Update on “Field Goal Gate” From Chapel Hill

General36

Only in Chapel Hill would a coach ask for “clarification on rules” after officials almost screwed UVA out of a field goal. In the 20+ years of watching football, I have never seen a crew blow a field goal. Of course when you play in Chapel Hill you should get used to shenanigans.

Good related comments can be found by clicking here.

Here’s a video of the field goal. This is classic:

Also, the ACC office commented on how an entire squad of officials could miss a ball sailing through the uprights:

“The officials clearly erred in not calling that field goal good,” Doug Rhoads, the ACC supervisor of football officials, said from Greensboro. “It was a breakdown in their mechanics. … It was a deviation from our standard practice of mechanics by both officials.“We’ll address their error in mechanics.”

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36 Responses to Update on “Field Goal Gate” From Chapel Hill

  1. wolfman 09/17/2007 at 7:05 PM #

    What a bunch of crybabies. I’m glad they’re getting a taste of their own medicine. The whole world knows that field goal was good. Brings back memories of a certain TA McLendon touchdown.

  2. beowolf 09/17/2007 at 8:35 PM #

    I’ve never even heard of a crew missing a FG.

    But I sure have heard of many, many game-changing calls that occured in the endzone and favored uncch.

  3. waxhaw 09/17/2007 at 8:41 PM #

    It would only be a taste of their own medicine if they kicked the field goal, it was good, yet it was called no good.

    The right call was made. The officials had no choice in that one.

  4. choppack1 09/17/2007 at 8:43 PM #

    It takes a special kind of delusion to scream for injustice. That’s exactly what Butch Davis, Woody Durham, this writer and probably Swofford are po’d about.

    The kicker made the kick – it was clear that he made the kick. I was listening to the TarHeel postgame show. Their absurd “spin” was “was this a proper review” – not once did they mention that replay CLEARLY show that the kick was IN FACT GOOD. Woody and his cohorts are scumbags. They did mention that the ballboys all said it was good, and that the ballboys are always right. I couldn’t tell if they were joking or not. They also said that the review didn’t obviously break the rules, but specified that they didn’t permit it.

    This crap about where the advice to review the call – coming from a sideline reporter interjecting his point of view in an effort to get the right call reversed just shows just how perverse some people can be.

    THIS IS SWOFFORD’S ACC.

  5. noah 09/17/2007 at 8:47 PM #

    In 1992, we played Georgia Tech in Atlanta. We tried a long FG and it was ruled a miss. I don’t know whether we hit it or not, but Sheridan was furious and even said on his coaching show that week that he was certain the ball had gone over the goal posts and should have counted.

    The next year, the ACC passed a rule that made everyone have the big, tall goal posts to avoid such situations. At the time, Tech had the little short posts like you see in high school stadiums.

    That call ended up costing us the game. We were tied until very late and Tech completed a long pass at the very end of the game. The clock probably ought to have run out, but they stopped it with one second left. Tech called TO and sent on their FG team and kicked the winning field goal and we lost 16-13.

  6. noah 09/17/2007 at 8:56 PM #

    I mention that story because it’s the ONLY time I can recall a FG being challenged. Should have put that in there.

    Also, from what I heard, Groh was alerted to the incorrect call by a student manager, not a coach in the press box. The guy behind the goal posts who caught the football ran down and told the coaches that they needed to challenge it, that it had actually gone through the posts.

  7. haze 09/17/2007 at 9:00 PM #

    ^ Over the upright is the only case where I can see an official missing the FG call. Missing a call on a ball just over the crossbar is unbelievable. It certainly looked like the ref was bailing out as an act of self preservation but he was running, not watching and should never have made the call. The opposite ref had the angle (no way to miss the ball going over the crossbar when looking from the side) and should have overruled immediately.

    I was equally amazed by the UNC post-game show. No thought to the fact that the RIGHT CALL was enforced in the end.

  8. BoKnowsNCS71 09/17/2007 at 9:04 PM #

    As I live and breathe. What will happen next? Coaches stealing play signals via videotape?

    ACC referees are inept and have been called so by announcers on the air and during some bowl games (e.g. K State vs The OSU). If they are not inept then they are on the take. But then again Swofford has made sure that area is clear. Sure.

  9. choppack1 09/17/2007 at 9:31 PM #

    Dammit Noah – I was going to mention that specific scenario. You’re exactly right. I remember thinking the call on the miss was fishy, but JP never showed the replay.

    BoKnows – we all that ACC refs are a questionable bunch at best. What is shocking to me is that Butch Davis and the Tarheel network have the moral depravity to bellyache over the reversal. I don’t think that Butch will go to Ark – he’s way too comfortable here.

    Noah – on the student manager thing – don’t you think it’s funny that the sideline reporter for JP is making a big deal of it. I think he’s a News 2 guy, and for some reason, I think he went to UNC. As a matter of fact – home boy did:

    http://www.pryz.biz/bio.cfm

    Now, why isn’t this mentioned – is crucial in the story since he is adapting the Chapel Hill “spin” – that this call shouldn’t have been overturned even though it was clearly blown.

  10. WTNY 09/17/2007 at 9:35 PM #

    From About Scott Pryzwansky:

    … a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina … a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill … a walk-on basketball player …

    Charlotte O could have included this tidbit.

  11. choppack1 09/17/2007 at 10:09 PM #

    WTNY – that’s only important if you are interested in an unbiased look at the issue. We all know why Al Groh would challenge the call – but why would a reporter tell a fib?

  12. sf59 09/17/2007 at 10:18 PM #

    during the game scotty also said from his vantage point it was clearly no good… idiot

  13. choppack1 09/17/2007 at 10:25 PM #

    sf59 – really – they should bring that up too.

  14. WTNY 09/17/2007 at 10:32 PM #

    chop — Great minds and all that …

    I don’t know Scott P — he may do his best to be unbiased. But in the heat of the moment is when your feelings for your school are likely to jump out.

    Lately stock market talking heads have taken to revealing any potential conflicts of interest before the speak on a topic. Would be wonderful if “journalists” did the same (and not just in sports).

  15. noah 09/17/2007 at 10:41 PM #

    You’d think that a guy could watch a FG go through the uprights and tell us what happened without having to disclose where he went to school, what team he pulls for, etc.

    You’d think that such biases could be put aside in the reporting of something so binary.

  16. choppack1 09/17/2007 at 10:53 PM #

    WTNY – thank God for google huh? If not, we’d have some clip-cloppers advising us we were crazy for even thinking that. What proof do we have??

    Noah – You’d think so, but you can’t make that assumption. We know he’s pushing a version of the story that makes it look like UVa cheated. Also, according to sf59 – he said on the air that the kick was no good. Yes, it would be nice if reporters checked their biases at the door. However, they don’t – but it’s only to their own detriment.

    All too often I think journalists do their job because of advocacy or as is often the case in sports -because they are really interested in the general topic. I live in Winston, so on occasion I watch News 2. He’s such a Keroliner guy it annoys me – picture Van Denton doing the sports. It wouldn’t be a problem if he was the weatherman or if he worked for the Tar Heel network, but that isn’t the case. His job is to present an unbiased view – he’s failed miserably and his employer(s) should have a talk w/him. Simply put, anything that comes out of his mouth should be questioned now if what Sf59 said is acccurate.

  17. noah 09/17/2007 at 10:59 PM #

    I couldn’t tell you what he said during the game…because I have developed an aural filter for all things commentariat during sporting events.

    I hear people bitching about announcers like Joe Morgan…I don’t even hear it.

    The alternative is to listen to people like Doc Walker (and his all star band) talk about how kerlinah “needs a hero.” And how “the defense needs to step up.” And “the key is to make sure you score more than the other team.”

  18. blpack 09/17/2007 at 11:15 PM #

    Move along, move along. Nothing to see here.
    Typical UNC-Ch snow job.

  19. Elrod 09/17/2007 at 11:27 PM #

    What seems so out of line with this whole thing is that UVA lost a review ‘challenge’ opportunity over this error.

  20. Mike 09/18/2007 at 12:27 AM #

    Typical UNX home cooking. When I saw it, the first thing I thought of is the refs trying the best they can to please their boss Swofford. HOW do you miss it standing there right under the post? Bailing out I know, but why are you bailing? You mean to tell me these guys can run with the players, get caught in the action with several hundred pounds running full speed around them, and they bail over a little football? I think he was not bailing as much as he was excited to call the kick no good to keep his team happy.

  21. RochesterRedWolf 09/18/2007 at 2:56 AM #

    actually, to be honest, the sun was in his eyes…the problem was why in the hell did he call it no good??? He should be investigated, and his bank accounts for the last 3-4 weeks and the next 3-4 weeks. You never know when a tarhole might slip him the money. Oh shoot, he probably did it for free, all the bball refs do it, and i am sure they are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, no tax write offs needed. I said on the N&O blog, i was perfectly willing to like BD but customarily maintain a general dislike and revilement for all things UNC athletics, but just hearing BD give these whiny-ass press conferences, just reminds me of Dean Smith the way he used to bitch about stuff and his whiny voice. And his “technical” whine and giving his Andy Griffith/Gomer Pile/Jethro Bodine aw-shucks explanation like he’s stil learning the rules of the college game. He also likes to throw in how its different than the Pros, yada yada yada, i can’t stomach the “Head Hole” anymore.

  22. whitefang 09/18/2007 at 7:25 AM #

    Didn’t get the chance to watch the game. I get both the local Charlottesville paper and the Cavalier Daily and surprisingly there was not much in either about the kick call except for a few sentences from the C-ville Daily P- “Groh elected to challenge the ruling after receiving word from the team managers retrieving the ball that the kick was, in fact, through the uprights.
    “Fortunately, we do have replay,” Groh said. “I just went out and said that we’d like to use our challenge here. We challenged pretty quickly.”

    What UVa was complaining about was the clock. What was the deal with that?

  23. RickJ 09/18/2007 at 7:56 AM #

    From today’s N&O article regarding this situation:

    ..Under NCAA rules, television replay or monitor equipment is “prohibited at the sidelines, press box or other locations within the playing enclosure for coaching purposes during the game.”

    Rhoads said he looked into the circumstances of the challenge and determined that it did come from advice from the sidelines. But even if it had come from someone in the athletics department watching a replay in the press box, it would have been legal as long as the informant wasn’t watching the replay “for coaching purposes.”

    “If it’s not in the coach’s box or on the sideline, Joe Blow can be watching the game at home and pick up and call someone on the sideline if he wants to … and it’s OK,” Rhoads said.

    Given these rules, should every team have some sort of “non-coaching purpose” process in place to have someone monitoring video of the game and alerting the sidelines regarding potential challenges?

  24. haze 09/18/2007 at 8:10 AM #

    ^ Yes, they should.

  25. ncsslim 09/18/2007 at 9:07 AM #

    The call that I found most disturbing (probably unnoticed by virtually all because it ultimately had no impact), was an after the play personal foul called on a UVa OL prior to the final first down that sealed the game.

    The lineman had finished his block, and after the play, a UNC linebacker pushed him in the back for no obvious reason. The UVa lineman’s flagrent retort? He stood up and straightened his arm to get the guy away from him. At the time of the call, it was very questionable whether the first down was made (made only by the nose of the ball) and instead of a fourth and inches, this would have been fourth and 15 and given UNC one last shot at the game. With UVa making the 1st down, the (again, after the play) penalty was maked off after thw spot and the clock was run out.

    From my persective (obviously could not hear anything being said on the field), just an overt attempt to influence the outcome of a football game. To make this particular call at this time, it needed to be overt, which it not only wasn’t, the call (if needed to be made) was conveniently on the wrong (visiting) team! Some people are simply not cut out for the jobs they do.

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