Texas Game Officiating Report

***Disclaimer*** I don't claim to be an expert on officiating. I am merely somebody that actively enjoys officiating football and am pursuing to improve my ability. Reviewing game films of collegiate officials is one way that I can do that.

I noted 17 penalties and also made comments on 4 other items that stuck out to me. I’ll noted everything as “good call, marginal call, bad call.” My scorecard is as follows:

Good call – 15

Marginal Call – 4

Bad Call – 1

Good Calls of Note

- 3:34 1^st Quarter (Unnecessary Roughness) – Waddle should’ve been ejected from the game for throwing a punch. He was definitely given the benefit of the doubt. This could be considered a marginal call but in the heat of the moment it’s possible it was seen as a shove instead of a punch.

- 13:52 2^nd Quarter (Unnecessary Roughness) – TT #42 steps in and shoves a Texas player to the ground

- 9:58 2^nd Quarter (Facemask) – On the punt, DJ Johnson grabs the facemask of the Texas defender and yanks his head violently to get past him and down to the return man.

- 3:17 2^nd Quarter (Intentional Grounding) – This was not a screen play. Potts was under duress and Aaron Crawford was serving as a pass blocker. Potts did not throw the ball into an area where Crawford could reasonably make attempt to catch the ball.

- 12:57 3^rd Quarter (Running into Kicker) – The Texas player was laying under the leg of the punter and didn’t make direct contact with his leg after the kick. The punter fell over the Texas player when bringing his leg back down.

- :55 3^rd Quarter (Offensive Holding) – Could have been called as block in the back. Penalty was announced as #63 (who had a questionable takedown of Bird) but #64 came in and pushed Bird in the back while he was engaged with #63 and that lead to him falling down.

- 14:23 4^th Quarter (Unnecessary Roughness) – Will Ford walks into the backside of a play where players are standing around and shoves a Texas player to the ground.

Marginal Calls/Non-Calls of Note

- 12:50 4^th Quarter (Taunting) – Ford makes a hit (likely not on a defenseless receiver) and then stands over him and does something. Not enough information to make a determination if this was a good/bad call.

- 9:50 4^th Quarter (Offensive Pass Int) – Leong was serving as a downfield blocker on this play instead of a receiver. He continued to block his defender after the pass was thrown and one could reasonably assume that the defensive player could make a play on the ball (a key element in pass interference) that was thrown in their vicinity. A reverse endzone angle would be very helpful for seeing if this was a good/bad call.

- No time recorded 4^th Quarter – Block in the back by #4 was missed on Bird as he tried to tackle the punt returner. I only mark it was marginal because the return man went out of bounds within a second of Bird being hit in the back and at the same yard line. As such, I can understand why it wasn’t flagged.

- 3:44 4^th Quarter – The Texas defender made a great play on the ball but he might have been playing “through the back” of Leong which would result in DPI. I would need a better TV angle to determine if this was a good/bad call.

Bad Calls of Note

- 5:01 2^nd Quarter – You know exactly what non-call I’m referring to here. The H (who can’t see the drop) rules a catch by Mike Davis. However, the U crashes in on the play and is signaling no catch and pointing at the ground to properly “sell the call” by saying the ball hit the turf. Without any further explanation or discussion the catch is granted and Texas gets a first down.

This play was screwed up by the R for granting the first down despite the U strongly selling “no catch,” the replay booth for not taking a second look (by the way when was the last time a TV game has ZERO replays), and the Tech coaching staff for not challenging the play.