November 29, 2018
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
I know I have disclosed I am a fanatic when it comes to LSU and the Saints, but I don’t think I have disclosed that many times this article serves as therapy for me. I bring that up this week to inform readers of two things before you continue reading.
First, I haven’t completely recovered from what happened in Minnesota last year to the Saints, so I can only imagine how long it will take to deal with what I watched last Saturday night. Regardless, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to read my rants on that abomination almost a week after it happened, so I will restrain myself.
Second, the best way for me to recover is to try and engage the logical aspect of my brain. Consequently, I am going to try and look back at Saturday and the regular season logically.
The only rational thinking I can provide from the A&M game is how much credit the LSU players and coaches deserve for the grit they showed over the course of the game. I know most fans (the fan side of me included) want to focus on the numerous chances LSU had to win the game with one play. But if we do that, we must look at the number of times LSU could have folded and that didn’t happen.
I am intentionally going to avoid the details of the last drive and 7 overtimes. Just think of how many times you wanted to quit on that game, turn it off (maybe you did), or change from the SEC to any other conference. Think of how many times, you knew A&M was going to win the game because they had 1st and goal or just needed a 2 point conversion. LSU’s defense and offense continued competing, and they were the ones playing football for over 4.5 hours.
Multiple overtimes are not the friend of LSU football (LSU is now winless in multiple overtime games). With that natural bias in mind, I hate college and high school football overtime systems. And yes soccer fans, I hate penalty kicks as well. Thank goodness my sport, basketball, doesn’t end in a free throw shooting contest or half court pickup game.
I need a break from all this calm logic and please excuse this minor outburst. Since when are players allowed to stand over their opponent after a TD and taunt? Apparently it is legal in Fayetteville and College Station.
Watching Burrow run 29 times and Edwards-Helaire throw a pass reminds me that Lowell Narcisse transferring may have been the biggest loss of the off season.
If I am touching the ball I am down and don’t need possession for the play to be dead? If that is the rule, bad rule.
Finally, 3 penalties in a full game and 7 overtimes? C’mon man.
Rant over, back to logic. It is time to look at the season as a whole. There are many ways to evaluate a season. One way is to look at how LSU performed against their opponents compared to how LSU’s opponents performed in all their games.
For example, against Miami, LSU gained more yards and scored more points than Miami’s defense averaged surrendering. At the same time, LSU’s defense held Miami’s offense under their season average for yards and points per game. You probably didn’t need to know those stats to know that LSU played well against Miami. But, it is good to know that the numbers support the subjective view. As it turns out, most games followed that pattern.
My point is that who you play matters, and just looking at total yards from an offense or defense doesn’t tell a complete picture. I don’t care that South Carolina threw for 500 yards and scored a boat load of points against Clemson. South Carolina was routed. It doesn’t matter that Michigan can shut down offenses from Wisconsin, Penn State, and Northwestern and be ranked #1 going into the Ohio State game. Michigan could not even slow down Ohio State’s offense. The score decides who wins and loses games. It is not a total yard contest.
I am going to blow your mind with these stats that do tell a more complete picture. ESPN.com has team efficiency stats. They take into account things like who you play and when you get your yards (garbage time or when the game is close). Make sure you are sitting down for these stats.
LSU’s team efficiency is 11th, offensive efficiency is 33rd, defensive efficiency is 11th and special teams 33rd.
I know these stats aren’t perfect either, but statistics aren’t perfect? I can tell you that my eyeballs and the stats say that LSU played well on offense against Miami, Auburn, Ole Miss, Georgia, Rice, and Texas A&M. The offense clearly needs to improve, but opinions have been warped by the performance against Mississippi State and Alabama.
Defensively, LSU played well in almost every game, but did not close games. I would say closing the game was an issue against Miami, LA Tech, Florida, Arkansas, and Texas A&M.
The special teams were extremely consistent. Great kicking, great coverage, horrible returns.
The game management was good all year. LSU didn’t waste many timeouts, rarely had substitution issues, used timeouts appropriately, and was efficient in the two minute and four minute offense.
I think I can objectively say that the program is moving in the right direction. In 2016, LSU won 7 regular season games. In 2017, LSU won 9 regular season with a weak no conference schedule and two bad teams from the SEC East on the schedule. This year’s 9 regular season are of much higher quality than last year.
What about next year? Good question, but that will have to wait for next week.
HEY REF
I must admit that I haven’t a single good answer to all the questions being asked of me as to what happened in the LSU – Texas A&M circus this past week. I did not watch much of the game as my wife and I were dealing with a tiny bit of jet lag after spending the previous ten days in D. C. We didn’t go as tourists on vacation since most of our time was spent strictly on getting some family affairs straightened out.
So, as questions came flooding in this past week I spent almost four whole days watching game highlights (if you can call them that) on my computer. Once again I’m at a loss for words as I attempted to make sense of some of these calls. There are tremendous pressures on every official to get the call correct. I can only say if mistakes were made the SEC will have to acknowledge them as each official is graded on every play. Each conference has a grading system in place where they grade the crew’s coverage on EVERY PLAY! How would you like a job where you are graded on everything you do every minute of every day? That’s massive pressure and the main reason officials burn-out. Officials are under the microscope every single second of every game.
As I watched those disputed plays in question and the calls that were made either by the crew of officials on the field or the replay officials I kept asking myself with all the technology we now have, things like slow motion cameras that allow you to review plays frame by frame and what seems like a dozen or so camera angles how can we still be getting calls wrong?
When officials are sitting in a network suite with their combined gladiolus maximuses planted squarely in the most comfortable chairs known to man, please tell me how can you still get the call wrong? IF and I say that with capital letters, IF I had been in the booth and the crew ruled that the quarterback had his knee on the turf with possession of the ball then he’s down and the play is dead. My ruling would’ve been if he continues an attempt to advance the ball, pass or run, you could either penalize him for an illegal pass or at the very least a delay of the game foul. An illegal pass is penalized 5 yards from the spot where it is thrown with a loss of down. If a flag was thrown for either situation they could’ve and should’ve then penalized either as a dead-ball foul.
The only question left to ask would be if the referee (white hat) agreed with my ruling or would he agree with another member of the crew or would he go with what he felt was the proper penalty to administer. This is a perfect example of why each and every member of a crew needs to have a working knowledge of the rules. When you see officials gather together to discuss a penalty and the proper enforcement it means there’s a question among the crew and getting every member’s input should keep any mistakes from happening.
Too many times fans, coaches and players will think the officials don’t know the rules because they’re taking too long to penalize a team. It’s just the opposite; any and all good crews will take their time to insure the proper enforcement of a foul. I can’t stand to be in a crew where one or two guys think they know all the rules and they never make mistakes. It happens every year and it happened in a game I was working where one member felt it right for him to put the heat on me for making a mistake.
This official wants everybody to think he taught Jesus how to walk on water so when he made a huge mistake do you know what I did. I did the right thing; I corrected his mistake without saying a word to him. The entire crew then knew of his mistake but I didn’t make a scene or embarrass him. That’s not the way officials should work together and it’s not the way I was taught. My mentor drove it into my head that “we get a call wrong together and we make a correct call together”.
In other words crews should always work together as one and not individuals. If you ask any coach or fan which official “blew” a call they’ll tell you it was the guy wearing the stripes. Too many times these newer officials think the spotlight is on them. They don’t understand the concept that there are always three teams on a football field. It’s hurt officiating as a whole.
Till next week…
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