September 20, 2018
DENHAM SPRINGS vs BELAIRE…,. Denham Springs returns to action this Friday night, September 14, as the Jackets entertain Belaire HS, as district play commences. You can catch all of the action on Family Radio, 91.9 FM and on the net at JonFineProductions.com. 6pm is Sport N Center Jackets Warm-Up, with Josh Ward, Andy Duckworth and yours truly, Jon Fine
Brusly HS at Bsker HS
Brusly travels to Baker HS and you can tune in on KBRS, 106.9 or on the net at Jon FineProductions.com… Lionel Franklin will be calling play-by-play, with Jason Manola on color commentary. Airtime 6:30pm
SULPHUR HS at Sam Houston HS… Bruce Merchant on play by play, with Patrick Frey on color commentary on SportsRadio, 1310AM—KEZM—Lake Charles and on the internet at KEZMonline.coM.
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BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
FRIDAY, 9/21, 6pm… Denham Springs HS Football vs Belaire HS… Family Radio, 91.9 FM and on the net at JonFineProductions.com…
Josh Ward, Andy Duckworth, Jon Fine
FRIDAY, 9/21, 6:30PM… Brusly HS at Baker… KBRS,106.9 FM…
Jon Fine Productions.com
Lionel Franklin and Jason Manola
SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-LAKE CHARLES (AND KEZMONLINE. COM) BROADCASTS
Friday, 9/21, 6:45pm… Sulphur HS at Sam Houston HS, Bruce Merchant, Patrick Frey
Monday—Friday, 10am—Noon… Pigskin Preview… Patrick Frey and Scott Holtzman
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
The 1980s were great. Football and basketball changed for the better. Basketball began embracing the three pointer with Rick Pitnino, Paul Westhead, and others. Football realized that short, efficient passes can be as effective as runs and Bill Walsh is the one who gets most of the credit for that change.
It was the beginning of a new era and when I grew up watching sports. LSU changed football coaches every 3 years. For those that remember, we were supposed to be Crazy Bout Curley. Curley Hallman, raised in Alabama, became LSU’s head coach because Brett Favre les USM to some upsets. As I recall, people were skeptical, but happy to go along with Curley until the product on the field was seen. The recruiting was poor. Even when LSU recruited good players, they did the illogical and signed 5 top running backs in the same class ensuring 3 would transfer.
Then Tiger fans were ready to Bring Back the Magic, and Gerry DiNardo (from New York) did that for a couple of years. Again, there was some reason for concern when DiNardo was hired since he was coming from Vanderbilt and his last game at Vanderbilt was a 65-0 loss to Tennessee!
Still, there were some great wins over Auburn and Florida at home. DiNardo worked very hard and made improvements in recruiting Louisiana. Unfortunately, the Lou Tepper experiment on defense flopped and DiNardo could not survive an 8 game losing streak in 1999. Interestingly, 5 of those losses were to top 25 teams.
The irony is that during this time period LSU was losing Louisiana players to Miami, Tennessee, Florida State, USC, Florida, Nebraska and many other schools. As a LSU fan during this time, I heard one name to blame over and over for why LSU would lose top recruits to these schools. Ed Orgeron.
Then Nick Saban, raised in West Virginia, taught LSU fans about Brook Trout. Despite losing to UAB in his first season, he brought LSU to the top of college football. He proved everyone’s hypothesis correct that a talent rich state with one flagship school and tradition should be a top program every year.
Les Miles, raised in Michigan, got off to a rocky start. He guided LSU football and fans through Katrina. The first game had some odd decisions including a fake punt from inside LSU’s own 20 yard line. Against Tennessee, he tried to call timeout after an interception (the clock stops automatically). He never seemed prepared for end of the game situations. Yet, he recruited very well, and even though it didn’t look pretty, LSU continued to win 10 or more games every year. Until Saban came back to the SEC. Then LSU didn’t win quite as much. Eventually, he just could not get the quarterback situation or offense in the 21st century figured out.
I brought you through that history, I hope fairly, to get to this point. Tiger fans have been willing to be Crazy Bout Curly, Bring Back the Magic, be scolded by a guy from West Virginia, and try to figure understand a history lesson that concluded with St. Patrick’s Day being a different day entirely from Columbus Day.
Interestingly, Tiger fans have had no benefit of the doubt for a person who has a passion for the state and LSU and used to contribute to our lack of success in the nineties working for other schools.
I hated losing to Troy. It was supposed to be a safe first game to bring my daughters. We have not been back and they did not have a good time (probably my fault).
I want better tackling from this year’s defense. I want better separation from our receivers. So do the coaches. I want to blow out bad teams by 60 like the other top 10 teams in the country.
We always want our team to be better. Yet, by every measure of effective coaching, LSU’s coaches are doing the job very well. The special teams were poor last year, and the place kickers cost LSU games. This year has been a complete 180 thanks to a number of off season decisions that were lambasted by media and fans alike.
The defense has been solid, but as dominant as other Tiger defenses through the first three weeks. Against top ten teams away from home, though, they have forced turnovers and led the team to wins.
The offense did enough against Miami to win. In the first two weeks the offensive line looked poor as expected. It takes offensive lines time to gel. Against, Auburn the offensive line performed extremely well.
In case any Auburn fan is reading this article and still crying about the officials, I would refer you to a 7-3 Auburn win over LSU when a pass interference call was overturned. Have you ever seen that before or since? Or the leaping call that Auburn tried on Saturday that was not called. In other words, I have no guilt for how the game ended.
I know Tiger fans are going to want LSU to beat LA Tech 48-7 this week. It is not going to happen Tiger fans. Blowouts against decent times only happen with explosive plays like defensive touchdowns, special teams big plays, or explosive plays on offense. LSU is not explosive on offense yet, but the offense can be effective and play winning complimentary football.
The type of football that the Saints are NOT playing. The offense is putting up stats, but not converting third downs, not running the ball with any consistency and turning the ball over. Losing football. The Saints have played terribly the first two weeks and that is extremely disappointing. I remind you though, that they looked hopeless through the first two weeks last year as well. Good teams improve throughout the year, and this team is way too talented to not play better.
As for LSU against Auburn, when backed up in their own territory, LSU got first downs to flip the field. LSU converted third downs. Burrow threw the ball on time. Guys made plays in the clutch. Not flashy, but winning offensive football.
Like I said after the big win over Miami, this team still has a way to go to be as good as their ranking says. The toughest games are now at home, but Mississippi State, Georgia, and Alabama might be better than Auburn and Miami (definitely Miami). Florida and A&M are still potential disasters since LSU has a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot.
The key is that LSU improves from week one to week three. Now, LSU needs to take advantage of the next two weeks to continue to improve their depth and execution.
At this point, Tiger fans should start to at least give the boys from Louisiana, Orgeron and Ensminger, the benefit of the doubt. They are proving that Louisiana produces talent on the field and on the sideline, too.
HEY REF
I’d like to take time out this week and discuss something that’s happening across the country, in every state and in every sport. For the past decade and maybe a little longer there has been and remains a shortage in game officials. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking umpires for baseball/softball or refs for football and basketball there is a tremendous lack of game officials. And the shortage has past the critical level. So why is that? There are different views and causes but the shortage is real and throwing money at the problem will not fix it.
When this writer first trained then joined a football official’s association in Baton Rouge I did it for two simple reasons, to remain active and to be part of the game I loved as a player. When I first started (1979) I had the best mentors anyone could ask for. They taught me that as an “on the field” official there were just two things to the job I had to master. A working knowledge of the rules which meant that I had to have the ability to separate book sense from common and that I had to insure neither team gained an advantage by going outside the intent of the rules which actually meant mastering the separation of book sense and common sense.
I also learned most of the best officials have the hardest time with tests and don’t necessarily score the highest grade on the yearly rules test. I’ve lived by that so called rule for each of my 25 seasons. When it comes down to picking a crew I would much rather have a guy that makes an 80 on the test yet can make those split second calls and be right 99% of the time instead of a guy who makes a 100% on the written test yet can’t tell you what the rule actually means.
One frightening thing going on in this country is the steady rise in attacks on game officials. As I read my Referee magazine (Yes, there is such a thing) it seems that these attacks are happening in every sport at every level. I do believe these attacks are the reason for many to either quit working as a game official or to not even attempt a career as a game official.
There’s an instance in Georgia where three so called fans attacked a 33 year old girls’ basketball referee. They were arrested but this is by no means an isolated instance. The other types of attacks are happening to many just starting out. The Pee-Wee level of play usually is where the younger guys “cut” their teeth so to speak. The case being written about happened to a 17 year old kid being beaten by fathers of players. There are too many of these happening and with the number of attacks on the rise you won’t get the younger guys wanting to start working games at any level.
That leads us directly to one of the main reasons for the shortage of game officials nationwide. Many states have increased the fines on those that attack game officials but the sentences and fines are just far too minute to be of any good in stemming attacks. I’d like to see fines and jail times become mandatory in these attacks. You don’t work for very long before you’re involved in such instances.
My experience came in a game not too long ago. We had a season ending meeting of two undefeated teams with the winner being crowned district champs. We kept control for 47 minutes before all hell broke loose. I’d never before seen parents come out of the stands and attack players from the other school. And of course we had to go to the sportsmanship hearing at LHSAA headquarters. A whole day wasted with schools getting fined and suspensions handed out to both teams, etc., etc.
It was not a happy time for any of us. And that nightmare is still fresh in my mind even though it must be 20 or more years ago that it went down. I hadn’t been back nor stepped foot on that field until last Friday night. I didn’t say anything to the crew because as far as I am concerned it’s ancient history. But as I walked around the field preparing for the game it all came rushing back. So, when I say attacks on officials stay with you as a game official, I do know what I’m talking about.
One way I feel we might be able to slow the number of attacks happening to officials is for more parents and fans to strap on the stripes on work a few games to get the taste of what it takes to rule, judge then decide whether someone broke the rules. We don’t have slow motion, frame by frame film video and until you’re in that hot-seat you really don’t know what it takes to be good at what we do. SO, please before anybody “looses” it at the game become part of the game.
Till next week… …
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