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There are two conflicting philosophies on officiating. One is that the coaches and administrators make the rules and pay the officials to enforce their rules (and I'm not aware of any level where the officials are represented on the rules committee). The schools sign the officials to a contract which obligates the officials to call the game the using the published rules. The individual official's opinion of the wisdom of the rule should be irrelevant.
The other philosophy is that officials need to let the players play, etc. Slavish adherence to the rule book will make the game excessively long/no fun/ not entertaining, etc. A good official will temper the rules as written with football sense and weigh the advantage gained by a foul against the disruption of the game by throwing the flag.
Every good official needs to balance these two philosophies and come up with the mix that is appropriate for the level of his game that day. That's why I have a problem with some posts that use the NFL as the ultimate authority on mechanics or enforcement. The NFL game is different from NCAA. NCAA differs from BCS bowls to non-bowl games. Div I is different that Div III. NCAA is different that NFHS. Jack Folliard's comments are appropriate for a nationally televised BCS bowl game and, personally, I agree with him on this game. To infer, however, that this interpretation is appropriate for games at other levels would be a mistake.
What is a good call or mechanic in high school may not good call in college. What's good in college may get you booted out of the NFL. What's works in the pros may be a terrible idea in high school.
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