[Husker] Replays officials

[David Strong]

I was thinking about bad calls and blown calls and replays and how frustrating it seems to a fan when even the replay official doesn't seem to get the call right.  I remembered that Oklahoma - Oregon game from a few years back when Oregon did a successful onside kick at the end of the game and then went on to win the game.  The field officials asked for the replay official to review whether Oregon had touched the ball before it traveled 10 yards.  There were 4 different replay angles shown on national tv that clearly showed that the player had interfered with the ball, but for some reason the replay official only had one angle and could not overturn the call.  What he was able to see very clearly was that the ball had actually been recovered by Oklahoma, but under PAC-10 rules that part of the play was not reviewable even though the field ref asked him over the headset point blank "did you see who recovered the ball?".  The Pac-10 suspended the
 whole crew and demoted the replay ref so he couldn't work anymore games.  The guy was genuinely broken up about blowing the call.  He took a leave of absence for the rest of the season and then retired after it was over.  He said he could never get over that call, that it haunted him.  He was a 30-year ref or so I think.
Not sure what my point is with this other than it really seems that the refs appear to be less arrogant and more dedicated to getting the call right these days than even a few years ago.  It seems that there are fewer refs that give the impression of incompetence than there used to be.  They seem more professional.  Not all of course, and the Big 10 seems to have a particular problem with referee competence, but over recent years I find myself disrespecting them less.  Anyone else find this to be so?
 
Dave