Most of the major college football coaches (and a lot of high school coaches) I have known generally stay away from regularly criticizing officials. They adhere to the philosophy that &8220;The officials giveth and the officials taketh away.&8221;

Which means that calls will usually even out over time. I know that is hard for many fans to agree with, especially when your team is having a hard time. A lot of violations occur when players are frustrated or are getting whipped by their opponents.

Last Saturday&8217;s games brought out one of the ironies that happen in officiating. A couple of weeks ago Vanderbilt was on the verge of defeating Florida, and perhaps going on to become eligible for their first bowl since 1981.

Vandy scored on a pass with little time remaining in the game, but after the touchdown they were flagged for excessive celebration. Instead of being in position to make a two-point conversion and winning the game, Vandy was penalized 15 yards and forced to make a tying conversion kick from 35 yards out.

They lost in overtime. I admit I did not see more of the scoring play and celebration than was shown on later replay shows, but what I saw was marginal at best, simply the scoring receiver and a teammate jumping up and bumping chests.

I saw the same action in at least five other games, and none of those was flagged. At any rate, what goes around sometimes comes around.

Last Saturday Vandy played at Tennessee, and the Vols now needed a win to remain in line for a bowl bid, needing only to defeat lowly Vandy and then even-more lowly Kentucky (though Kentucky had soundly defeated Vandy a week earlier) next week to avoid missing out on a bowl trip for the first time since 1989.

After Tennessee took a late lead, Vandy drove for the go-ahead score with about a minute remaining in the game. Tennessee, though, drove to the Vandy 13, needing a touchdown to win.

Being down by four, a field goal was useless. After gaining a first down at the 13, which stopped the clock, the Vols snapped the ball before the referee had marked it ready for play, resulting in a 5-yard penalty against Tennessee.

The officiating procedure in that situation is for the umpire to stand over the ball until the referee waves him off to his position, then the referee marks the ball ready and starts the clock. In this case, Tennessee apparently snapped the ball after the umpire moved off of it but before the referee had marked it ready.

Tennessee managed to get off three passes into the end zone, but the final one was intercepted as time expired. I do not know if the 5 yards made that significant a difference, but there is an irony in Vandy missing out on a possible bowl opportunity on a call they will question for years and Tennessee also missing out on a call their fans will question

And, That&8217;s Official

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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