For those of you who didn't see the first time.
Here is what I have. Talked to a Supervisor of Officials from a major conference. He said to me the call "never should have been made". Also, he made an interesting point. He said officials will have more pressure calling Miami games next year than any other teams in the country. His feeling is that officials will be so wary of being accused of bias, many of them (especially the shaky ones), will ask out of working Canes games next year. I happen to agree with this assessment, based on the post-game comments I heard across the all lines (media, coaches, officials).
Mel Kiper Jr. himself who was cheering for Ohio St since he has buckeye family felt it was a "chicken call" and thought the game should have ended right there. A lot of others including Beano Cook agreed figuring how the Refs allowed physical contact all game long until then! basically stating no one would have made a big fuss if it wasn't called.
ESPN reporting that back judge Terry Porter who made the " Call " is not new to controversy. The Big 12 Conference, in the past two years, has had to delivery two letters of apology to schools in reference to controversial calls made by Porter. How then was he allowed to work a game of this importance? The Big 12 needs to explain this decision to the NCAA and UM.
http://espn.go.com/ncf/bowls02/s/fiesta_thecall.html
Ain't that some shit?
The call has been talked to death, but anyone who even wants to debate it, is a moron. You don't make that call, that late, in that situation. Simple as that. If its a first down call, you live with it, but on 4th down, the call DID DECIDE the National Championship. That's unacceptable. That's not me talking (although I agree with the assessment), that's the comments of two major college Head Coaches AND the Supervisor of Officials I am talking about. That's heavy for these guys to be so open.
OU wins their first NC in god knows how long but nobody will talk about how they beat miami, all anybody will talk about is how the refs gave it to them. Its funny, miami loses, but they still win. Nobody outside of Columbus is going to really embrace the Buckeyes as the true NC.
Also, I just watched the hit on McGahee with 11 minutes or so left in the fourth quarter. Right after the hit, Will Allen gets up and twice makes throat slash gestures for all to see. Besides being a schmuck with McGahee clearly hurt, how is that not a personal foul? Even in the NFL which allows more demonstrative behavior, a throat slash is an automatic 15-yd penalty for unsportsmanlike behavior. Guess what that 15 yards and first down would have meant for us down 17-14 at the time. We'll never know and while I think calls went both ways during the game, it only underscores how the refs were letting everyone play all night long and trying not to decide the game and THAT IS WHY THE CALL MATTERS--BECAUSE THEY MADE A CALL WHEN ALL NIGHT LONG THEY DIDN'T. NO OFFENSIVE PASS INTERFERENCE ON JENKINS, NO HOLDING ON JENNINGS, NO PERSONAL FOULS OF WILL ALLEN OR WILL SMITH, ETC. Just one call- pass interference by a ref who was further away from another ref who signaled incomplete at one of the most critical times of any college football game.