October 8, 2021
CENTRAL GAME
The Denham Springs HS Football team opens up district play tonight (October 8) as they visit Central High School… 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 Livingston Parish Clerk of Court (and former Jackets athlete) Jason Harrris on Sport-N-Center Yellow Jackets Warmup and DSHS Athletics Hall of Famer (and former Jackets star player, coach and principal) Butch Wax on North Oaks Health Systems Half-Time Report.
DSHS ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME NEXT THURSDAY
Due to Ida and Covid, the DSHS Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet and game presentation are being postponed until next 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 updates a column from 2015
Please scroll down below.
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
We all should have known that is how the home winning streak would end. What is worse, we know how losses to Auburn seem to derail coaching eras at LSU.
We should have known the streak would be broken in a game that LSU would lose more than Auburn would win. We should have known it would be a game where LSU was the more talented team, but Auburn was the hungrier team with good fortune on its side.
LSU got exactly what it deserved. Instead of being up 20-0, LSU was only up 13-0 and allowed Auburn to get off the mat. Instead of taking advantage of a desperate onside kick to start the second half, LSU only got three points.
Your eyes, my eyes, and the eyes of the coaches can see the problems. Whether it is disorganization or confusion on offense, the execution is poor. There are valid arguments to be made for playing Corey Kiner more and getting the ball to Kayshon Boutte as much as possible.
The defense is slow to adjust and not very aggressive. Normally, I agree with Coach Orgeron´s assessment in his postgame press conference, but not this week. The ¨cage¨ rush approach with a spy is what LSU tried against Texas when Ehlinger lit LSU up two years ago. For a quarterback like Nix, I prefer to blitz the spy, crush the pocket around him and make him throw on time from the pocket.
We have been discussing the issues for a while, though. Identifying the problems is easy. Fixing them is very challenging and leads to contracts worth millions of dollars.
I think we can now agree that we are entering the no fun zone of LSU football. I, and many other Tiger fans, have been here before. LSU fans are off the bandwagon and when that happens, they do not get back on quickly.
The SEC is not a place that will help either. Every game will be a struggle, win or lose, and this team will lose more games this year. Due to the pandemic year of all conference games and a record of 5-5, even if LSU won out, people will be able to say that LSU is only 15-7 since the Clemson win. The reality is, though, that LSU will be fortunate to finish 7-5, and the record will be around 12-10 since the championship. The assistant coach turnover has already happened, so that cannot be used to save the day.
With all that to be said, this experience is not fun for anyone, and I have already made up my mind of how I am going to handle it. First, I will go into a media blackout. They are not going to tell me anything I do not know from my eyes watching the game, and there is nothing a player or coach can say to make me feel better. I will feel better when I see execution on the field maximizing the talent on the field.
Further, the media will tell me thousands of things that are false. I am not wasting my time hearing about Tom Herman, Jimbo Fisher, Nick Saban's wife who really wants to come back to Baton Rouge or Jack del Rio´s daughter and wife who are from Baton Rouge. I am not on the Board of Supervisors, I am not a big donor, and as a result I have no influence. So I am going to just wait and see what happens.
In the meantime, I hope Sean Payton realizes the 2021 Saints are not the Ravens or ´85 Bears. The Saints are not going to make the playoffs completely relying on this defense. The line is not good enough. Cam Jordan´s production has declined drastically, and we know the situation with Davenport and Onlyemata. The best ability is availability.
On offense, the Saints have never found the power back needed for the really tough yards. It is not a knock on Kamara to say that he should get 15 carries and at least 5 targets, but someone else needs to get the ball on 3rd and 2. Taysom provides some of that, but will be less and less effective until they allow him to pull the ball in short yardage and make a short pass.
Going into the season, the schedule dictated that the Saints would need to get off to a fast start to have a chance at being a playoff team. Losing to a winless team at home is extremely difficult to overcome even if it is just week four.
Yet, just as I began by saying we should have seen this coming with LSU, we should have seen this coming from the Saints. The symmetry is amazing. We waited a year and 9 months to watch the Saints in the Superdome with fans. 21 months ago the Saints lost a playoff game they should have won in overtime without seeing the ball. And after 21 months, the same thing happened again. Go figure.
HEY REF
I’m reaching way back to a column I first wrote in 2015. My reason is twofold because I’ve always looked for those cheap shots that are made to inflict pain and injury to an opponent. The second part of my reasoning is that I found myself at odds with a ruling from my association has made as to what we will and what we won’t consider in giving extra protection to punt receivers. I’ll let you read these few lines before getting to the meat of my opinion on what we MUST DO AS OFFICIALS TO PROTECT PLAYERS EVEN IF IT GOES AGAIGNST THE WORDING OF A RULE.
So please begin; once again I find myself wondering how someone cannot see the forest because of all the trees in his way. One of the main traits an official must have is his ability to be impartial when calling any sport. This past week during a high school football game in Nebraska a player was penalized and ejected over a very CHEAP shot he dished out to a defenseless player on a pass interception.
As I watched the replay over and over I couldn’t figure out where the controversy came into play. The film shows an Omaha Central defensive back stepping in front of a receiver close to the goal line and returning it back up the field when out of the blue Brandon Wagner lays out Greg Hauge during the return. Then as if that wasn’t bad enough he, Wagner, stands over the motionless Hauge and taunts him.
For a split second I thought this was a training tape because it was very evident to everyone with eyes and good, common sense that the hit was uncalled for since the action was nowhere near the P–O–A, aka Point of Attack. I commend the crew for throwing multiple flags and ejecting Wagner. Hauge was unable to get up and had to be loaded onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
Now here’s where things turn idiotic, Wagner’s father Robert claims that the Federation needs to redefine “defenseless” since, in his eyes, Hauge was running toward the ball he’s not defenseless. Are you F*KN kidding me? When a player is 20 yards away from the action there is no way you can defend putting a shot like that on anybody. This is where officials earn their pay. It is our job to try and keep the players safe and when we need to, penalize and eject those players not conforming to the rules.
I’ll repeat myself again when I write that high school rules are written to make the game as safe as humanly possible for all the players and not allow anyone to intentionally injure an opponent. I found myself in this exact situation way back in 1997. I was chosen to work the championship game between John Curtis and Eunice in the Super Dome.
Early in the game Curtis had intercepted a pass and on the return there were a couple of very hard blocks on the return. They were legal blocks by definition but one player went out of his way to be just a tad bit more aggressive than he needed to be on a player much smaller than himself. As he made his way to the sidelines I stopped him and gave him a chance to explain what he thought he accomplished but he had no answer. So I warned him we weren’t gonna put up with anything cheap.
As halftime got close it seemed like I was watching a replay as once again Curtis had intercepted a pass. I saw this same player taking aim and all I could think of was he’s not gonna take another cheap shot but I was wrong. He did and in those days the foul was clipping because Federation rules stated you can’t “blindside” a player, etc., etc. Hence they call it a defenseless player today.
I took plenty of heat for that call but I’ll make it today again and again because it’s all about keeping the players safe. If the shoe was on the other foot and his son was being loaded into an ambulance Mr. Wagner would want someone to pay for hurting his kid.
Officiating football games is an easy thing to do as long as you don’t have to make any tough calls. But you’ll never be a good official unless you make the tough calls. Good officials can separate book sense and apply common sense to the game on the field. And that’s what makes a good official a great official, standing strong and not hesitating to make the tough calls.
Our job is not one where success is measured in the friends we make on the field. Success to me comes after the game by the number of kids that are able to walk off the field. Officials take pride in keeping all the players safe and making sure neither team gains an advantage by going outside the rules. And at the end of the day I must remind all officials protecting players should be our number one job!
O. K., now back to the future; 2021…
On a video two players are deep to catch a punt; the deeper of the two gives a textbook fair-catch signal why the shallower one gives a not so good signal and it’s one we call an invalid signal. The question arose “does the invalid signaler get extra protection per definition of the rule”? I answered “YES, we give him as much protection as necessary to keep this player from getting a cheap shot from the kickers and a possible permanent injury”.
Well, I was told I’m wrong because the rule says this, we call that, this went here that goes there and so on. I’m sorry but I don’t agree with that one bit and my reasoning is very simple. When I first started doing this job the association I started with taught all of us that we’re (officials) charged with keeping all the players safe. They should return home after a game as they were in when they started the game. And I’ve got a very personal reason for working a game that way because I didn’t get back home in as good condition as I was when I left home.
It was a rainy night at Ferriday H. S, (I think) and the guard in front of me “pulled” so I got in the backfield and waited. I saw the play was a reverse and I was right where I needed to be then as the runner got near I felt a pain in my left knee that I’d never felt before. The film shows the guard reversed himself and hit me from the side and buried his helmet in my knee which altered my life. He hit me at such an angle as the hit dislocated and cracked my knee cap plus tore a ligament. Players on the sideline said it sounded like a Cherry-Bomb going off. It was the cheapest of cheap shots.
Back in those pre-historic days there wasn’t much knowledge on fixing a cracked knee cap. It was an injury usually doled out by the Mafia. But it hit home and for what it’s worth I’ll do whatever I can to stop any player(s) from intentionally going onto a football field with the intention of hurting another player. All officials should also do whatever they can to ovoid an intentional cheap shot. I know I won’t make any new friends with my fellow officials because too many only see the rulebook in black and white.
If a coach, school, principal or fellow official doesn’t want me working their games or in their crew then so be it. I’ll always walk onto a football field with my number one thought “PROTECT ALL THE PLAYERS”! If I get scratched so be it! I get the most satisfaction after a game when I see the ambulance going home empty!
Till next week…
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