Good game, where are the good refs
 

Got to watch one of the top 3 games in the Houston area yesterday. Had to wonder how this disfunctional mess of a crew got this game. If I would have been evaluating, we'd have an A, 2 B's, a D and an F.. with the whitehat getting the D. L was horribly lazy all game, and missed an obvious OPI in the endzone that resulted in a TD --- because he was about 20 yards away from the play (B missed it too, but his angle was such that I can see him missing it - it was obvious from L's angle though).

R announced Illegal participation twice while signalling illegal man downfield - both were illegal substitutions. R got into an argument with U after U (properly) walked off 10 on a hold. R was also slow with the announcement - so after insisting the spot be 2 yards off (an 8 yard penalty) and U placed it there, when R faced the press box to announce the penalty, U put it back in the right place. Right... but tacky and looked awful even to the laypeople sitting around me.

U started about every play WAY too far back, and was on the endline for a goalline play twice. He seemed afraid.

4 of the crew had letters designating their positions, the other did not. Looked bad.

On a non-call of IS when defense called time because their player was going to get off the field, R waited until the clock was done on the TO, and THEN went to talk to the coach who was upset... and then went across the field to talk to the other coach too. Was about a 3 minute timeout.

L kept winding the clock unnecessarily on plays ending inside the numbers ... and on at least one that went right up the middle. L also failed to give a sideline warning or infraction when he crashed into a coach ON the field during a punt return. Big famous title-winning home coach whose fame may have had something to do with it.

All around I was embarrassed that a few around me knew I was an official.

Oh ... forgot one more - twice they gave the ball to the return team at the wrong spot when it was touched by K at 2 different places. Both times they gave it at the first touch, but in both cases the ball was not possessed and moved 2-3 yards toward K's EZ before being touched again - the spot in both cases should have been the 2nd touching spot (which also included possession by K in both cases).

Hey, first touching is FIRST touching! Ha. ;)

I'll let the shirt thing go. Could have been a replacement. Although, the crew should have been prepared for this. Last year, my crew carried a pair of knickers just in case even though we wore pants all year long. If something happened late enough to not get everyone informed, and the replacement only had knickers, we were prepared.

Your're saying the ball was (for example) illegally touched at the B-5 and then bounced back to the B-10 where it was illegally touched again. After the ball became dead they put it back at the B-5?

This is what happens when you let coaches draft the crews. It's quite likely that the coach for this game had last pick on this week and had to take the crew that hadn't been picked. Perhaps this was the least experienced crew available to pick.

Yes, exactly. TWICE.

Placards at the HS level? Really?

Yes sir, this is Texas after all... :) (Honestly, I see these about a third of the time around here.)

Yup approved this year in Texas. A lot of crews around here seem to have gone to them. I really don't see the point.

Next they'll be wearing wide stripes.

I'm sure it's being discussed. Looks like we are going to the 40 second clock next year.

I'm always fascinated with Texas. They always want to be seen as different than the rest of the country, for some reason, when it comes to HS football.

Football in Texas is a religion. They shut down the whole town for a football game. $60 million dollar high school stadiums that put some NFL stadiums to shame.

That's all well and good, but that doesn't mean the officials are any different or better than they are anywhere else. At least from this thread, that seems pretty obvious. :D

Sounds like the LJ got the A!