I feel bad for Gordon Riese.
He was the replay official on duty at the Oklahoma-Oregon game who botched two reviews in the final 72 seconds which pretty much cost Oklahoma the game. After returning home Riese had to unplug his phone after the SEVENTH death threat. What a sad state of affairs.
The college replay system sucks though. First, it takes too long. There should be someone standing next to the official on the field with a stopwatch. If the man up in the booth cannot figure the call out in 60 seconds, then it’s not conclusive enough. Game on.
Riese said he felt rushed and didn’t have every angle at his disclosure. Sports have always had the element of human error involved. Basketball referees let Dwayne Wade dance around the lane in the NBA Finals, baseball umpires have mammoth strike zones for some players and tiny ones for others, hockey and soccer referees blow offside calls all of the time and football officials sometimes make mistakes also.
You play and watch sports knowing that this could happen. Replay does help, don’t get me wrong, but the replay systems are flawed. Officials are paid for a reason and if we’re going to trust them, we can’t stop football games seven times for 3-4 minutes each time to get it right. It’s insane.
Sorry Oklahoma, maybe you did get jobbed, but you’re not the first to suffer such a fate.
On a more positive note, a lot of great football was played this weekend and Virginia Tech’s scoring defense is #1 in the country (3.3 points a game).
Here’s my top 25 with thoughts below:
1. Ohio State
2. Texas
3. Auburn
4. Florida
5. Southern California
6. Louisiana State
7. Michigan
8. Louisville
9. Georgia
10. West Virginia
11. Notre Dame
12. Tennessee
13. Virginia Tech
14. Oregon
15. Iowa
16. Boston College
17. Oklahoma
18. Texas Christian
19. Clemson
20. Florida State
21. Nebraska
22. California
23. Alabama
24. Rutgers
25. North Carolina State
Okay, kidding about the last one. Boise State is my 25th team. How bad are things in Raleigh though? Back to back losses against Akron and Southern Miss…it’s a miracle if Amato can keep his job another year.
And once again, we see how bad the ACC is. I’m honestly a little hesitant about Tech being #13. We’ll see though. I thought about the possibility of extreme parity in the conference, but then I saw BYU nearly beat Boston College and Louisville crush Miami and I squashed that thought.
Notre Dame choked. I watched the game with two life-long Irish fans and they didn’t have words for what went down in South Bend. When Notre Dame played Georgia Tech in week 1 on ABC, I heard Brady Quinn referred to as “The No. 1 draft pick” and “a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback.” Not potential, not likely, but absolute. I did a little research that night and came up with the following: last season Quinn threw for a combined three touchdowns and an interception in Notre Dame’s three biggest games (at Michigan, against Southern Cal and the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State) for an average QB rating of 85.1. While not disastrous, those numbers were a little alarming and I realized he wouldn’t lead his team to an unblemished mark this year.
Despite the loss, Notre Dame could end up in a BCS bowl again contingent on two things.
1. The defense gets tougher.
2. The Irish beat USC. They should win the rest of their games.
This weekend also reaffirmed that the Southeastern Conference is so dominant, every other conference should host parties and make the SEC the guest of honor. It’s too bad for the conference that Ohio State will win it all this year. Because of Notre Dame losing and the circus that was OU and UO, nobody is talking about two of the best games this weekend, Auburn beating LSU and Florida edging Tennessee.
Last week I said I would tell you why I don’t like Percy Harvin, the Florida wide receiver. But check back tomorrow and I’ll tell you all about it. I’m going to cut it off here in my effort to make these shorter.