November 1, 2019
DENHAM SPRINGS FOOTBALL
The Jackets travel to Walker HS tonight, Friday, November 1… You can catch all the action on Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Baton Rouge and on the Internet at JonFineProductions.com. Air time is 6 PM with Sport N Center Jackets Warmup
Josh Ward, Andy Duckworth and Jon Fine are on the call.
DENHAM SPRINGS INTERVIEWS
Brady Walton, Owner, Ollies Car Wash, will be our guest tonight on Sport-N-Center Jackets Warmup. Former Jackets Baseball Player, Jeff Frizzell (now with Bond-Wroten Eye Clinic) will appear on the North Oaks Health Systems Half-Time Report.
GOLDEN TORS FOOTBALL
Sulphur travels to New Iberia, tonight, Friday, November 1. You can tune in at 6:45 pm on Sports Radio 1310-KEZM-Sulphur/Lake Charles or online at KEZMOnLine.com. Bruce Merchant and Patrick Frey are on the call.
CHRISTMAS PRESENT IDEA
ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, our EBay store, sells media guides. programs and baseball cards. Please visit JonFineProductions.com and click on icon to get to the store. Check out a full array of New Orleans Saints media guides and LSU media guides and programs and publications from much of the entire sports world. Over 6,400 publications listed.
WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR UTMOST TO PATRONIZE SPONSORS OF OUR PROGRAMMING. THIS HELPS US TREMENDOUSLY IN SUSTAINING OUR WEEKLY LINE-UP AND WILL ASSIST US IN ADDING MORE PROGRAMS IN THE FUTURE. KINDLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO LET SPONSORS KNOW YOU HEARD THEIR BUSINESS MENTIONED ON OUR BROADCAST(S)
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Great or historic? With LSU’s win over Auburn, LSU is almost assured of a great season with at least 11 wins and a New Year’s Six Bowl. But, will this be a historic season by beating Alabama for the first time in forever and making the College Football Playoff?
We have two weeks to figure out the answer to that question. For now, I want to look at the last two wins and give my overall impression. LSU is doing the big things, but not the little things.
The last two weeks, LSU has essentially doubled their opponents in total yards. That wasn’t too impressive at Mississippi State, but is very impressive against Auburn. Over 500 yards on the Auburn defense, which did nothing to change my mind that they are the best defense in the SEC, is impressive.
Nevertheless, LSU’s point production in both games did not match their production in yards and that is now a concern. When the coaches study their short yardage and red zone offense during the bye week, I think they will see they have developed some strong tendencies that need to be broken in those situations.
The last two weeks also show how important special teams and 3rd/4th down situations are to the final score. The fact is the all areas were bad for LSU against Auburn and LSU still won the game which again emphasizes the quality of this team. But, it also highlights that this team needs to tighten up in these areas.
Jumping back to the beginning, I am fully aware that my second sentence is pretty dumb. Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Texas A&M are SEC games. LSU could lose to Alabama and one of those three and end up with what would be a disappointing 10 win season. And it isn’t hard to see how it would happen.
To be completely honest, against Auburn I thought I was watching a replay of the Texas A&M game. LSU was clearly the better team. LSU dominated most of the day. But, tell me if this isn’t exactly what happened against the Aggies.
Every punt return felt like a disaster waiting to happen. LSU came up on the short end on a situation where a player may have had a knee down and a turnover ensured. I want Mond’s knee and Stingley’s knee in a picture side by side and tell me how one is down but the other isn’t. Then at the end of the game, Auburn would just throw the ball up for grabs and somehow it still worked out in their favor.
As for the matchup in two weeks, it really should be #1 versus #3. LSU is #1 because of the teams they have beaten, though I think the eye test goes to Ohio State. Ohio State would be my #1 if Wisconsin hadn’t lost to Illinois and now makes me think that Wisconsin is one team at home and another on the road. Bama is number three because the record of their opponents is 23-39. LSU’s opponents, for comparison, are 32-29. To finish it off, Penn State is my number four and Clemson is five.
Speaking of schedules, I think Alabama is a great team and the Patriots are great. But, my goodness, how do they end up with these schedules? The Patriots’ opponents are combined 14-42. Only the Bills have more than 2 wins and that is mostly because they have played teams in the same awful division. Again, for comparison, the Saints opponents are 32-28.
Fortunately, in the NFL, more teams qualify for the playoffs and this stuff doesn’t matter as much. I am very content to sit back this weekend and enjoy the fact that the Saints and LSU are 15-1 overall. Geaux Dat!
HEY REF
And as sure as the sun setting in the west, here in these parts of the state of Louisiana whenever Halloween arrives so too are the reminders and replays along with the celebration of Billy Cannon’s punt return against ‘Ole Miss which seems to have happened just a few short years ago. Or so it seems that way. I bring this up because we’re also entering the toughest part of every high school football season and that is of course games number nine and ten.
It never fails that so much is riding on the outcome of these final two games for many schools each and every year. There’s no need for me to mention that depending on what happens in the next seven to fourteen days will decide if a school has had a successful year or not. But what I feel needs mentioning is that based on any combination of winning or losing these final two games will decide a coach’s future.
I can’t remember who it was that first said “there are only three types of coaches, those that are hired, those that are fired and those that will be fired”. It is this very time of each year where I definitely don’t envy coaches. To tell the truth I’ve never envied any coach. And especially in these days where there’s so much pressure on them to produce a winning program every year. A dropped pass here or a fumble there could be the deciding factor where a coach either keeps or loses his job.
So with all that out of the way I’m changing courses and want to speak directly to my brother officials. Another season is almost “in the books” so to speak and I’d like to ask each of them “What have you done this year to be a better official”? The first thing we as high school officials must understand is we are AMATEUR officials! We work AMATEUR games played by AMATEUR athletes coached by PROFESSIONAL COACHES! In this scheme of high school sports we must realize the only thing professional about the sports we work are the coaches.
Yes, I’m very much aware of the HELL I’m about to catch from my brother officials but as all those that’ve read my column understand is I only print the truth no matter who may feel hurt or upset at the words I choose. We all make mistakes but we must not be afraid to make mistakes for the simple fact is we should learn from our mistakes. If you do not learn from making a mistake you’re no use to the game or the part you play by working as a game official.
I make mistakes all the time and do my best not to repeat them. I usually don’t name names in my column and that’s an unwritten rule with me simply because what’s been said is much more important than who said it. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about; I was assigned a game this year with an official named David Sanchez. In this game he worked as a back judge and for those that don’t know the position he worked deep, about 25 yards from the line of scrimmage in the middle of the field. I was working as a line judge, which is on the home side of the field on the line of scrimmage, for just the second time this year.
The referee told us to line up anticipating an on-side kick. Every member of the crew was wearing a radio to help relay our calls to the rest of the crew, etc. Well, I happened to stand on the receiver’s 40 yard line since I’d lined up there in an earlier game this season. Only problem I was working a different position, one of the deep wings in that game, and since I was working L J I should’ve been on the 45. Dave didn’t waste time in correcting me. It’s one of those types of brain-farts you don’t like to make. From that little no-no I won’t forget where I’m to be when that situation comes back around.
Some guys will just blow it off and nothing will come of it. I admitted that I hadn’t read up on the mechanics as to where I was to be in that situation and owned the mistake. Even though it was a very minor mistake it was still one and one that if Dave hadn’t instructed me to correct where I was on the kick off and the kick gone to the area where I should’ve been and action where possession was in question then the entire crew could’ve been blamed for a huge foo-pah.
I wanted to share that little example of how we use radios as a tool to help us do a better job not only for the schools and our association but for the coaches. As an official I don’t want to make a mistake that’ll cost any coach his job. These men are under an extreme amount of pressure since this is the way they feed their families and pay their bills. I’ve always felt that coaches and officials should work together when possible.
I do want to ask the coaches and schools for a little assistance in helping officials become better at doing our jobs. We now have technology in place that can help make Friday nights less stressful. Each week we’re emailed via “HUDDLE” video of games in our area. It’s a great tool for coaches trying to find the mistakes their teams make or help in scouting their next opponents. But I question every coach and school why are they not videoing the penalties and the enforcements that the crew makes during their games.
Video of the referee signaling the foul called and the enforcement of said fouls would be helpful in training every official. I’ve had coaches tell me about a “hold” not being called on a certain play or this happened, etc., etc. This last game I was in the press box and the game was being shown on cable. One of the video workers asked me to look at a play during halftime. He told me of a play where a 15 yard facemask penalty hadn’t been called. I watched the play and yes the crew missed a major facemask call.
So, as Saturday rolled around I couldn’t wait to check my email to see how the yank of the facemask would be shown. As I watched the game I noticed not a single time did the cameras catch the white hat signal what penalty was called on the field. And to further my frustration never did the playback announce the foul. If ever a tool wasn’t being used to its fullest extent the video being emailed to all of the officials is a total waste of time! That is unless you just want to see how pretty you look.
As a retired electrician if a tool on my job wasn’t being used or needed it was sent back to the warehouse for storage. We needed only tools on our job that were being used by my crew. Coaches, you have such a tool, it’s called “HUDDLE” and you aren’t using it to its fullest extent! You are cheating yourselves, schools and players. Get with the camera guys and tell them to include the signals the white hat makes when there’s a flag on the ground. We’ll be able to tell what the crew did by the yard line where the next snap comes from.
If we can get y’all to use this tool then we’ll be able to use this tool to educate our guys in stripes! Oh, and it’ll help you too!
Till next week… …
DENHAM SPRINGS HS FOOTBALL RADIO BROADCASTS ARE A JON FINE PRODUCTION ON FAMILY RADIO, 91.9 FM, BATON ROUGE and JonFineProductions.com.
OUR EBAY STORE, ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, SELLS SPORTS PUBLICATIONS. YOU CAN LINK TO IT BY VISITING JonFineProductions.com.
JON IS PROUD TO WORK AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE FOR SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-SULPHUR/LAKE CHARLES.
JON IS PROUD TO WORK FOR PAYJUNCTION AS A MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE AND HAMILTON RELAY IN FACILITATING CONVERSATIONS FOR THE HARD OF HEARING