shannon is cleaning up the program but one arrest is too many for any college football program.

The excessive celebration penalty called against A.J. Greene of Georgia, after scoring late, in the LSU/Georgia game was a joke. I watched the replay over and over, thanks DVR, and could not see one time where there was an excessive celebration. Emotions are a big part of the college football game and it is why many fans prefer it over the professional version. All Greene did was gesture to the home crowd and then was mobbed by his teammates, excited and emotional yes, excessive no way. The officials should not determine the outcome of a game and they played a big part in setting LSU up with good field position, because of the penalty, to get the go ahead score. On the flip side of that, when LSU scored, running back Charles Scott scored and was also hit with and excessive celebration penalty. While Scott did throw both hands into the air and pointed his fingers towards the heavens I don't know if that would qualify as excessive celebration either. It seems it was just a payback to Georgia for the first call. One call, or two calls in this matter, do not determine the outcome of a game, but they sure can point it in the right direction.

The pass interference call late in the FSU/Boston College game was also a joke. First, many would have to question whether or not the pass was even catchable. Secondly, is it pass interference if the players feet get tangled up on a drenched foot ball field. The call came on third down and ten and the very next play BC busted off a 39 yard run. While the call didn't determine the outcome of the game, and again, it sure pointed it in the right direction.

I've seen a lot of defensive backs this year get called for interference when the fans, announcers and yours truly would agree that it was just good defense. I know what the rules says but it sure does open the door for a lot of interpretation on the field.

All weekend long, and it didn't matter which network you were watching, all the studio shows and game announcers could talk about was the Tim Tebow injury. I was sick of hearing about it by the end of the night. Hell, the Gators weren't even playing Saturday. I know that it was a big hit, I blogged about, but there were some other items of interest for the weekend. Even the ACC pre-game show on Sports South had a segment on Tebow and his damaged melon. Some analysts, Kirk Herbstreit (ABC, ESPN), were questioning if Tebow should even suit up next week against LSU. That took place during the Miami-Oklahoma thriller. Tebow got more coverage than 95% of the players who were actually playing Saturday and he didn't even take a snap. No one talked about Sam Bradford, reigning Heisman winner, when he went down. The love affair with Tebow continues. Wonder how much coverage Tebow gets when he turns pro and is stuck in Jacksonville playing for the Jags. That's a whole new blog post right there.