No Integrity In the Big12

[Kellso]

Being at the game, I just can’t understand what I saw. Two times byu players punched our player in the face while on the ground. Our players having discipline, didn’t retaliate. A block in the back that literally pushed our player into the middle of the play. None of these could possibly have been overseen. No flags. We pushed one of their players OB. It probably was a penalty, maybe on the questionable side. 15 yard penalty. Not to mention what we all saw at the end of the game. First ever complain about officiating. I’ve just ever seen anything like it. Did it cost us the game? Nobody knows. It looked like there was an agenda. If we stay in this league, which I hope not. We need to be the team on the other side of this bias. Any thoughts? Happy Veterans Day!

[Anonymous]

Go back to the P12… not a single team in the current B12 will miss Utah. The league your entire fanbase dogged on as inferior is laughing at your 4-5 soon to be 4-8 squad.

[HoosierUte]

The inferiority complex of this league is getting old, and quite frankly pathetic. Oklahoma and Texas must have really done a number on you guys.
I don’t know what you expect when a 5-year starting quarterback is injured “legally” hit out of bounds into a Gatorade table like a WWE match. Not many teams easily recover from that. I wish we had a better backup, but we don’t, and in the transfer era not many teams do. I don’t get all the chest-pounding from B12 fans. Nothing has been proven other than injuries happen and can decimate a team. I am sorry the media didn’t pick your team to win. Get over it.

[SteelUte]

I wasn’t at the game. All I can say is that all year the Big 12 officiating seem to allow rape and battery by defensive backs every play. Seriously, how many PI’s have we seen this whole year? Like three? BYU’s cornerback who seems like a pretty good talent, was a glove on Singer, like in his pants and not one call all night. Taunavasa’s late hit out of bounds was a fair call, my complaint was if you’re gonna shove someone out of bounds, then make it worth the penalty. BYU is complaining about our coach and AD’s behavior after the game, but I seem to recall Sitake complaining about the end of the first half, and Retzlaff walked to the locker room with the refs whining the whole way. Looked like a cheap shot take down on Kuithe, and I can’t remember if that was a third down. I know there is holding pretty much every play, but Fillinger and O’toole were handled and I don’t think there was one holding call. First year of this new large BIG 12 and with all of the fratricide that has happened, BYU is the last hope for the conference. They want them undefeated until that title game. We will see Colorado get the same treatment next week. They want Colorado and primetime in there as well. The best shot for the conference to get two into the playoff is an undefeated BYU getting beat by Colorado in a close game.

[2008 National Champ]

I cringe when people want to bring the refs into the conversation. The reality is that every call is subjective. And even though there are a lot of people on the field calling a game, they can’t see everything from your frame of reference.

Vaughn held. The parochial school defender went high on Rose. Were either egregious? No. Were they consistent with how the rest of the game was called? Depends on which side you are on. Did they do the best job they could under the circumstances? Absolutely.

Utah’s job was not only to score more points than their opponent but also to not allow themselves to be in a situation where one call could change the direction of the game. And let’s remember, Vaughn’s hold only gave a first down. Utah still needed to do their job and not let the parochial school drive another 50 yards to get into field goal position. Stop blaming refs when you don’t get the outcome you want. Because the truth of the matter is that if Utah had gotten one first down either time they had the ball at midfield in the 4th quarter, they would have increased their win probability by about 40%. That’s not on the refs.

[utefansince79]

Was a gut wrenching heart breaker. We twice thought we had the game won but wasn’t meant to be.

Thought long and hard the last few days before making any statements. Will first emphasize our offensive struggles in the second half cost us that game. (Losing Kuithe was of course a big blow) I am one to try to never blame officials for a loss.

Having said that, I’ve spent many years watching games involving lots of different teams (including many where I had no horse in the race) when a stronger team had the benefit of calls against a weaker one. So many times I’ve watched an underdog giving a heavy favorite a good battle but the calls just seem to go the way of the top team and give them an edge to finish on the happy side of the scoreboard. The 5th down given to eventual national champ Colorado against Missouri comes to mind for example.

Based on this season, BYU is currently a top team and Utah simply is not. If Utah was having the season some had predicted, and BYU was struggling, but was giving Utah all they could handle, then the calls would very possibly have been going our way last Saturday and the Cougars would the ones criticizing the officials.

Utah has to regroup, come out next season, and become one of the top teams. I don’t want us to be getting favors from the officials, but certainly don’t want on the other side of those calls either. As Kellso said, best to be on the other side of the bias. Sucks, but that is how sports go.

Will state I’m proud of our team for their effort Saturday. I entered the stadium fearing a result similar to what I often sat through in the 80s and we ended up losing by a single point to a team ranked in the top 10. Easily our best effort in a long time.

Crowd was amazing too but I was disappointed when some threw debris at the end, even though at our end of the stadium, a lot was directed at the Zoob players taunting the north stands. Classless and unsportsmanlike for them to rub our noses in it but also poor sportsmanlike for some fans to react like that. We should be better than that.

[SteelUte]

I get that our team sucked offensively in the second half. Coudln’t score one point! But why can’t we criticize the officials? I get it for the team and people on the field. That during the game it doesn’t help to criticize or complain because it just makes the refs mad or even more out to prove a point. But we are fans of Utah Football(most of us here).
Some refs suck real bad, all of them make mistakes, some have an agenda, some are straight corrupt. What is your code of ethics?
As bad as our team was, that call still cost us the game. We get the ball on the 1 yard line with 1:30 left. Kneel it a couple of times, and let freaking Pepa run one in for a score with the last snap, or punt the ball into the north end zone as time expires. It gave them room to breathe, and took all the wind out of our teams sails. Can you imagine the let down emotionally after that for our Defense? I get your point, it wasn’t all on the refs, but I still want to complain about them.

[utefansince79]

Certainly fans have a right to gripe. I choose to avoid it as others will often just call me a sore loser. The holding call changed the outcome of the game and was a case of an official deciding he was more important than the players and like I noted was a call a team first in the conference gets against a bottom feeder. We just need to be a winning side in coming seasons so we are the positive side of calls in close games.

[2008 National Champ]

just to be clear: you believe that official made a premeditated decision to throw a flag against Utah on that play to give the parochial school a chance to save their undefeated season?

Because that’s what this fragment means: was a case of an official deciding he was more important than the players

[utefansince79]

That’s exactly why I don’t like to bad-mouth officials as it makes me look bad.

[2008 National Champ]

I’m not trying to call you out specifically or with any animosity. I have no problem with comments about officiating. I’ve already said above that every call is subjective. It’s just the wording you used that takes it from “making a call I don’t agree with” to a deliberate attempt to affect an outcome.

[utefansince79]

Indeed unfortunate wording on my part.

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