VandySports.com - Memo to the SEC: Don't forget about Vanderbilt

October 27, 2009

Jesse W. Johnson
VandySports.com Publisher

While news of the Southeastern Conference publically reprimanding both Mississippi State's Dan Mullen and Tennessee's Lane Kiffin for their criticisms about league officials has drawn more national scrutiny to the league, Vanderbilt has to feel like the forgotten program in the conference once again.

Both Mullen and Kiffin's comments on Sunday received countless coverage by both the league and national media over the weekend and was a topic for many daily network shows such as ESPN's Pardon the Interruption and College Football Live on Monday. Their reprimands by the league drew even more attention.

Mullen, who's in his first year as the head coach of the Bulldogs, openly questioned the league's replay policy after officials upheld a Florida touchdown run in the second-ranked Gators 29-19 win in Starkville over the weekend. Gator linebacker Dustin Doe picked off a pass and appeared to run it back for a touchdown, but video clearly showed that Doe lost possession of the ball before it ever crossed the end zone.

The play should have resulted in a touchback, and the Bulldogs would have regained possession trailing 22-13 and more than eight minutes to go in the game.

Kiffin, also in his first year at Tennessee, also had officiating-related beefs in the Volunteers 12-10 loss at No. 1 Alabama over the weekend as well.

However, two very questionable calls that occured in the Commodores game against South Carolina on Saturday have seemingly failed to produce a blip on the media radar, even after Vanderbilt coach Bobbby Johnson commented about them in his Monday press conference.

The Commodores appeared to have forced and recovered a fumble deep in Carolina territory during the Gamecocks opening drive of the game. Although the field officials awarded possession to Vanderbilt, the replay official ruled that the player was down by contact before the ball came out.

Later in the second quarter, South Carolina was awarded a 35-yard touchdown on a juggling catch by receiver D.L. Moore. However, video replays from several angles seemed to clearly indicate that Moore did not have full possession of the ball until his foot was out of bounds.

However, the replay official upheld the call on the field as a touchdown, and South Carolina took a 7-0 lead.

"The fumble is hard to tell, but it was ruled a fumble, and if you have to have conclusive evidence, and I don't think it was there," the eight-year Commodore head coach said on Monday.

"The touchdown was even clearer in my opinion. In my opinion, his foot was clearly on the line after he bobbled the ball. He had possession and his left foot was in the air and his right foot came down on the line.

"I don't know what kind of evidence you need to overrule, but to me that was fairly clear. I had more texts on my cell phone after the game than I've ever had. I'd like to find out why the call was made. I haven't been in contact with (SEC coordinator of officiating) Rogers Redding yet today, but I'm going to give him a call and I'd like to find out what the discussion was up in the booth about that."

The Moore touchdown marked the second time since replay was introduced that a disputed touchdown catch by a Commodore opponent was reviewed by a replay official and judged to still be a touchdown, despite clear video evidence suggesting it was an incompletion.

In 2005, Georgia was awarded a touchdown in the Bulldogs 34-17 win at Vanderbilt, although video evidence showed that D.J. Shockley's fourth down pass bounced off the ground and into receiver Bryan McClendon's hands. The field officials ruled it a touchdown, putting the Bulldogs up by 17 with 14 minutes to go.

Seconds after the play, the replay officials upheld the play in a short period of time, even though ESPN2's cameras showed the ball hitting the ground before McClendon touched it. The same replay was shown inside Vanderbilt Stadium, leaving no doubt for anyone in attendance.

In addition to the two disputed replay calls during Saturday's game in Columbia, there was another confusing moment towards the end of the first half.

After a Commodore drive stalled just inside South Carolina territory, the Commodores elected to take a five-yard delay of game penalty to make room for their punting unit and leave less time on the clock for Carolina. The 40-second play clock as well as game clock ran down before the officials flagged VU, leaving Vanderbilt prepared to punt from midfield.

However, the replay official notified the field crew that there needed to be a second look at the Commodores previous play on third down where quarterback Larry Smith was sacked and fumbled the ball after falling to the ground. Though the play was whistled dead and Commodore guard Eric Hensley recovered the fumble behind the line, field officials announced that the replay crew lacked enough time to properly notify the field crew of a booth review, denying the Commodores more than a minute of clock time to pass before attempting another play.

The officiating crew then not only decided to add more time on the game clock, but also gave South Carolina a timeout back and did not run the game clock until the punt. Since the previous play had resulted in a sack and a fumble recovery by the offense, the play clock should have ran once play was continued. It took over 10 minutes for the officials to come to their conclusion and get the game back on.

While Johnson did not blame the loss on the reviewed plays, he did express how important they could have been for his struggling team.

"We can't depend on that to happen all the time. We've got to make the plays and try to make sure that we aren't in those types of situations where they are trying to call touchdowns against us," Johnson said. "We had opportunities to win the game besides that, but those were two big plays, and I'd like to be on the receiving end of one of those sometime."

One has to wonder though what some of these controversial calls mean to the conference's image. One also has to wonder why Vanderbilt's game this weekend has not entered into the national discussion.

Over the past couple of weeks, the SEC has seen a number of questionable calls seem to go to the favorites way. In a much-anticipated game between unbeaten LSU and once-beaten Georgia on October 3rd, the Bulldogs took a late lead on a incredible touchdown grab by All-SEC receiver A.J. Green.

However, while Green was apparently celebrating with his teammates, Georgia was flagged for excessive celebration and LSU was awarded great field position for the ensuing kickoff. LSU capitialized and scored late to secure the victory. The league later admitted that the call should not have been made.

Two weeks later, a late personal foul call was made during Florida's game-tying drive in the Gators' 23-20 comeback victory over Arkansas. Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino openly criticized the call at the end of the game and was reprimanded by the league.

Later, the league admitted that there was no evidence to support the call against Razorbacks defensive lineman Malcolm Sheppard.

After public out cry over both the LSU-Georgia game and Florida-Arkansas game, the league suspended the crew that worked both games for a few weeks. Perhaps the same action would be made in reaction to the Vanderbilt-South Carolina calls if there was more attention involved.

Perhaps if Vanderbilt makes more of a fuss about the incorrect calls, there would be a reprimand from the league as well.

All of this controversy has happened during the league's first year under its highly-publicized television contract with media giant ESPN. However, with some key disputed calls going the favorite's way, media and fans from all over the country have began to criticize not only the league's officials but the league's product overall.

Johnson, however, disagrees.

"People will talk about it, but I don't think it is hurting the conference," Johnson said on Monday. "I think the product is too good. The product is the players. They get out and do wonderful things.

"They play hard, they represent their schools, and I don't think anyone is looking at the refereeing and saying the SEC is a second-rate conference because of the officiating, and I don't think that is the truth either. Everybody looks at the quality of the product on the field, and I don't think we are going to let that bother us."

But as Johnson knows all-too-well himself, these issues have been around long before the white-hot spotlight shone upon the SEC. Green's unsportsmanlike penalty was remiscent of the flag thrown on Vanderbilt's Earl Bennett in Commodores' 2005 49-42 overtime loss at Florida.

With the Commodores trailing the Gators 35-28, Jay Cutler found Bennett in the end zone, pulling the Commodores to within a point of the heavily favored Gators. Johnson gave the signal to go for a two-point conversion and the win with just 54 seconds to go in the game.

But back judge Rick Loumiet flagged Bennett for excessive celebration after Bennett's slight dip of his hip and a leaping into his offensive lineman's arms. Loumiet told SEC's then director of officials Bobby Gaston that Bennett used "imaginary six-shooters" in similar fashion to former NFL receiver Billy Johnson.

However, no video evidence from three different angles ever supported Loumiet's claim. The call drew stinging reaction from all over the sports world during the time. National analysts from ESPN, Sports Illustrated and CBS, especially given the situation in the game.

Vanderbilt instead kicked a long extra point and eventually lost the game in double overtime. What could have been a landmark victory for the Commodore program and potentially made the difference between the 5-6 season the campaign became or a winning season and a bowl game.

The incident validated feelings of long-time Vanderbilt fans, who for years had believed that the team hadn't been given a fair shake by officials for years. The league never issued a formal apology to VU, who was already used to being apologized to year after year for missed face-mask calls, bad spots, premature whistles and clear fumbles were not called. No matter; the apologies had offered little comfort before, and surely would not have then, either.

When Vanderbilt finally broke through with a winning season last year, Commodore fans discussed how the breaks finally seemed to go for the football program and how big some key replays in games against South Carolina, Boston College and Ole Miss truly were. Most were used to the calls going against Vanderbilt before replay was introduced in 2005.

However, with the calls made on Saturday in Vanderbilt's game, coupled with the calls that went against Mississippi State on the same weekend, the stigma of inequitable officiating within the league is back.

Fans throughout the country are only left to speculate that the Southeastern Conference is more interested in getting its best teams to the best bowls, choosing bigger paydays for the conference at the expense of fairness for all of the league's members. Certainly, the recent calls in favor of national title contenders Alabama, Florida and LSU over lesser teams did nothing to detract from that perception.

This could just be chalked up as just obsessed paranoia by fans and media personalities looking for issues and topics to appease its audience and generate ratings. But the calls were either right, or they were not, and the tapes don't lie.

What fans are now seeing nationally for the first time is nothing new for the SEC. It's just too bad it took a national television contract to expose a problem that's existed for years, if not decades.

And with every passing week, the league's officiating issues continue to distort the perception of the product's quality, making the consumer rightfully question the quality and integrity of what they see.

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