Football Officiating: Giving Schools the Business

I've been a sports official since 1988 – almost as long as I've been writing about sports. I've called basketball, baseball, softball, and football games at various levels over the years, and was an official with NASCAR throughout my time there. I've been inspired by the detailed film reviews done here on TKP.

The ACC, and most other conferences, review performance of each crew and provides weekly feedback. Reviewing game film and feedback from the prior week is part of the routine for crews the night prior to a game. They also review film of the teams they will be officiating, much like an opposing coach. Therefore, one should realistically expect to see a continuous improvement in the performance of crews. Performance should improve game over game, as well as year-over-year.

If you're not familiar with the general responsibilities and roles of the officials, take a look at this article by Jon Johnston. Although there have been changes in mechanics, Johnston's article is a good primer. A recurring concept is the "key" - a matchup or area of responsibility of a specific official. Keys change each play, and are determined by formation, down/distance, and many other elements.

Officiating: Looking at Game FIlm

So what types of things can you see when you break down officiating film? Let's take a look at an important 3rd down pass play in the ECU game. Granted, this is an AAC officiating crew supported by an ACC replay staff. Third and seven is generally a passing down, and the keys for the officials are pretty clear. The Side Judge and Field Judge (out of the photo downfield) have the two widest eligible receivers, Phillips (Bottom) and Hodges (top). The Back Judge, also out of the picture, keys on the next interior receiver to the strong side of the formation, in this case Malleck on the field side. This frees up the Line Judge (out of the photo to the bottom) to key on Sam Rogers coming out of the backfield. That leaves the Linesman to take the interior receiver (Ford) on the boundary side.

The key to this sequence is the Linesman, visible at the top of the image. The Referee (top right) is responsible for Motley. The Umpire (center left) is responsible for interior line calls. On the snap, Isaiah Ford pushes upfield on a quick out beyond the first down marker. There is contact with the inside defender; the pass is nearly picked as the outside help jumps the route. Whether Motley led the throw too much, or whether the contact inhibited Ford's route is a judgment call by the official keying on Ford. Therein lies the problem. The Linesman is very late turning his head to follow Ford and is shielded off the play by Bucky Hodges and the ECU defender.

As Motley's arm starts moving forward, the Linesman is still looking across the line of scrimmage. By the time the Linesman turns, his head following the ball, Ford is already into his route and 9+ yards downfield and the contact has occurred.

A quick look at the end-zone replay angle shows the defender's right arm holding the back of Ford's jersey. After the near-pick, Ford is clearly looking around for a flag for holding or defensive pass interference. The same camera angle clearly shows the Field Judge focused on Bucky's matchup, as he should be.

Compounding the issue are three general philosophies of officiating. First, call what you see. The Linesman cannot make a call here, because he is not following his key. In essence, Ford and his defender are not being observed by any official until the Linesman turns to pick them back up. Second, stay with your keys. This means that the Side Judge and Back Judge are committed to their matchups, and would be scrutinized for making a call on someone else's key. Third, and most importantly, when in doubt – there was no foul.

This was an important point, even though early in the game. The change of possession gave ECU the ball on their own 45, and they subsequently scored a game-tying touchdown. This play epitomizes how much attention to detail is required by everyone on the field.

So What About VT's Penalties in 2015?

Here's an image showing some of the data, but for anyone interested, here's the actual Google Docs spreadsheet.

Click to enlarge.

I've compiled a LOT of data from the game reports and film. I'm slowly working through game film to identify individuals penalized, official that threw the flag, and doing QI on the game reports. I'm sure you're all shocked to know stats geeks are human after all.

There are five sets of columns:

• Officiating Crew
• Flag Count
• VT Penalties, Offensive, Defensive and ST
• Opponent Penalties, Offensive, Defensive and ST
• Flags with a Direct Impact on the Game

The flag count breaks down accepted, declined, and offsetting.
Each team includes a breakdown of pre-snap, interior, downfield, etc.
Note that I included all flags thrown, not just those accepted.
One interesting metric was flags per offensive / defensive play.

If my fellow TKP members would like to see more breakdowns (literally and figuratively), let me know. Thank you to HokieTapes for access to the broadcast game footage.