Tim Tebow criticizes Auburn-Arkansas officials
There is no real accountability for high school or college officials, no matter if they say there is. There is not. They have the freedom to total ruin a game on Friday night or decide who has the momentum on Saturday. The replay system is an absolute joke. They can't seem to get it right even in slow motion or whatever they are looking at.
I believe every conference in college football should have a review board which meets Monday's. They should review the game films and take a percentage of officials game pay for every blown or blatantly missed call. (They can't even get it right on review a lot of the time it seems!) The problem with that is, it's hard enough to find football officials in the first place. Few would want to be an official under such tight scrutiny.
There were plenty of people unhappy with the officials early in Saturday’s Auburn-Arkansas game, many of them Razorbacks fans. But there were also some unbiased observers who didn’t like what they saw.
That included SEC Network analyst and former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who took to Twitter to voice his frustration with the way things were going.
In the first quarter, the officiating crew for this game seemed to miss a fumble call. Auburn’s Jarquez Hunter appeared to lose the ball, with Arkansas players seeming to fall on it. Yet, the ball remained in the Tigers’ possession.
Then, Tim Tebow weighed in:
“As a die-hard fan of college football, it’s frustrating to watch some of these games being taken out of the player’s hands because of officiating.,” said Tebow. “Not only did that missed call not go in Arkansas’ favor, but it was trailing Auburn, 14-3, with 3 minutes to go in the first half. But there’s still time for the Razorbacks to get back into the game and keep it competitive.”
Later in the game, Bo Nix the Auburn quarterback, attempted a pass down the Arkansas sideline. Yes the receiver and defensive back where hand fighting, but with neither gaining an advantage over the other. The pass was thrown over their heads and landed well out of reach, out of bounds. Yet the official tossed his yellow flag, calling an interference penalty on the Arkansas defensive back. That was the second interference call against Arkansas, in this game, that was not interference.
While the Hogs were battling back, they ran a play to one of the wide receivers who split defenders and gained a first down at a critical time. But, no, holding claimed the official. The announcers said there was no holding on that play. T icky-Tack call they said.
Earlier in the game, the Hogs went for a fourth and one. Rocket Sanders appeared to have gained the yard needed. The announcers believed it to be so, as did their officiating expert. But, no, of course this sorry set of officials marked the ball short and they even blew it on review.
I could go on all day about these officials.
All this was just part of the problem.
Last week the Hogs went for the win, but they attempted to run a pass play that Ole Miss had already seen in a similar circumstance. Ole Miss overloaded to that side. Arkansas offensive coordinator should have signaled an audible or the Hogs quarterback, who was looking at the defense shading to that side, should have changed the play. But, no, they ran the play into the overloaded side of the Old Miss defensive and gave the game away.
Saturday, Arkansas is backed up inside their own five yard line. If you're going to pass from your own end zone the ball needs to come out quickly. But, no, the Razorback offensive coordinator calls a deep pass, causing Jefferson to hold on to the ball in the end zone too long, get sacked, fumble, resulting in an easy six points for Auburn I do not believe we came close to getting the momentum back.
For all the great things the Hogs are doing, and they are doing a lot of very good things, those few offensive coordinator blunders at critical times, and ridiculously inept officiating have been tougher on Arkansas than the defenses of the schools they've played.
