All I am talking about is communication and crew communication. Not sure what the rules have to do with that fact or what really happened here. And every crew I have been on the crew communicated many things and made decisions the Referee played little or no role in. Actually on my HS crew for years the Referee was not even the crew chief. And if you think the the crew chief did not have say in things we did on the field you would be sadly mistaken. All I am saying is in this case I am sure the official holding the ball told the Referee something. Now maybe he assumed too much, but you will not convince me that the two officials said absolutely nothing in that entire situation.

Peace

I was at the game. Obviously couldn't see the measurement from where I was, but seeing replays afterwards made it pretty obvious that the ball was quite clearly short of the line to gain.

That said, the same crew allowed the wrong team to call the coin toss (South Carolina was the home team but called it anyway) and forgot that a free kick out of bounds goes 30 yards from the spot of the kick - they tried to place it at the 40 before Spurrier eloquently reminded them that with kickoffs from the 35 this year, it goes to the other 35.

So, yeah...the Big East crew struggled with some basic things in this one.

And the rest of us are saying that the White Hat still has the responsibility for the final decision. He neglected to take a 90-degree view before signalling, which likely would have made a difference in his call.

Again you are focused on the final decision and I am saying what actually happened.

Peace

How the hell do you know? Were you there?

Really?

The final decision is ultimately what matters.

It is called a hypothesis. But we do that here all the time, just like there are people saying what the rule is and what they do on their crew is just the same as what I am doing. Unless we talk to the crew and see what their process is and was on this play, pure speculation as to who had the "final say" or what was communicated. I really do not know why this is a big deal. I think the crew communicated with each other and you don't. OK, now what?

Also for the record my crew measures a lot in HS games. We measure 4 or 5 times every game even on well marked turf. And there is a lot of crew dialog before we put the ball down and after we put the ball down with the stick. I just will not be convinced by anyone here that they did not do some communicating and with the Referee not taking a personal look tells me that was the case. Do I know for sure? Nope, but again my take on the situation.

Peace

funny you should mention that.....3 Year Old Girl Adorably Disputes A Football Call | 3 Year Old Cutely Shows Her Frustration - YouTube

OK, let's assume for the sake of argument that is what happened.

This was a crucial 4th-down call in a one-point game. A "big call", if you will. Why in heaven's name would the R not take the extra five seconds to walk around and get the 90-degree look he needed to get the call right?

I would like to have been the proverbial "fly on the wall" in the crew dressing room after the game.

Again you would have to ask him and the crew. I am sure the supervisor has some opinions and I am sure something was shared to explain the process.

Peace

Ironic, huh? ;)

Well said.

Really? My HS crew measured 4 or 5 times all season. I think my college crew measured twice all season.

If you're measuring that much, your wings are letting the crew down when getting spots. Or your line judge isn't very good at deciding whether or not the LTG has been reached.,

Our wings did not let us down, because that is our crew philosophy. It does not bother us one bit to measure on close measurements. It may bother you or others on your crew, not a problem for us.

And I love the college mentality too, because I heard a crew chief make that "We are not measuring today" crap last year, but on the crew happened to be a D1 official. The D1 official took big time opposition to that feeling and said basically that was the wrong position to take. And even went on to say about video tape and how people can see what you do.

No one is letting us down, we just feel that we should measure close spots and not all spots are clearly behind or beyond the line. And certainly harder if those are in the middle of the field where one of the hash marks is the first down marker and yes coaches think you screwed up if you just signal.

Peace

I always measure when it's needed, but 4-5 times a game seems way excessive. YMMV (and clearly does).