Blowing the Whistle: JRutledge Working the State Finals
 

Seems to be a very fitting day to do this...and...

Since he won't do it... wanted to say congratulations to Mr. Rutledge and his crew (Doyle, Majka, Ybarra, G Buchner) on being selected to work the State Finals in Illinois!

In honor of our dear friend...

Atta boy, Jeff!!

Congrats Rut!
Now call something for your pal bigjohn...

Congrats, Jeff.

:D

Hey Rut, Break a Leg! :p

Congrats, Rut. Don't be a pioneer!

The last part is what I will miss the most. :(

Thanks for the kind words. I would not be there without many others that helped me along the way.

Peace

Congrats and have a great game too!

Kudoos Rut

A repeat performance! Congrats Jeff!

Which class? We've still got two local teams alive in the semis.

Congrats Rut! It's well deserved

-Josh

To all those posters that think Jeff blows now know it is the whistle in the state finals.

Congratulations there, Kiddo.

Congrats, the 7A game should be pretty good. I hope to be there someday.

I do not blow too much, I am just a Back Judge. ;)

Peace

7A Championship.

All the teams left in that class have won a State Title in the last 5 or 6 years and two played each other. That game should be very interesting for sure. In my Bart Scott voice, "Can't wait!!!"

Peace

Well, it won't help for me to offer a bribe then. :D Congrats and have a great time in Champaign!

So how did it go?

It went very well. I have a game between two teams that had won a state title the year before. One was the defending title at that 7A and the other (who won) had won a title in 6A the previous year. It was a great game and the final score was 21-14 and I had a very big call near the end of the game which many said I was right who were watching (catch/no catch near the end of the end zone) which would have sealed the game late in the 4th Quarter. I have very proud of our crew and how we handled things throughout the game. The game called itself and players just played for the most part. I had a blast and honestly the prayer before the game was probably the most rememberable part of the entire weekend. I wish everyone the opportunity to work one of these games, it was very special.

Peace

I noticed you said many, not MOST! LOL!!

I bet you sold it though, Rut!

Good Job!
:)

I said many because there are always people that disagree. I am OK with that and honestly at the end of the day do not care what people think when I saw the replay several times and can live with the call. Then again those that disagreed, I consider the source too. I will put it this way, I got enough emails and messages that said I nailed it.

I sure did. ;)

Peace

Your crew had a good game. I thought it was well officiated. There was an interesting progress stopped/not stopped on the WWS fumble recovery for a TD. The camera angle was horrible so you could not see if he was still moving forward (which I assume he was seeing that it was ruled a fumble). Looks like it was a pretty lousy weather day though.

The weather looked worse on TV or from the press box. It was a steady very light rain, most of the water dissolved by the time you got to the field or was misty at best. It hardly affected anything we were doing. It also was not that cold or distracting. But to everyone it looked like we were getting drenched. I could take that a lot better than bitter cold. Thank God for weather blocker shirts and those pants.

Peace

Congrats Jeff. Glad you had a good game.

Thank Tony.

Peace

I saw video of the catch/no catch and support the call. It was close though and could have gone either way. If you ruled the receiver had firm possession before he was hit then it was a catch (some I talked to who watched it felt that way). This was not a situation where the receiver was going to the ground as part of making the catch. If you would have ruled catch I would have supported it as well. This is one you have to see on the field and make your best judgement and I feel you did that well! Nice work.