You know how fans often say “there’s no point in arguing with the referees, they’re not going to change the call?” Well, in the words of the most annoying character from Independence Day, that’s not entirely accurate after last night’s Texas versus Georgia game.
During the second quarter, with Georgia leading Texas 23-8, the Longhorns picked off a Georgia pass and brought it back to the UGA nine-yard line. The play was called back due to pass interference, and in response, the Texas student section started hurling bottles and debris onto the field.
It was an ugly scene, but it did lead to one of the best line deliveries of the year from an announcer when Chris Fowler said “They’re not going to win the Taco Bell contest at this rate!” Flawless stuff. With trash raining down in the end zone, the officials got together and decided there was no defensive pass interference after all, and let Texas keep the ball at UGA’s nine-yard line.
Early on Sunday morning, the SEC released a statement essentially saying that UT’s student section throwing trash on the field had no bearing over the referee’s decision to pick up the DPI flag.
From the SEC:
“The game officials gathered to discuss the play, which is permitted to ensure the proper penalty is enforced, at which time the calling official reported that he erred, and a foul should not have been called for defensive pass interference. Consequently, Texas was awarded the ball at the Texas 9 yard line.”
Basically, the conference is saying the referee who made the call simply messed up, and the referee’s decision to pick up the flag happened because the crew decided that was the right call in the end.
SEC statement is a whole lot of words that say nothing
There are a few problems here, the main one being that DPI isn’t reviewable in college football, even if that review is phrased as a referee erring. Retroactively changing a DPI call is a lot different than letting a play go and then reviewing it afterward to see if a player caught a pass, fumbled, or if he was down on the field. But if the SEC would have said that the refs let the play run and then discussed it afterward and decided against DPI might have been better than whatever this statement was.
The conference did address the debris thrown on the field, condemning the act but still refusing to admit that it played a part in overturning the calla against Texas. “While the original evaluation and assessment of the penalty was not properly executed, it is unacceptable to have debris thrown on the field at any time. The disruption of the game due to debris being thrown onto the field will be reviewed by the Conference office related to SEC sportsmanship policies and procedures. “
Texas fans throwing debris onto the field is wrong, so the SEC is sort of right there, but completely misses the point of the situation at large, which is that game officials changed the call because of the trash on the field.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian addresses fans in post-game conference
During the debris-throwing from Texas students, Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian was seen trying to dissuade the act, and in a postgame conference, he doubled down on that, saying, “We all were frustrated in the moment. But, you know … Longhorn nation. I know we can be better than that.”
Texas ended up losing this game 30-15, so the interception didn’t have much bearing on the game’s final score, but the SEC’s statement is bizarre nonetheless.
