2024 non-GT games thread

[ThatGuy]

After this years season wraps, I think the NCAA needs to have a hard look at officiating . It's quite clear to me, there is bias and rules aren't applied evenly across all games. The officiating has been terrible across the board especially this bowl season

Since they make the rules, perhaps it's time for the NCAA to assume accountability for rule enforcement (i.e. referees), rather than the individual conferences?

...naaah. Too logical.

 

[ThatGuy]

i think Parker Jones will be in the portal tomorrow

I think Parker Jones will be in .... eh, I better not even say in jest.

All kidding aside, he might want to find a safe way home. Their fans(sic) are not hinged.

The comments on this Reddit thread are *chef's kiss*:

 

[Northeast Stinger]

The comments on this Reddit thread are *chef's kiss*:

That’s cold. Funny as hell. But cold.

 

[Poodletop]

Minnesota up on turkey boys 21-10 at halftime.

 

[ThatGuy]

Overall it has been an awfully chalky and pretty uninteresting playoff to this point. We are left with the #3-6 teams.
The #6 ranked team is the most talented team in the playoff and has been a buzzsaw so far. #2 team didn't have its starting QB.

I dunno. To me this has been VERY interesting. So far it's invalidated both the BCS (top 2) AND (almost) the 4-team playoff formats. Seems very validating.

 

[ThatGuy]

Can I get more educated on the officials being in the bag for the SEC? Seems the SEC would have done better than getting only Texas through if a decent conspiracy was underway?

Refs had plenty of opportunity to control the outcome of last's game but seemed to "fail"? I guess its really the perfect conspiracy. Enough to convince some. Not enough to convince others.

Circling back to this - agreed with others that "bias" is the real thing, for most officiating crews.

Except for SEC officials.

I'm sure most everyone on this board remembers the Jasper Sanks fumble. Before that game, the SEC officiating crew for the game at Bobby Dodd was the highest-rated crew of all the SEC officiating crews, and was supposed to officiate the SEC Championship game the following week. After the game was over, the SEC reviewed it, called them all in, gave them a sharp tongue-lashing, and removed them from the SECCG. They went home and didn't officiate again that season.

It's hard for me to believe that taking away the prestige of officiating the SEC Championship Game (as well as the extra ~10% of their season pay from that game) didn't send a sharp message to other SEC officials: if it's a questionable call, call it in favor of the SEC, or suffer the consequences.

Lo and behold, it's seemed for years that questionable calls from SEC officials seem to go in favor of the conference favorite. Who wants to see their livelihood affected if they make a wrong call and keep one of the anointed "favorite" teams out of the playoffs?

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Circling back to this - agreed with others that "bias" is the real thing, for most officiating crews.

Except for SEC officials.

I'm sure most everyone on this board remembers the Jasper Sanks fumble. Before that game, the SEC officiating crew for the game at Bobby Dodd was the highest-rated crew of all the SEC officiating crews, and was supposed to officiate the SEC Championship game the following week. After the game was over, the SEC reviewed it, called them all in, gave them a sharp tongue-lashing, and removed them from the SECCG. They went home and didn't officiate again that season.

It's hard for me to believe that taking away the prestige of officiating the SEC Championship Game (as well as the extra ~10% of their season pay from that game) didn't send a sharp message to other SEC officials: if it's a questionable call, call it in favor of the SEC, or suffer the consequences.

Lo and behold, it's seemed for years that questionable calls from SEC officials seem to go in favor of the conference favorite. Who wants to see their livelihood affected if they make a wrong call and keep one of the anointed "favorite" teams out of the playoffs?

Well, do I remember. Dooley’s comments practically put their lives in danger and the governor was talking out loud about calling them in for an investigation. At the time, I thought, “Sheesh, you’ve never had a call not go your way?” Apparently not.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I dunno. To me this has been VERY interesting. So far it's invalidated both the BCS (top 2) AND (almost) the 4-team playoff formats. Seems very validating.

Absolutely!

Back during the four team playoff the committee tried to convince us that the purpose of a playoff is to produce a close game. Even though they failed to produce many close games some people must have taken that to heart.

The purpose of any playoff in any sport is not to produce close games; it is to take all the subjective analysis of who are the better teams and settle it on the field of play.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

https://apple.news/AZ4-pWWi6S1WVksQ-p37ikg

You don’t even have to read the article. Just look at the headline and smile with quiet satisfaction.

 

[Southern psu fan]

https://apple.news/AZ4-pWWi6S1WVksQ-p37ikg

You don’t even have to read the article. Just look at the headline and smile with quiet satisfaction.

With the transfer portal the SEC doesn’t have the advantage they use to have. All the teams in P4 have good players the SEC just had more depth. That depth advantage they use to have is scattering all over the country because of NIL money….money usually wins.

 

[Randy Carson]

An article elsewhere stated that Marcus Freeman outcoached Kirby Smart. This is a concept I've never really understood.

I understand that a coach can fail to have his QB take a knee or can misuse his timeouts, etc, but since the HC does not call the plays or set up the defense in specific situations, how did Smart get outcoached?

 

[Southern psu fan]

An article elsewhere stated that Marcus Freeman outcoached Kirby Smart. This is a concept I've never really understood.

I understand that a coach can fail to have his QB take a knee or can misuse his timeouts, etc, but since the HC does not call the plays or set up the defense in specific situations, how did Smart get outcoached?

IMO Kirby should’ve called time out 2 times and didn’t. One with the play before halftime and being confused on the punt play. Them 2 plays killed the pups

 

[roadkill]

An article elsewhere stated that Marcus Freeman outcoached Kirby Smart. This is a concept I've never really understood.

I understand that a coach can fail to have his QB take a knee or can misuse his timeouts, etc, but since the HC does not call the plays or set up the defense in specific situations, how did Smart get outcoached?

IMO Kirby should’ve called time out 2 times and didn’t. One with the play before halftime and being confused on the punt play. Them 2 plays killed the pups

Freeman stated that the purpose of the mass substitution was to get Kirby to burn a precious TO. Kirby stated he knew this was what ND wanted and chose not to. You could say he made a poor decision there, but that's not the same as getting outcoached. The offsides penalty was not part of either coach’s plan.

It’s not clear to me that Freeman “outcoached” Kirby here although it appeared that way in hindsight due to the offsides penalty and subsequent first down.

 

[bobongo]

Well, do I remember. Dooley’s comments practically put their lives in danger and the governor was talking out loud about calling them in for an investigation. At the time, I thought, “Sheesh, you’ve never had a call not go your way?” Apparently not.

Calls go both ways and refs can't see everything. Sometimes their view is blocked, as was the case in '99. We now have replays which improve the accuracy of the calls, but they aren't a panacea. Refs make mistakes just as everyone else in the stadium - coaches, players, and even us fans. We should all keep that in mind.

But for the SEC to put its finger on the scale and send a message that the refs had better not call one against a conference team in a non-conference game on the line was just wrong. The message was clear, because any intellectually honest person would admit that their reaction would have been totally different had the uniforms been reversed and Tech was the one to have "fumbled". In that case, they wouldn't have uttered a peep about it.

 

[GT33]

An article elsewhere stated that Marcus Freeman outcoached Kirby Smart. This is a concept I've never really understood.

not-Smart runs an undisciplined program & Freeman has the complete opposite. When you have much better talent, but your players are trained to behave like neanderthals, you get outcoached. Their goons make undisciplined mistakes at the worst time.

 

[kg01]

An article elsewhere stated that Marcus Freeman outcoached Kirby Smart. This is a concept I've never really understood.

I understand that a coach can fail to have his QB take a knee or can misuse his timeouts, etc, but since the HC does not call the plays or set up the defense in specific situations, how did Smart get outcoached?

Kirby and his staff clearly failed to respond to the plan and maneuvers in-game that were made under Freeman's direction.

That = outcoached

It's not hard.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

An article elsewhere stated that Marcus Freeman outcoached Kirby Smart. This is a concept I've never really understood.

I understand that a coach can fail to have his QB take a knee or can misuse his timeouts, etc, but since the HC does not call the plays or set up the defense in specific situations, how did Smart get outcoached?

Lack of production in red zone, choosing to kick to a return man to start the second half, conservative play calls on critical down and distance situations, continuing to believe throughout the game that Georgia could just outmuscle Notre Dame, failure to control his own sideline which was a problem for most of the game and ended up costing them, waiting too long to call timeouts when Notre Dame was running the ball to run out the clock, and, this is maybe a little picky, but it seemed like Kirby should have put his QB in situations to be successful early in the game knowing that Notre Dame is known for terrorizing QBs.

 

[RonJohn]

Freeman stated that the purpose of the mass substitution was to get Kirby to burn a precious TO. Kirby stated he knew this was what ND wanted and chose not to. You could say he made a poor decision there, but that's not the same as getting outcoached. The offsides penalty was not part of either coach’s plan.

It’s not clear to me that Freeman “outcoached” Kirby here although it appeared that way in hindsight due to the offsides penalty and subsequent first down.

Freeman may have wanted the TO at the time, but that play was designed to cause an offsides. If they just go for it, the linebacker with the radio will be told to go to the DL and stress that they watch the ball and not jump on snap count. The way ND ran it, the defense was only able to get on the field and lined up. The defensive players had gotten to the sideline and started relaxing a little. Then at the last second they are rushed on the field and get lined up for a high stress play. I am sure that the ND center was told for that play to pay attention to nothing but the defensive line. If someone enters the neutral zone, then snap the ball. If not, do not move the ball at all no matter what. That is a play designed to take advantage of a stressed out defense and either get an offsides or call a timeout.

EDIT: Plus it is Freeman outcoaching Smart because Smart didn't even know what the rule was.

 

[RonJohn]

Lack of production in red zone, choosing to kick to a return man to start the second half, conservative play calls on critical down and distance situations, continuing to believe throughout the game that Georgia could just outmuscle Notre Dame, failure to control his own sideline which was a problem for most of the game and ended up costing them, waiting too long to call timeouts when Notre Dame was running the ball to run out the clock, and, this is maybe a little picky, but it seemed like Kirby should have put his QB in situations to be successful early in the game knowing that Notre Dame is known for terrorizing QBs.

When the HC demonstrates that it is perfectly acceptable to rush onto the field and shove the opposing quarter back, and the fans vehemently defend the HC because he "just didn't realize anyone was there": How can you blame Parker Jones for acting just like the HC?

EDIT: That is coaching, and that is on the HC. If he wants his players to be in control, then he needs to demonstrate that himself.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Freeman may have wanted the TO at the time, but that play was designed to cause an offsides. If they just go for it, the linebacker with the radio will be told to go to the DL and stress that they watch the ball and not jump on snap count. The way ND ran it, the defense was only able to get on the field and lined up. The defensive players had gotten to the sideline and started relaxing a little. Then at the last second they are rushed on the field and get lined up for a high stress play. I am sure that the ND center was told for that play to pay attention to nothing but the defensive line. If someone enters the neutral zone, then snap the ball. If not, do not move the ball at all no matter what. That is a play designed to take advantage of a stressed out defense and either get an offsides or call a timeout.

In real time I thought it was one of the most brilliant special teams plays I’ve seen. It contrasted sharply with earlier in the game when Kirby was set to punt on fourth and then sent his offense back on the field. His offense looked more harried that the ND defense and couldn’t even make two yards.