College football can be a passionate game, full of striking triumphs and contentious errors. Roman muses on what occurred at Neyland Stadium a few Saturdays ago between the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee. Throw in their fans, coaches, and referees, and you have more than a ball game.
By Roman Rickwood, Sports Enthusiast
What we witnessed two Saturday nights ago was passion, anger, and the result of poor officiating. “It just means more”: this is the catchphrase for the SEC, the conference in which both the University of Tennessee and the University of Mississippi are conference members. Everything “means more” in this conference . . . except the officiating. While these teams are not necessarily the cream of the crop when it comes to the conference, they are generally well respected nationally as very competitive teams. When these two teams faced off on a cool Saturday night in Knoxville, there was a lot on the line. It was set to be a statement game for both teams, with Tennessee looking to turn it around with the help of their new coach Josh Huepel. The opposing University of Mississippi Head Coach, Lane Kiffin, was stepping back back on familiar turf. He coached Tennessee for many years.
The energy was crazy with over 100,000 screaming fans fired up to cheer on their team against the villain of college football, Lane Kiffin. Scandal follows him. When the game began on Saturday the 16th, it was a tight contest with an emphasis on defense, with both teams having trouble scoring. In my opinion, the fuse was lit when the refs muffed a call that would have given Tennessee a touchdown. While refs are human and make mistakes just like all of us, the bad calls are getting out of hand–especially in a day and age when replay is as prevalent as it is. This crowd of over 100,000 soon turned into an angry mob in the second half as their team went down a score.
Towards the end of the 4th quarter, Tennessee had the ball, was down 7, and needed a score. It was 4th down, and the Volunteers needed 15 yards to get a first down and continue their campaign for a touchdown. Quarterback Hendon Hooker connected with his tight end, and to many eyes (especially of those in the stadium) it appeared that the ball had gotten to the first-down line. However, even after going to replay, the refs still ruled him short of the line to gain. While this call could be argued back and forth between rules analysts and experts, the bottom line is if you miss enough blatant calls in a row, eventually paying customers want answers, and with this call the crowd–feeling as if their intelligence had been insulted–began throwing objects onto the field. Play was suspended for almost 25 minutes while referees, coaches, and security staff decided how to proceed. Eventually it appeared that the crowd had run out of objects to throw because the shelling ceased. The game resulted with Ole Miss making a statement and winning 31-26 in an absolute war of a football game. And yet again, the villain of college football–Lane Kiffin–had the last laugh, as he jeeringly caught a water bottle aimed for his face while he exited the field of play.
Days after the game the only thing that was discussed was the behavior of 1% of fans rather than the athleticism and performance put on display by both teams. There were many infamous moments–such as the golf ball thrown on the field that would go on to be collected by Head Coach Kiffin and later posted on social media with the final score of the game written large in Sharpie on the side of the ball. Regardless of all of this, this is college football, and more specifically this is the SEC, and officiating cannot continue to be this dismal. To the people crying in the Tennessee home crowd, I ask if college football is really for you?
