December 1, 2016
LET’S PLAY 2!
Taking a page from the late, great, Ernie Banks, SPORTSGUMBO—Denham Springs will now air twice a day. Airing live Monday—Friday, 7am—8am, on Family Radio, 91.9FM, Baton Rouge, SPORTSGUMBO—Denham Springs is now replayed from 5pm—6pm each day on 91.9FM. The first replay? 5pm today!!!
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
I believe I can make two strong statements about the happenings from last week. One, LSU made the best hire they could under the circumstances. Two, Sean Payton holds grudges.
Beginning with LSU, I don’t have inside sources and all that. As best as I can tell though, they could have hired Jumbo Fisher last year. Apparently, that was not a real option this year.
In 5 of the last 7 games this year, LSU played as well as they have in years by a long shot. In all seven games the Tigers played with passion. In 6 of the 7, LSU outplayed their opponent (LSU outplayed Florida without beating the Gators). LSU played Alabama better than anyone else this year by a long shot.
More importantly, LSU played better in the last 7 games than they did in the first four with a style of play that has been missing. Therefore, the only conclusion in my mind is that the change at top was justified.
Tom Herman would have been a great candidate. Many people seem to think that LSU had a chance if Joe Alleva was better at his job. Alleva made the decision that Herman was using LSU to get more money out of Texas. I don’t know who was right and in these cases, both sides are usually partially correct. Either way, I have a hunch that Herman was going to choose Texas over LSU.
As I said last week, that left one coach for the job and that is Ed Orgeron. Orgeron is not the best person for the Oregon job if it opens (and it should). He is not even the best person for the Tennessee job should it open (and it may). But, considering the choices, Ed Orgeron is clearly the best candidate for the LSU job at this time.
Can he last 10 years? Good question. Can he win a national championship? I hope so. Can he get LSU back to where they win at least 6 SEC games a year instead of 4-5? No doubt. How can I be so sure? Because LSU has winning 4-5 SEC games with one arm tied behind its back.
Orgeron has many of the good qualities of Les Miles, but at this point does not appear to have his worst quality of stubbornness on the offensive side of the ball.
There is going to be rampant speculation as to who Coach O decides to hire to run the offense next year. Before we go too far down that road, I think LSU fans should recognize the amazing job Coach Ensminger did. LSU set new offensive records in almost every game without an off season. Shame on the national media for not giving him more credit for the turn around. I understand why Orgeron has to go hire a new offensive coordinator, but whoever comes in will have a much easier job to do than Coach Ensminger faced this year.
Speaking of offense, did anyone see Sean Payton’s fist pumping attack coming? Wow! That was quite an offensive display and quite an emotional display. Now, we just need someone to make up a story about how the Lions has something to do with Bountygate and we might have a special end to this season.
HEY REF
BY DENNIS DEARIE,
VETERAN LOUISIANA HIGH SCHOOL REFEREE
Just in time for the holidays comes another “Best of Hey Ref”. Sometimes the more things change they remain the same (I think that’s how it goes?). Take a short walk with me down memory lane with this true story, cause you know they’re all true if you read it here and I’m the one that wrote it. One thing I must “bitch” about before I hand off this week’s words of wisdom is the fact I’ve noticed a bunch of fouls being called in playoff games this year.
We’re all very much aware that in the first few games of every season teams don’t have things running very smooth and are prone to making many more mistakes in those first few games. There’s no doubt we can call holding on every play and players are moving when they’re supposed to be still and lining off sides and so on. But fellow officials I must come down hard on those crews calling a combined, accepted fouls in the neighborhood of 28 to 35 per contest. That just doesn’t make sense this late and this far into the playoffs.
You can say this or that but it boils down to the crews not WORKING the game pure and simple. When I see more than 300 yards walked off in a 48 minute high school game to me it’s very obvious there is a very large lack of being in charge. I had a couple officials tell me that their association had a great year. Then I talk to a few coaches and they all said the same thing “This was by far the worst year ever for the way officials worked and CONTROLLED the games”.
At a recent official’s camp during the round table discussion one coach spoke of his number one peeve with the officials that worked his games and it was all the holding calls. He did admit he coached his team to hold on every play but expected the crews to stop calling those fouls after so many were called since it made the stats look bad in the number of calls and the yardage levied on his team. So, coach you want your team to only receive a few holding calls and since it’s going go on all night the crew should stop calling those fouls? You might think he was just trying to get a laugh out of us officials but it really got me where the sun don’t shine. Officials you are doing no one a favor by your attempted examples of your knowledge of the rules by constantly throwing your flag.
Teams didn’t make it this far in the playoffs by not understanding how to play within the rules and your habit of stopping the game so you can get some attention from the stands has no place in any level of play.
With that out of my way let’s get down to business and this week’s “Best of”. We are now down to two games left in this year’s high school football regular season. And just when it seems I’ve seen and/or heard it all something jumps up and bites me where the sun don’t shine. Case in point two coaches “spin” on what IS the rule in high school football played under Federation rules.
Now these two instances aren’t rumor as I’ve gone under cover and resumed wearing the black and white striped shirt on Friday night. Play one; team “A” attempts a field goal from their opponent’s 20 yard line. The kick is no good and hits about half way into the end zone before going out of bounds, crossing the end line.
I grabbed a new football and placed it on the 20 yard line. As I get to my position for first down I hear the head coach screaming at me that “the ball goes at the spot from the kick”. WHAT? Surely he’s kidding I thought but was I mistaken. I explained to the coach that on Sundays he’d be correct but this is Friday night. After a minute to think about it he apologized and we proceeded with the game.
Well, not to be outdone, just a few minutes later his opposition scores a touchdown. With the score 14 -12 we now have team “B” lining up in a scrimmage formation attempting a two point conversion. The receiver to my side splits wide and on the snap crosses the goal line where the defender hits him BEFORE the pass in thrown.
The receiver turns and tries to catch the ball. Of course he drops it and we have a near riot coming from that sideline. This coach actually stops the game, arguing that the receiver has a five yard cushion where he can’t be touched. Again, I’m stumped as again I’ve got to remind the coach of team “B” we’re playing on Friday not Sunday.
So, the crowd starts booing thinking we’d messed up another call when in fact we were correct in our ruling. I’ll tell everyone that will listen that we, game officials, DO MAKE MISTAKES. But simple day to day plays and situations shouldn’t cause a coach or fan for that matter to become irate. I do wish that all coaches should be required to take the same, exact rules test that all game officials take for the sport that they coach.
Also, to my brother officials, you should take it upon yourself to contact those coaches whose game/games you worked and request copies of those contests. I’ve always been an advocate for coaches and officials to work together and review game tapes in the hopes of learning how to do your job better. I’ve also been the first to admit that I’ve missed (blown) calls during a game and have worked to insure I don’t repeat those mistakes.
I don’t know of a single official that enjoys screwing up a call. I detest officials that refuse to admit they made a mistake because we’re human and we will make mistakes, it’s called being human. But not working to correct whatever you did wrong has no place in the game no matter the level.
Now that I got that off my chest, it’s time for me to go back and read my rulebook. I hope I didn’t shock anyone who thinks we, officials only read the rulebook to take the test. In fact many of us read the rulebook daily so that we don’t get caught on game day not understanding the difference between playing on Friday night opposed to a Saturday or Sunday game!!!!!
Till next week… …
Jon Fine Wreaking Havoc at:
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