[Husker] Reviewed Call

[Nick Chevance]

On Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 11:03 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at tssi.com> wrote:

> If it grazed his shoe, it could have still hit the turf.
>
> Moreover, if the ball was moving towards him, what caused it to start
> moving
> away from him?
>
> The OWH story implies the official said the ball hit his heel.
>
> If the Husker coaching staff thinks the call was bad, they should let
> the Big Ten know about it, as it was a Big Ten crew.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>

Sorry for the long post - in advance.

The TV people during the game reviewed the video and were seemingly divided
over the outcome of the play.  I've gone back and watched my DVR, and the
camera angle from the side seems to show the ball and foot at approximately
the same place, and the ball bouncing away from the foot.  However, the
camera angle from behind the play clearly shows the ball bouncing on the
turf (the ball appears to be nose down which would cause the ball to bounce
in an different direction) a foot or more (hard to judge distance) from the
players foot.  Also its pretty easy to see the shadow of the ball and the
shadow of the player from the overhead sun, and they just don't meet when
the ball bounces.  And I'd also agree with the comment by Stephen above
that the small cloud of rubber bits that come up when the ball strikes the
ground is not where the player's foot is.  Not a cataclysmic play, but it
bothered me so I stayed up late last night to look at the footage.  Blown
call, not by the referee but by the replay booth official.  And a blown
coverage by Nebraska because he shouldn't have been that close to the ball.

Overall, though, it was a good game and the call had little effect on the
outcome.

Because of the horrible delay, I was forced to listen to the TV duo rather
than the radio folks while watching the game (the TV was almost two plays
behind the radio - like fingernails on a chalkboard).  My, they weren't
very good.  The color guy had almost no color to add - and this is not
about his ethnicity, its about his near total silence about the changes on
the defensive side of the ball for Nebraska that seemed so effective
against ASU, or really anything much at all about what was happening on the
field.  And if you were just listening to the broadcast, I think you might
have mistaken it for CNN with late breaking non-news about Bo Pelini in the
second half.  They seemed to miss most of what was happening on the field.

Now, another tune up with Idaho State, then bring on Wisconsin.  Let's hope
Wisconsin doesn't improve much in the next two weeks (they've got UTEP at
home - can they score more than 20?).

Nick
-- 
"In politics stupidity is not a handicap."
Napoleon Bonaparte