Fortunately Oregon State still won its football game against Washington Saturday, or this inexplicable failed review would have been a much bigger deal.
The win did nothing to absolve the replay officials of the missed called accordingly to Beavers AD Bob De Carolis. He wants some heads cut off or thereabouts.
Watch this play above and think of one good reason why you wouldn't review. Yvenson Bernard appears to either be down around the two yards line or scored a touchdown. In the event you could justify this as a fumble, you'd clearly realize it was caused by the ground. Somehow no one saw it this way and Oregon State was out of timeouts so they couldn't challenge the play themselves. (I HATE that rule btw)
Verle Sorgen, the director of instant replay for the conference, responded to De Carolis' complaints on local radio by saying:
"It wasn't that egregious. Unless you are an Oregon State fan."For starters, that's an extremely unprofessional response for a guy with his position. Secondly, it's one of the worse failed calls I've seen this year. That goes down as egregious in my book and I'm not an Oregon State fan.
De Carolis, as you might imagine, isn't satisfied with the conference's response:
"The inability to push the button to stop play is just flat-out wrong and unfair," he said. "And I think that person should be held accountable," De Carolis said. "A letter of reprimand doesn't get it for me."
De Carolis said it wasn't fair that four student-athletes were punished in the wake of what happened, and the officials came off comparatively lightly.
"We're not condoning what our guys did," De Carolis said. "But when the only people being held accountable for mismanagement are the student-athletes, then something's wrong. And if something more doesn't happen, then the credibility of the conference is out the window."
Maybe Mike Leach had some good points after all about replay officials. This wasn't a game of great magnitude, and fortunately Oregon State still went on to win, but the NCAA must take situations like this seriously so that they don't happen in more meaningful contests. I'm all for making sure the game moves along quickly, but I'm much more for making sure the game is decided fairly and if that means less pressure on the replay crew to speed things along so be it.
Would you tweak the replay system?
De Carolis wants re-play officials lined up and shot (figuratively) ... (Beavers Blog - Oregonian)
De Carolis blasts timidity of response (Oregonian)
BEAVERS A.D. RAISING BIG STINK ABOUT U-DUB GAME REFS (Brooks)
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