From the contents of the video below, it’s not unreasoonable to observe that there’s more than an insignificant chance that Pac-12 referee Michael Batlan affected the final outcome of the Stanford-USC game Saturday night at the L.A. Coliseum.
As if the above, abject incompentence wasn’t enough, stay tuned for Part Two.
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11:58 pm on October 30th, 2011
I’m not seeing the controversy. If the guy was inbounds, the clock doesn’t stop. And there is no way to call a timeout with a half second remaining on the block before it strikes zero. Am I missing something? Someone please explain if so.
12:08 am on October 31st, 2011
I heard Kiffin say he asked for the timeout before the play, just so the side judge knew he wanted a TO if the play stayed inbounds.
It did, Kiffin took the TO and the side judge gave it to him.
And then the ref screwed SC. Unbelievable! Feel for Trojan fans.
12:31 am on October 31st, 2011
The bigger issue with the refs last night was the spot after the holding foul on Stanford. The refs gave Stanford an extra 5-7 yards on the spot. Kiffin complained, refs ignored.
12:32 am on October 31st, 2011
What’s amazing is how obvious the video is, the way SBB set it up. Good lord this looks like a fix if there ever was one. Probably wasn’t, but this looks TERRIBLE for the Pac-12.
12:33 am on October 31st, 2011
SC had a kicker who BOOMED a 50+ yarder earlier in the game. This was well within his range.
Horrible call. Worst Ive seen all season. Ref should be suspended at least a game. If not the season.
12:49 am on October 31st, 2011
Are you going to show the blatant hold by USC on this drive that was missed?
1:01 am on October 31st, 2011
Pac-12 Refs are known for poor officiating against SC. P12 needed Stanford to win this game. Â Theyve got a lot of time, energy, money and reputations on the line for Stanford to go to the BCS CG and a Heisman for Andrew Luck. Even Coach Shaw stated in his posT game press conference that he thought the officiating was not correct on a lot of calls qnd non-calls.
1:18 am on October 31st, 2011
Even bigger issue: The missed PI on the throw to Woods in the end zone. Kid was being tackled and the officials ignored it.
1:19 am on October 31st, 2011
Are you allowed to ask for a time out a before the play for the next play? Apparently that was Kiffin’s argument. Officials rarely immediately stop the clock. Should they make an exception just because its the end of the game? What exactly does the rulebook say about keeping time?
On a side note, I will never ever ever feel sorry for Lame Kiffin. Looks like he’s getting what he deserves.
3:51 am on October 31st, 2011
USC had 3 penalties for 35 yards, total, for the game. Yeah, an obvious fix. I hope the followup video is going to be the obvious holding penalty by USC (which included a handful of jersey) late in the 4th Q which wasn’t called.
5:40 am on October 31st, 2011
The play is not over ( for a time-out to be called) until it is blown dead by an official. This happens after his knee down and there is not a fumble penalty etc. Check the video when the linesmen waves his arms above his head is when a time-out can be issued, there is no time left when this happens. Always like your reporting BROOKS but you are being a HOMER right now GO TROJANS
10:39 am on October 31st, 2011
I had bad officiating because it hurts innocent people. But one person who is not innocent is Lane Kiffin. Bad karma will follow any school that is dumb enough to hire him.
11:30 am on October 31st, 2011
I am not a USC/Kiffin fan. If replay is going to be used it needs to clear and obvious for a call to be overturned, right? It is indisputable that his knee is down with time on the clock. And, if the Coach informs the ref that he wants a time out as soon as the play is stopped, no time should run off the clock. Yes, there is a delay if we are relying solely on humans, but once you go to the video tape, time stops.
11:43 am on October 31st, 2011
http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/FR12.pdf
A head coach who is in, or in the vicinity of, his team area or coaching box may request a timeout between the time the ball is declared dead and the next snap.
You can’t ask for a timeout BEFORE the play is over. No way he stops the clock in time after the knee was down in bounds. Game over - go to overtime. That was the right call…
11:52 am on October 31st, 2011
Dave,
a request before a play is only used to alert the official to be listening for the timeout after the play
1:22 pm on October 31st, 2011
how about the Stanford FG that went wide right that no one seemed to question!?
1:33 pm on October 31st, 2011
Why weren’t the players instructed to just go down instead of trying to run out of bounds? If the WR just goes down as soon as he realizes he can’t gain any more yards, they have at least 2-3 seconds to call the final TO. Him trying to run out of bounds was baffling.
2:02 pm on October 31st, 2011
Was watching the game as a fan of neither team…didn’t care who won….just watching as a football fan.
Clearly, the knee came down in bounds. My understanding of the rules is that until the play is over, the only person on the field who can call timeout is a ball-carrier (who doesn’t have to be down to call timeout).
All that said, I don’t know how this was an officiating error…just a combination of bad luck, and a player not understanding the situation.
3:14 pm on October 31st, 2011
Where are the Bammer articles? WTF is up with brooks trying to real stories. Go back to attacking bammer
4:12 pm on October 31st, 2011
It’s not a timeout until the official acknowledges it and blows the whistle. It is physically impossible for his knee to go down with a half second left then have Kiffin call timeout (who somehow saw him go down inbounds from the other side of the field), and then have the official blow the whistle and wave his arms acknowledging the timeout.
The clip you played of Herbie saying there was still a half second left was under the assumption that Woods had gone out of bounds which they later corrected. But hay nice editing, you should go to work on political campaigns. I will agree that PAC 12 refs do suck though.
5:08 pm on October 31st, 2011
geez, I go away for a while come back and this site has become CSI NCAA
6:38 pm on October 31st, 2011
You can’t call a timeout in advance idiots. You can let them know you are going to call one right away, calling a timeout still takes time.
9:58 pm on October 31st, 2011
The guy with the ball should have known that his team still had timeouts and there was no reason for him to try to get out of bounds. Just go down and there’s plenty of time to call timeout and get a field goal attempt.
There’s always a lag between when a play ends and when the officials wave their arms to stop the clock (remember the Michigan-Washington State Rose Bowl?), and even if they do stop it on time, he wouldn’t have been able to get a timeout called in less than one second.
11:28 pm on October 31st, 2011
“Are you going to show the blatant hold by USC on this drive that was missed?”
We’ll get to that as soon as we show the missed PI against Woods in the endzone.
That ‘missed call cost USC 4 points. The missed holding cost SU nothing.