September 24, 2021
MAY HE REST IN PEACE
Our thoughts, prayers and heartfelt condolences are extended to the family of Brian Smith and the Yellow Jackets Football family. After waging a courageous battle, the Denham Springs HS Defensive Coordinator succumbed to cancer on Monday. According to everyone you talk to, Coach Smith was a terrific coach and an even better person.
Week 3… The Denham Springs HS Football team entertains Franklinton HS tonight (September 24). Kickoff is 7pm
You can catch all the action on Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Baton Rouge and on the Internet at JonFineProductions.com
Sport N Center Yellow Jackets Warmup airs at 6pm
Mario Jerez provides play-by-play, Mitch Covington is the color commentator, and yours truly, Jon Fine, assists with Sport N Center Yellow Jackets Warmup, North Oaks Health Systems Half-Time Report and Ralph Sellers Chevrolet Post-Game Show.
Guests on Broadcast
Jon Fine will interview Sport N Center owner (and former Jackets Baseball player) Stacy Phipps on Sport-N-Center Yellow Jackets Warmup and Denham Springs Athletic Association President Laura Dunlap on North Oaks Health Systems Half-Time Report.
DSHS ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
Due to Ida and Covid, the DSHS Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet and game presentation are being postponed until Thursday, October 14 (Banquet, 6:30 pm, Forrest Grove Plantation), and Friday, October 15, 2021. Tickets to the banquet remain on sale at the Denham Springs HS office.
LSU, Saints and Much More!
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TODAY’S COLUMNS:
Scott discusses LSU and Saints Football
Dennis takes on Louisiana HS principals
Please scroll down below.
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Last weekend reminded me of a few long lost Murphy's laws I made up as a kid.
Rule 1: If LSU or the Saints played well one weekend and had a big win, the next weekend they were going to stink.
Rule 2: If LSU played well on Saturday, the Saints were going to stink on Sunday.
Rule 3: If LSU stunk on Saturday, the Saints might still stink on Sunday.
To be clear, there are no statistics to back up the observations of a young pre-teen and teenager who would carry a Sunday loss all the way to Tuesday.
The calmer, older version of me is able to look back on the weekend and see some reasons for optimism and concern for the Saints and Tigers. We must recognize that not only was the Saints game against Carolina the exact inverse of the Packers game the week before, but the weekend was as well.
LSU´s performance against McNeese rightfully had LSU fans nervous heading into the Central Michigan game, while the Saints win against the Packers was the talk of the NFL. The Tigers turned it around against the Chippewas and the Saints showed why I feared a six win season coming into the year. One weekend does not necessarily predict the following.
The Saints refuse to use any excuses so I will not either (though it is clear the obstacles were finally too much). The coaches, players and fans ate the cheese this week. The game plan looked like they thought they would just line up and shove the Panthers around. Instead, Andrus Peat was dominated by Morgan Fox, and the Saints did little to get Kamara a good matchup. Maybe it was the result of being stuck in 1st and 2nd and 20 the whole first half.
I believe Jameis is still the right quarterback, but keep in mind, one of the advantages of Jameis at quarterback is Taysom is allowed to be the swiss army knife. In games where the offense is struggling, Hill often provides a change of speed and spark. The few plays Taysom was involved in against Carolina he changed the game.
Again, Jameis is the starting quarterback and that is the best way forward. Payton has to help him out more with the game plan and play calling, and I believe he will. Payton is still learning Jameis and Jameis is still learning the offense.
Defensively, the Saints allowed Christian McCaffery and DJ Moore to beat them. My biggest concern all off season has been collapsing the pocket from the inside without Onyemata. The few times Darnold had a defender in his face he threw the ball to a Saints player. Most of the time, the pressure came off the edge and Darnold could step into a clean pocket and he was very effective.
It would be nice to think that the Saints will turn things around as quickly as they fell backward this week. But, this could be a bad matchup for that to happen. At New England, the Patriots are going to find the right matchup against the Saints defense. Hopefully, Gardner-Johnson and Lattimore return. If so, the defense should fare better this week.
Offensively, there is just a lack of weapons if the offensive line is not dominant. That means there needs to be a lot of creativity on first down to get the offense in good down and distances to keep the chains moving. Hopefully, Payton can get Kamara some good matchups in the middle of the field instead of catching the ball one yard in bounds heading straight out of bounds for a one yard gain (can you tell I have Kamara in fantasy?).
As for LSU, I am going to begin with a little dose of reality. Smith, Nabors, and Bech all made incredible catches, which is encouraging. But, we should also note that Max was late or off target on those passes. Back to a positive, a quarterback has to be willing to throw his receiver open and just give them a chance to make plays.
The veteran receivers outside of Boutte did not make plays the first two weeks, so it was good to see a few guys step up. I was very relieved to see skill players making plays again. Amazingly, they all seem to be freshmen.
Defensively, the Tigers are settling into a groove, though I am still concerned about safety. The good news is Jay Ward should return, and just in time for Mississippi State. The model for handling Mike Leach´s offense has been laid out. Keep the ball in front and tackle in space. Make Mississippi State run play after play and they will drop a pass, throw a bad pass, or get a penalty to take themselves off schedule. But by all means, keep the ball in front of you and tackle.
On special teams, I shake my head that LSU is not using Stingley as the punt returner. That whole unit needs better players. I appreciate using hungry reserve players on special teams, but I also remember Devin White playing special teams. They are not using Stingley on offense, and he is too good to only use on defense.
After three games, the playmakers on this football team are standing out. There are some special players on offense, defense, and special teams and they need to be given as many chances as possible.
HEY REF
As everyone knows this writer doesn’t like “tooting” his own horn. But after a day of searching for this column from ’13 there’s no better time to re-post it so everyone will know exactly what I said back then. And what I wrote back then has come to pass as reality. It dealt with school principals putting their nose into a subject they need to keep out of.
The principals felt they knew what it would take to make the on field officials that work their high school football games better when the whistle blew and we started playing for “keeps”. In response to the officials demanding a pay raise (or they threatened they’d strike) the principals put into effect the requirement of all officials having to attend a state sanctioned camp that would better educate the officials and so on.
Well, I knew they were barking up the wrong tree in mandating a camp in order to get that raise but the officials in droves approved this mandate from the principals. Not thinking what this extra expense would do to their wallets the officials signed on the dotted line. And of the course what wasn’t thought out was who would be responsible for putting on the mandated camps. So, the LHSAA and Principals created the Louisiana High School Officials Association or LHSOA.
With a name like that you’d think it was made by and for officials. Well, to tell the truth that way of thinking is so far from the truth I’d like to sell you some ocean front property in Arizona. Normally you’d think that the officials would vote on who would represent them but since the creation of this scam I’ve never seen a ballot or the names of those officials wanting to run for an office, I mean it is the Louisiana High School OFFICIALS Association isn’t it? Well, only in name. If OFFICIALS controlled it the proper name would be OFFICIAL’S Association.
But what’s had me searching for this column is I worked another JV game on Tuesday Sept. 21, 2021 with an official that’s dropped out of the Baton Rouge Association and isn’t working football games anymore. And his reason is the same that I’ve heard from so many ex-officials, THEY REFUSE TO CONTINUE WORKING IN THE BATON ROUGE ASSOCIATION BECAUSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT SECRETARY; MARLON HARRISON! Just last week another former Baton Rouge Official said to me and I will quote him “MARLON WILL BURY THE BATON ROUGE ASSOCIATION”! I’ve written about this problem many times in this space and even brought it to the attention of the LHSAA but their response stays steadfast in that they’re turning their backs on this problem.
I’d just like to pass along a message to my fellow officials; it won’t do any good trying to change what’s happening on Old Hammond Highway because they’ve made these problems and only they can fix them get things turned around in a once proud association. Baton Rouge was where coaches went for years to get the best officials in the state but that’s not the case now and hasn’t been for quite some time. Please, don’t take my word for it. Talk with your coaches and ask them. At the time this column first was released the qualifying year was the end of the physical year. It has since been fixed and now the date of the camp is the year in which that sport will be played.
So, before I run out of space please take a look at what I wrote and you’ll understand that I hit a bull’s eye! Enjoy this edition of “Best of Hey Ref”!
Not sure if I should label this week’s fun-facts as either “Shooting thyself in the foot” or “Cutting off ‘da nose to spite ‘da face”? Sometime we think we’ve got a solution to a problem when in all actuality we’ve really just created an enormous “cluster”!!!! High school principals state wide a few short years back attempted to improve the officials that worked their games by requiring them to attend a training camp once every two years.
Many officials didn’t think twice about the strings that were silently attached to that clause in the new contract that had to be signed between said schools and each local association. The reason they very quickly looked the other way was simple. You might think common sense ruled the official’s decision but it was in all actuality copper cents as in currency.
Sad for me to think this way but many of my official brothers, with the sorry economic situation our country has been in for what seems some thirty years; many need the few dollars working high school games to feed their families and\or pay the rent. This is a very cold, hard fact of our modern society.
The camp attendance clause was thought by many of the voting principals to be THE answer! But there are too many questions for a simple answer to a very complex set of problems when we start talking on how to insure the game officials are up to the highest standard in rules knowledge.
I’ll share some very quick numbers to maybe help the principals understand that the attendance requirement is a loss cause at best. The main expense incurred by officials is of course the camp registration fee. The attendance requirement at its simplest forces each official to spend from $500.00 to maybe $7 or $800.00 bucks.
Not a cost many of us can afford but the principals think it’s a great return on their investment and the money they’ll spend in increased fees on game night. And that’s where the vast majority of principal’s opinions lay. But it’s not that simple in the real world. The monster they’ve created actually binds the hands of all assignment secretaries in the state.
I’ll use my case to try and help the principals realize the system needs fixing because it is costing their schools in more ways than just the bottom line. I sat out about 10 years due to some severe health issues. I came back in Aug. 2012 with 20 years varsity experience, worked many playoff games, and even worked the state championship in the Dome between Curtis and Eunice in 1997.
I attended a mandatory camp in Aug. 2013 and also worked the ’13 regular season. You’d think I met the camp attendance rule since I’d only worked one year before I attended a camp. But you’re wrong as rain as I and many other officials found out when the regular season started. A little unknown stipulation says you must attend a camp before the end of the FISCAL year which ends of course on June 30th.
So those like me that attended a camp after July 1 were out of luck and couldn’t keep their certification. We were bumped DOWN a classification which caused me to lose $25.00 a game in pay which totaled over $250.00 also we aren’t allowed to work more than one playoff game instead of two, three or possibly four. Add a loss in playoff revenue of at least another $100.00.
When you add the cost of new shoes, pants, shorts, etc. we put up another $200 - $300.00 on top of the camp fees, dues ($75.00) and we’re talking a net loss in income somewhere between $400 to close to maybe $500 or more after figuring your game checks. So when good officials start dropping out because of the not intended screwing we took you can understand why many drop out altogether.
So, principals when you scratch your head and wonder why you can’t attract or keep good officials try and remember this, it’s all about the bottom line nowadays. No more love of the game, it’s all about the bottom line. Sad that it’s come down to this but as personal incomes continue to nosedive in this one world economy you can’t blame many guys to walk away and not give a second thought about a career in officiating.
The system is broke but we should be able to fix this problem before games are called by guys that just volunteer to do it instead of making it a job that involves rewards for doing a good job.
Till next week…
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