Ark loses to Florida 23 to 20 on a field goal with 9 seconds to play. Game played in Florida with penalties against Ark = 92 yards and penalties against Florida = 16 yards. One of the obvious calls you don’t get in Florida: 13min to play Ark runs for 30 yards breaking 5 Florida tackles, is hit out of bounds by a Fla player directly in front of 1 official –no call –can’t upset the Gator fans after being embarassed by a great run by the Razorback Dennis Johnson.
On the Florida winning drive: 2 plays in a row stand out:
Florida at Ark 40, Tebow passes into end zone, Ark player has position on the Florida player and Florida player is going after the Ark player (no attempt to look at catching the ball). Obvious pass interference against Florida not called –once again, an obvious lack of the officials being ready to call a penalty against the 100,000 Gator fans.
On the next play: Florida at Ark 35 gets 15 yards on a penalty against an Ark player for just defending himself –blocking off a Florida player throwing a block at him –the TV announcers (who are generally asleep) accurately pointed out the absurdity of the call.
Plenty of other really bad calls against Ark, -one was a pass interference call against Ark in the end zone on the Florida touchdown drive that kept Florida in the game –where the Ark player had clearly turned and was looking for the ball.
OU Florida 2009 National Championship Game:
OU had a holding call on a 60 yard pass play to the Florida 10 yard line in the first quarter.
The play of this game was about the 5th play of the game, -had a Florida guy smashing the OU receiver helmet to head breaking up a perfectly thrown pass -he hit the OU player before the ball got there -which is clear on a slow motion replay. The Florida players (the whole sideline) were jubilant in surrounding and taunting the OU player as he had trouble getting his bearings to get up from the ground -a flag should have been thrown on that one – Twice. The football bounced off the Florida player’s back –never touching the OU player as the Florida player had already hit the OU player, -the Florida player was making no attempt to intercept –just injure the OU player. Many football players have been paralyzed by this kind of cheap shot, -and was the main reason for the pass interference rule.
Officials did call a lot of penalties against Florida, but never when it cost them 40 or 60 yards -or a touchdown – just obvious penalties like knocking the OU punter to the ground.
The worst call of these games are the TV producers -giving us closeups of the football laces spiraling thru the air –facial closeups of sweat and spit –following coaches around -how about backing off where we can see the qback and some of the wide receivers -so we actually see the football game?! How about having a camera backed off -if you don’t have any idea where the ball is –instead of completely missing the action?
The closeup of a football going thru the air on a punt or pass just really makes us sport fans a bit un-nerved. With high definition TV, -the backed off shot really makes the game more exciting -getting to see the quarterback and the receivers getting open all in the same shot.
Florida, OU, Ark are great schools, coaches, and teams. Let’s not have national championship games involving a Florida team -or any team -in their own state.
Also true of the OU-Tex game, -played in Texas. Although this rivalry is the most revered rivalry in college football. The game yesterday was one of the most entertaining games I have ever seen, and thank the Lord for instant re-plays of the instant re-plays that pretty much corrected what the officials did not see. JayR