Well, my fellow Hokies, we meet again. Though, boy howdy, did kind of a lot happen since we last touched base prior to the season. We went from covering some modest rule changes to a coaching search and entire athletic department overhaul in just a few short weeks. To borrow a line from Ron Burgundy, that really got out of hand fast.
The ACC, also, has had an - how shall we phrase this? - upsettingly eventful start to the season. In a bit of a departure from my typical penalty call reviews, we’re going to focus instead a bit more on the role conferences play in on-field officiating as we turn the page from both the Pry era and the 2025 out-of-conference schedule.
First, I want to touch on something I noticed throughout last season because it stood in such stark contrast to what I witnessed in 2023: deep wing mechanics. A few of you loveable lunatics have accused me of being a bit too friendly towards my officiating brethren, and in this case, y’all actually do have a point. I completely whiffed on following up on this You Make the Call play from the UVA game, which certainly isn’t particularly flattering for the deep wing involved.
So shout out to the haters, I did indeed (inadvertently) deny you evidence of poor ACC officiating last year. My bad.
As a refresher, here’s the play in question:
Let’s get this bit out of the way first: I would support a flag here. The back-side view actually shows it better, but Phillips definitely restricted the receiver’s left arm, along with his movement back towards the ball.
It isn’t a crazy amount of contact, but when the ball lands right in front of a receiver like that, any contact during the pass will be heavily scrutinized.
Now for what I find much more interesting (and slightly infuriating): the deep wing is about 15 yards out of position here, which is a major concern, and leads to him tossing his flag almost behind him while scrambling to catch up with the players. This is the opposite of how we want to operate as deep wings, where we want our feet planted and “camera” steady to make an accurate judgement of the action before us.
Compounding the issue (and as a direct result of it), S here then commits the cardinal sin of facing his back to opposing players near the sideline. Yes, B should absolutely be helping out here, but there’s no guarantee B will be able to see/hear everything that’s going on from halfway across the field.
This scenario also absolutely kneecaps our ability to do some preventative officiating. If opposing players start jawing at each other, or shoving, or otherwise escalating, the absolute last thing you want is to have an official have to turn around to figure out what in the world is going on.
Ideally, S would already have the action in front of him, simply jog up a few yards, and get the players separated and heading towards their own sidelines/huddles before communicating the foul to R. We always want to make sure we have all 22 players “boxed-in,” in clear view of at least one member of the crew (preferably more) at all times.
It’s understandable how S got in this position, as his primary key (the outside receiver) is in a competitive matchup with the CB and runs a pretty short route, while it’s the inside receiver who runs the deep corner route and blows up S’s cushion.
I’ve certainly been there myself, and that, “oh-sh**” moment when a deep official realizes our precious cushion is no more instills a feeling I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But here’s the thing: I’m not an ACC official, and I’ve seen these guys do it before extremely well. This is absolutely within reasonable expectations for an ACC deep wing.
Shoot, during the 2023 season, I made a point to watch ACC deep wings work as often as I could to get a better idea of when they would bail out of their backpedal, for example, and used that film study to improve my own mechanics on Friday nights.
And this isn’t an age or even a fitness issue. I’ve seen plenty of older or heftier deep wings maintain an adequate cushion, even on some absolute bombs down the sideline. It all comes down to mechanics and situational awareness - ACC deep wings start each play about 30 yards downfield, after all.
In fairness to this official who now finds himself squarely underneath the metaphorical bus, it’s a freezing night, he’s working the sideline of a visiting team during a rivalry game, and his primary key is locked up in press-man coverage. There’s a ton going on here.
There’s also the possibility that this S wouldn’t normally be working deep, due to injuries, turnover, holiday or day-job schedules, etc. Again, the point here is not to rag on this guy, who very well could have simply had a lapse on this one play. It’s just one concerning data point at the culmination of a trend I noticed throughout the year, and that lands squarely at the collective feet of the ACC.
Now we get to the doozy. If the mechanics slipups I noticed throughout 2024 were a canary in the ACC coal mine, Gary Patterson (no, not the former TCU coach) quitting after Week 2 is an absolute flock of dead canaries.
For a bit of context, Patterson has been an ACC white hat for over 20 years. One doesn’t just walk away from that at the drop of a hat after Week 2. For those who missed it a few weeks ago, Patterson terminated his contract following a replay snafu (to put it gently) during the Syracuse-UConn game on September 5th.
See? It isn’t just fans who are fed up with the ACC replay process.
There’s a nearly 3-minute clip at the top of that ESPN story I linked, and I’d encourage you to check it out, because the whole thing is just bonkers. Where’s a good Benny Hill theme when you need it, am I right?
To sum up: with about a minute to go in the half, and starting from his own 25 yard line, Syracuse QB Steve Angeli was hit while attempting a pass short over the middle, and his first down throw bounced incomplete about four yards in front of his intended receiver. A UConn defender picked up the ball and tossed it to U, and the crew proceeded with their normal ball-spotting procedure while the teams lined up for second down.
Literally nobody in the stadium thought anything further of that one. It was obviously an incomplete forward pass, second down, no fuss. Syracuse then proceeded to take a shot down the sideline on second down, while Angeli, again under heavy pressure, took a shot straight to the face for his trouble. Two UConn defenders continued the shenanigans by colliding and dropping the easy interception (honestly for the best, as we’ll see shortly), and a flag flew for roughing the passer due to the contact to Angeli’s helmet.
The trouble began, however, as Patterson wrapped up his discussion with C on the foul and went to announce the penalty enforcement. He was interrupted before he could get his headset off, and had a full-minute-long conversation with the ACC replay official, reportedly at the behest of the conference command center. After that discussion, Patterson announced that replay had buzzed down to review that first down play, and that play was now under review.
To the surprise of precisely nobody, the play was ruled a forward pass, 2nd down. Thanks, replay. A+ effort. Unfortunately, in all the booth-caused chaos, that personal foul was also neglected, so Syracuse simply replayed 2nd and 10 from its own 25, rather than having 1st and 10 from the 40. That original second-down play “never occurred.”
Bill LeMonnier, longtime NCAA referee and now ESPN rules analyst (and an absolute titan in the world of football officiating), was decidedly less-than-jazzed about how the replay booth handled the situation. Quoting from that same ESPN article,
"Let's say they're right up at the line, the ball's being snapped, and the buzzers go off," LeMonnier said. "It's the referee's discretion to shut the play down vs. saying it's too late. It's supposed to be in the referee's hands … The mistakes were completely created by either the replay booth or the command center," LeMonnier said. "It's not the fault of the officials on the field."
Um. Yikes.
As a former R himself, LeMonnier is probably wired to agree with the white hat on the field, but he isn’t wrong. While the replay official does have the final word on the outcome of any replay, he really put this crew in a bind on this one.
Yes, there would have been a “direct, competitive impact” on the game, as required by rule to stop play, had the call been overturned, given that there was a clear and immediate recovery by the defense at about the Syracuse 30. But a solid 25 seconds elapsed between the end of that play and the start of the next. That’s plenty of time to determine if a replay is necessary and buzz down to the crew.
It’s also incumbent on the replay official(s) to do their utmost to avoid and correct any errors, such as the neglecting of the personal foul penalty enforcement. There absolutely was discussion about down/distance to wrap up that review, and the fact that the flag was ignored I’ll put squarely on Replay.
Needless to say, it’s a super sloppy look for the ACC, and Patterson’s resignation is about as clear an indictment of the conference as we could possibly see. While some sloppy mechanics and some rules interpretations which are, in my opinion, sub-par (more on that in a moment), this all indicates serious issues with the conference’s officiating structure.
Not unlike Virginia Tech’s athletic department over the past few years (though certainly not for the same resource-driven reasons, as far as I can tell), the ACC is not in a great spot right now. I’m not sure what’s changed in recent years, or why things have gotten so rocky. I don’t think things are even all that bad - overall, the quality of on-field officiating remains much better than it was even 10 years ago. But it sure seems like something’s up with the ACC, and I hope they get things figured out soon.
Chris Coleman has brought up the pre-Elko and post-Elko Duke football team in recent weeks as an example of how coaching can impact the perception of players’ talent level. I view things similarly when it comes to conference officiating heads and on-field crews. A great case in point: roughing the passer.
TSL Subscriber EDGEMAN wanted my take on the RTP call against Tech in the Wofford game, stating, “it looked like a textbook tackle, and [the defender] started his tackle when the ball was still in the QB’s hands.”
Here’s the play in question:
This one upsets me, to be frank, because it’s a great tackle. Bell has his head up in a safe position, smacks Whitaker right in the chest, wraps up, and completes a textbook form tackle. He doesn’t even pile-drive his shoulder through the QB’s torso as they hit the ground.
Still, I see why the flag was thrown, as Bell lands with his weight on the hapless QB (who also didn’t help matters by jumping prior to impact and making this hit look worse than it really was). It’s also extremely consistent with what I saw last season - the ACC has obviously made an effort in recent years to ensure that Rs and Cs are keeping a sharp eye out for defenders landing with their weight on QBs after the pass has been released.
In my opinion, RTP is simply over-officiated in the ACC. Flashing back a bit, I was interested to see how things would play out against Vanderbilt’s Pavia with an SEC crew, as in the relatively few times I’ve seen them make similar calls, I came away with the impression that they are much more reasonable with how they assess dangerous hits on passers, allowing for more of those hits to pass as legal contact.
Unfortunately, Tech’s pitiful pass rush that night meant we never really got a chance to see whether the Hokies defense would be able to play a bit more decisively to contain Pavia and ensure he made it to the ground (with the exception of a comically blatant late hit from, again, Ben Bell).
My point is that there is a line between safety and what should reasonably be considered a “football play,” and in my opinion, the SEC has by and large done a much better job than the ACC of finding that line and operating on the correct side of it.
Leadership matters. Coaching matters. Conferences matter.
I’ll give the ACC credit, following last year’s Miami debacle, they have made legitimate efforts to increase the transparency of their replay process. I actually rather enjoy the new live look into the replay command center, which I’ve caught a couple of times so far in ACC games, though I also see why they were hesitant to implement that in the first place.
It’s… um… not great TV, if I’m being honest. Let’s face it, it’s a bunch of officiating speak, and sounds almost exactly like discussions I’ve had numerous times on the field with crewmates and crew chiefs alike. That is, it’s a repeated stating of the obvious to ensure everyone’s on the same page, and we’re all darn sure about what we’ve seen. Then we make sure the down, spot, clock, etc. are all correct, and off we go.
It’s a bunch of administration, not exactly made-for-TV action. I do hope they continue showing the replay process in the command center, because I’m a huge fan of increased transparency in officiating. Still, I’ll warn anyone who hasn’t seen it yet to temper expectations on the insight you’re likely to glean from that bit of the broadcast. There might be a handful of times we get something of actual interest throughout the year, but the typical review will be pretty ho-hum.
So to wrap up, there’s at least a bit of sweet with the sour. The ACC has made a non-trivial step forward in transparency and replay operation, followed by what looks like a rather hefty straw which broke Gary Patterson’s officiating back with their in-game execution.
There is hope: for as much praise as I and some fellow TSL commenters have heaped on the SEC this year, as recently as 10-15 years ago, they were essentially the laughingstock of college football officiating. Their mechanics were iffy, and rules knowledge subpar. Shoot, fire up any “worst calls in college football history” video, and you’ll likely find the SEC well represented. Now, they’re the cream of the crop, in this humble country back judge’s opinion, bringing the officiating quality in line with the conference’s on-field prestige.
So improvement is possible, and should be expected. I sure hope that whatever changes need to be made in the ACC are made in the offseason, because this conference is full of excellent officials, and they - not to mention the players, coaches and fans - deserve to be able to operate to the best of their abilities.
One quick housekeeping note: as comments are still not appearing on TSL articles, feel free to drop questions or comments under the TSL Subscribers Board post for this piece. I’ll check in periodically to continue the conversation. Until next time, Hokies!