Saturday, October 07, 2006

Phew

Another big red-letter day for Pac-10 officiating.

Trailing by six, near the goal line, the Washington Huskies drive to a first down with two seconds remaining. As every person who follows college football knows, the clock stops on a first down then re-starts when the chains are re-set. The officials spot the ball, reset the chains, and . . . nothing.

One of the announcers says that Ty Willingham is claiming three more seconds on the clock (how he would know, I have no idea). But as the officials stand around as if waiting for a Red Car (I didn't even see them conferring), Willingham trots onto the field to confer with his quarterback. As the two of them talk and talk, and the clock stays frozen, as the officials look at one another, Pete Carroll, on the opposite sideline, is going bananas, making the windmill motion and clearly screaming, "Start the f---ing clock! What the f--- is the matter with you?"

Finally, the clock starts . . . only the Huskies aren't set to snap. Tick, tick, and the game ends before the hike. As Washington players plead their case, Carroll sprints onto the field ahead of his team and looks desperately for someone in purple to shake hands with.

Against all odds, the final score, 26-20, holds.

Unreal.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny thing is.....Washington was given a gift by the "almost always horrible" Pac-10 officating crew....thankfully, the Husky's forgot to snap the ball when the ref wound the clock. College football was saved by the inpetness of UDub.

Now Sun Devil fans cheer for UCLA while Trojan fans are now Wildcat fans. Happens once a year when these two teams meet.

Anonymous said...

Late in joining the commiseration. I too stopped watching Yanks after a couple of innings. Thank God for College football as the Saturday offerings were great to keep your mind off of the Pinstripes. And today, had plenty to read about without going near baseball.

I knew Cal would easily take care of the Ducks. And it was nice to see the Mildcats get hammered by the Bruins. USC! What ails you? Should the trojans be worried next week? I can only hope so.