A few weeks ago, my job took me to Florida for a few days. Part of the trip involved spending time with a client's head of sales. It turned out that on weekends in the fall he is a head line judge for the ACC.
Over the two days I asked him numerous questions, but here are a few highlights I thought I would share:
- He has been reffing in the ACC for 8 years. He has done one of our games each year, but hasn't gotten to travel to Lane since his first year. He had nothing but praise for the environment in Blacksburg.
- He loves our coaching staff. Thinks we have one of the best he's come across, at least from what he gets to see and experience on gameday.
- He could not say enough bad things about Bobby Petrino and his staff (no surprise there).
- He said it seemed like Beamer wasn't really coaching the team the last 2-3 years. It was primarily Bud.
- I was a little surprised to hear him say he likes Bud. It seems like I can remember Bud getting in a ref's ear more than once or twice. But he said Bud is always respectful and only really gets fired up for defensive PI calls.
- The only negative thing he had to say about our staff was about Shane. He remembered Shane losing it and repeatedly screaming at him over a call at the end of a game at Pitt where we were getting blown out. He said we were down 3 scores with less than a minute left when the play happened, and replay showed that Shane was wrong (according to this ref at least).
- I forgot to ask about Narduzzi. Not sure how... but he didn't volunteer him as a bad guy like he did Petrino.
More generally I asked him about why does the line judge run into the pile on goal line plays and take so long to make a call. This has always seemed so arbitrary of a call to me, because the play has already happened and the ball carrier can be moving long after being down.
He said the ACC has a philosophy that the refs are supposed to call by.
They run in to find the ball. If the ball carrier is lying with his shoulders on/over the goal line, the call is based on where he is holding the ball. If he is holding it in his gut, they assume he got in and call a TD. If he has the ball out-stretched, they assume he extended it after hitting the ground and call them down inside the 1 yard-line. He said either way they don't stress because the play will be reviewed.
He also was pissed at Bronco for not having a spring game, because he couldn't work it himself or send any local guys to work it.
Anyways, I thought it was cool to hear some thoughts about our program from someone who's gotten close, but isn't a fan or alum, and wanted to share.
Comments
Fascinating that a company's head of sales is also a Power 5 referee. One of those must not pay enough.
Certainly and ACC officiating job can't pay very well... If it does, those crews are grossly over compensated.
I have a gentleman I do business with that works as a salesman for a company and he is also a replay official for the SEC. I've heard his name called several times during a broadcast. When I get to talk business with him we always end up talking football and specific rule changes coming up or controversial plays.
FWIW, he stated that there is no way Danny's catch should have been overturned. He wouldn't say whether or not he would have overturned had it been ruled incomplete, but he said in that situation there was no evidence to overturn the call on the field. Total unbiased opinion from a senior official from arguably the biggest conference in college football. Win confirmed.
VT definitely got robbed.
Which makes it that much more annoying that Michigan pulled out of our series.
From what I've seen this is pretty common. The guys that are refs truly enjoy doing it.
It's like the guys that do tri athalons. Nothing about that looks enjoyable to me yet there are a ton of people that do them.
High school ref here, and I get that all the time. "Why would you subject yourself to that?" It sure as hell isn't the money. I've been a high school coach before too. At the high school level you don't do that for the money either. It's a way for me to be involved in sports when my athleticism ran out. It's truly enjoyable to officiate and back-and-forths with coaches is actually one of my favorite parts. Fans are stupid and uneducated but dealing with coaches isn't that bad. Plus I've always been a rules junkie so it fits right in with that too.
Exhibit A! I know quite a few guys that have the same outlook.
I meant idiot high school parents screaming that that boy their kid is guarding is walking all over town. If you are one of those parents I have no apologies and stand by my statement.
Obviously TKPers are extremely educated and never make any outlandish statements toward officials.
Dude, I was kidding. I thought your post was insightful. I was just going full TKP.
No I am not one of those parents. My son played football at the USAFA.
As a former VHSL ref, I'll say the following:
The parents are idiots.
The coaches are idiots.
The players are idiots.
Most of the refs are idiots.
Your a idiots. /s
It's probably not uncommon. Twenty years ago, I worked with Ron "Giving him the business" Cherry. He was Sr. Manager/Director level guy. Sharp as a tack, too.
Did he hate us then too?
so bud was the head coach in waiting that didn't get the head coaching gig?
My choir teacher wife used to have a music sales vendor in Florida that was an SEC ref on weekends.
In other news, I was wearing Hokie gear yesterday and ran into former WR Kevin Asante's godfather at the bank. It was a brief conversation as after doing some research I found that Kevin had a checkered history at Tech. He was quite a standout in high school here in the Charlotte area though.
The bits he shared regarding coaches (his praise for our staff, Bud seemingly coaching the team, and Shane being a sour egg) make me even more content about Whit's decisions in 2015. Didn't have a problem with Shane moving on at all.
I think we've all heard a handful of not-so-great things about Shane. I think he'll be a successful head coach one day, but all parties were ready to move on by 2015.
Oh I never thought about it that way, but that's a great point. Bronco not having a Spring Game is actually taking a paycheck out of the local/ACC ref's hands because there isn't anything to work for them. I can see this leading to some potentially problematic issues down the line for the Hoos.
"No, Bronco, we're not using a running clock in the 4th quarter. Take your beating like a man."
Is it just me, or does this seem to be the exact opposite way that you should call this? If the ball is down in his gut, I would assume that he didn't get the ball in, and if it's outstretched, I would assume that he did.
Maybe this is just why I'm not an ACC ref. ;^)
His argument was that the ball is more likely to have been moved after the fact if it was not still being protected in his gut. This also assumes that the ballcarrier's gut is on the goal line (not short of it).
Well, yeah, if the ball and the upper body are over the goal line, is a league "philosophy" needed? It seems to me it's just physics and common sense.
I'm not criticizing the messenger here...thanks for the insights.
I was assuming that it was describing a scenario where the shoulders were on/over the goal line, but the gut wasn't. Otherwise, it would obviously be a touchdown. (Unless the ballcarrier were carrying the ball between his knees, which is possible, I guess.)
So... there were more people mad at UVA's lack of spring game this year... than there were people in the stands at the last actual UVA spring game?
They're only mad because thats the one time a year their football team actually wins!
Lose-lose for UVa...what's not to like?
Since you didn't specifically state it I will assume that like the rest of the world he too would like to punch Chinballs in the face. good to know. thanks!
tl;dr
I don't blame Shane for being pissed off at that 2011 Pitt game. My wife surprised me with a trip over from Dayton OH. Everyone we saw both Pitt and Tech fans was expecting a Tech win.
Didn't play Pitt in 2011.
Yep 2012. Your right.
Of course it's his right to correct you on the year. ;^)
Nah Shane was still an ass about it by the way it sounds lol.