A rules question arose during Friday night&8217;s Conference USA championship game between Southern Mississippi and Houston.

Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower became upset when Houston was snapping the ball and running offensive plays before Southern had a chance to get in their defensive set.

I wasn&8217;t paying close enough attention to see if Houston was sending in substitutes on those plays. If so, they should have been penalized five yards each time. Also, the referee should have notified the Houston coach that subsequent violations of that rule would result in 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. If there were no offensive substitutions on those plays, there would be no violation. So long as there were no other fouls or violations on the play, it would be legal.

As with all football rules, there are exceptions and the written rule is never as simple as announcers would have you believe.

After Southern California lost Saturday to UCLA it looked for a while like Florida just did not really want to beat Arkansas. The Gators did win, and will play Ohio State for the National Championship. A rematch between Ohio State and Michigan would be a travesty.

My congratulations to the Trinity Saints and coach David King on their win Thursday over Briarfield Academy for the MPSA Class A State Championship. It was hard to believe that Stevan Ridley carried the ball 51 times and gained over 300 yards. If he had been at all healthy, the game would have been no contest. If he can stay uninjured, you will see him play an awful lot at LSU.

Saints junior quarterback Parker Brumfield played well. I saw him line up at not only quarterback, but at wide receiver, tailback, fullback (in the Notre Dame box formation) and at corner back and safety on defense.

He showed remarkable poise on the game&8217;s final play. With everyone&8217;s timeouts exhausted, he took the snap with about 35 seconds showing on the clock. Instead of instantly taking a knee Brumfield ran around, escaping defenders, until less than 25 seconds remained. That meant that Trinity would not have to take another snap.

I do not know how the Mississippi Private School Association assigns game officials for their playoff and championship games. The MHSAA seems to assign games to neutral districts, and those districts assign the officials to those games. That obviously opens the door to politics, because the &8220;best&8221; official at each position might simply be the one favored by the supervisor of officials.

An instance in the Trinity game was an example of poor officiating. Briarfield threw a little &8220;swing&8221; pass, which was obviously forward. Neither the referee nor the line judge, both of whom clearly saw the play, called it an incomplete pass and allowed the player to pick up the ball and run for a long gain. It led to a Briarfield touchdown.

Either of those officials could have called the play correctly, but apparently neither had the guts to do so. I can&8217;t say which official was more at fault, but the referee is supposed to be in position to rule on that play.

And, that&8217;s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. He can be reached by e-mail at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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