Big XII Champ Crew
 

Anyboyd know who has been assigned the championship game??

Haven't heard, but if the Big XII gave Mike Leach any creditibility, noone from Oklahoma or Missouri is working it!

R was Clete Blakeman from Omaha. He's a former Nebraska quarterback who's moved up pretty quickly to that R position. From the looks of it, it was his normal crew that worked the game as I recognized some of the other officials. Don't know their names, just their faces.

Clete is an R now? Wow, 2 years ago he came to our GPAC NAIA meeting and was a relatively new H. Congrats to him!

I know a guy that has been on his crew (wasn't this year) and he said Blakeman will be in the NFL soon.

It sounds as though this person has moved up very quickly. Kudos to him!

Absolutely Juggling Referee. If they can do the job, then let them work.

On a different note, it looks like from the reports I have seen on ESPN and watched myself, that the Big East crew that worked the Pitt/West Virigina game struggled.

Did anybody else watch the game or parts of the game? If so, what did you think?

I saw parts of it John, but I was also talking on the phone with friends, so I didn't pay much attention to the game on TV.

I caught a lot of the game and the announcers were very critcial of several calls. There was apparently a "phantom" hold on a Pitt touchdown early in the game but I never saw a replay.

There was another 3rd down play late when Pitt was trying to run out the clock when Pitt picked up a first down on a run. A flag came flying in from the BJ to the sideline on a holding call on the receiver lead blocker (right in front of Dave Wanstedt, Pitt HC). They showed a couple replays but they weren't close enough to tell if he held or not. It definitely looked like he could. On one replay, the announcer circled the HL and indicated he was looking right at the block when he threw the flag. Not only was he not the one who threw the flag, he was also not looking at the block since he was watching the runner at that point.

On the next play (a replay of 3rd down), Pitt threw a pass to the same receiver again in front of Wanstedt. The pass was incomplete and the coach went nuts screaming for a hold. When they showed the replay, the DB definitely grabbed jersey but it had no impact on the receivers ability to move and the pass was about 10 yards over his head. It could have gone either way but I thought it was a fine no call.

Other than that, I don't remember anything too crazy. I was going back and forth between Pitt-WV and Mizzou-OU. What a crazy night of college football but a fitting end to a crazy season!

great description BisonLJ. I saw the two plays and would have described them exactly the same. Although, my gut tells me the OH late in the game wasn't big enough to call but he called it so there must have been something there.

Matter of fact, Clete was over in Europe a spring or two ago (can't remember when, but there was a write-up in the paper), working the NFL Europe league, with Ed Holuchi if I recall right.

Some of the guys are on other crews. I know for sure the U and the H aren't on his regular season crew.

Also, if he worked with a Hochuli in Europe, it was probably Ed's son, I think his name is Shawn.

Correct; Ed does have a son named Shawn who also officiates.

He is a deep official, I think he was a field judge when I saw him working in NFLE.

I think the SideJudge had a tough day. The problem is he called back a touchdown and a crucial first down on ticy tack holding calls (trying to be politicy correct), then let an obvious defensive holding go. All were calls involving the same receiver, so I'm not sure if he had an issue with that wide receiver. But the series of calls made him look pretty bad. Other than that I thought they did a pretty good job.

First of all I admit I'm a Missouri fan so...

I thought the Big 12 crew did an OK job. They missed a big huge hold at the point of attack on OU's first TD. The U was looking right at it, but let it go. They also missed a tackller leading with this helmet on a defensless receiver. And, of course, Coach Stubbs felt free to roam as far on the field as he wanted.

None of the calls probably changed the course of the game probably but the crew looked like they were reluctant to call anything because this was a conference championship on prime time TV. I think often officials in this type of game error in letting too much stuff go in the interest of "letting them play".

Stoops (and his staff) is always on the field and usually recieves more sideline warnings than probably any other coach in America. He may be part woman, as much as he b!+che$.

I was also rooting for Mizzou, but I will say the officials were excellent. The R will be working on Sundays very soon I think. He was cool and calm. I also think the crew did a great job with the extracurriculars. Mizzou players got frustrated.

You are referring to the Big East crew not the Big 12 crew correct?

Correct, this topic is kind of fragmented.

I don't know about Shawn Hochuli, but I know an NFL white hat was Clete's white hat in Europe. Maybe it wasn't Ed? I wish I could find that article.

It is possible.

Here's an article I found on Shawn: http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/...ers-footsteps/

I'm still racking my brains over who the white hat was that sent Clete the rulebook and mechanics book, etc, before he went over to Europe.

They also had some phantom PF/UC's on pitt in addition to those weak hold calls. The crew in general, especially that side judge, had a rough night. Good thing the wrong team didn't win because those hold calls came at very critical points in the game.

Where were the blockers hands? Yup, they were clearly outside.

Please explain to me exactly how those were "weak calls."

No offense, but you sound like the announcers.

Yes both calls were by SJ, both were holding calls, both against the same Pitt player, and both 'brought back' very important plays. Now I'm not a consipirace theorist and I am not buying into theories by a few media members, but the calls were not good at all (to try and use a mild language). I was flipping between games, and otherwise, when I watched this one, the officiating seemed fine....