Latest / Return to Glory - Nebraska / Episode 18 | Referees

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Episode 18 | Referees · Return to Glory - Nebraska

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Go big red the takes the numbers the chaos hunter
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: austin deck talking corn husker football basketball and everything nebraska
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: sports welcome to the return to glory.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Podcast Return to Glory podcast. Hunter Zarbonicki here for you
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: on Friday, August 28th. We're going to go on a
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: little solo, I'm not going to call it a rant,
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  Speaker 2: but a solo talk on officials. And this is probably
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  Speaker 2: the easiest people to hate when you're watching a game
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  Speaker 2: here in college football. And I'm going to start with
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  Speaker 2: something that might make some Nebraska fans mad, but no
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  Speaker 2: The refs did not cost us the game. Can officials
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  Speaker 2: impact a football game? Absolutely. Can they miss a call
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: at a critical moment? Yep. But can one bad decision
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  Speaker 2: change field position, possession points? Can it change the win probability? Well, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it probably could. But is it the difference in winning
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  Speaker 2: or losing the football game?
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 2: They're not out to get Nebraska. They're not walking out
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  Speaker 2: into Memorial stadium and asking, how do we, how do
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: we screw the Huskers today? No, they're not.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: They're there to administer a football game, game management, uh,
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  Speaker 2: make sure the game goes smoothly. Uh, I do think
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  Speaker 2: every fan base thinks that they can get screwed. Um,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Nebraska fans think they hate Nebraska. All, all fan bases
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  Speaker 2: think that officials, when the game doesn't go your way, uh, it's, it's,
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  Speaker 2: it's their fault. Um, So why sometimes one call gets
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: all the blame? Well, there's more than a hundred opportunities
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  Speaker 2: in a game and there's missed tackles, interceptions thrown, busted coverages,
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  Speaker 2: all of that. But there's this one, you know, questionable
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  Speaker 2: pass interference call with 140 left. And suddenly that becomes
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the reason why you lost. Um, Officials know. I mean,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: when they're doing games, they know. They're not above criticism.
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  Speaker 2: They know that they miss calls. It happens. But I
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  Speaker 2: think that we need to be, as fans and as
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  Speaker 2: fans of college football, evaluate officials like you're evaluating coaches
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  Speaker 2: and players. Everybody's making mistakes, and it happens. Now, you
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: want to minimize those mistakes. Don't get me wrong. And
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  Speaker 2: there's a reason why the best officials have the least mistakes.
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  Speaker 2: That's definitely true. But calls are going to be missed.
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  Speaker 2: Another caveat I guess I have with officials that I
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  Speaker 2: don't think always happens, and I'm specifically talking about college football,
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  Speaker 2: but this happens I guess everywhere, is my biggest gripe
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  Speaker 2: is at the end of the game, the phrase is,
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  Speaker 2: we want to let the players decide the game. We
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  Speaker 2: don't want to interfere at the end of the game
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  Speaker 2: because it's the end of the game. Well, to me,
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  Speaker 2: that's wrong. I mean, I understand it, but I guess
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  Speaker 2: I just disagree, because if you're not going to call
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  Speaker 2: it there, then don't call it the beginning, because as
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  Speaker 2: coaches and players, you are adjusting to the way the
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: game is officiated the entire time. So when you get
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  Speaker 2: to the end of the game, and now all of
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: a sudden you're going to call it differently than the
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  Speaker 2: way you've called it the first 52 minutes, that makes
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  Speaker 2: it tough. So... To me, that's something that I've always
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: thought that at the end of the game, if you're
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: going to call pass interference, well then, if there is
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  Speaker 2: something similar, now sometimes it doesn't happen, and not all
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  Speaker 2: plays are similar in the exact same. They are different.
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  Speaker 2: But if you're at the end of the game going
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  Speaker 2: to call something that was similar early on, it better
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  Speaker 2: be consistent as well. Another common misconception in football officiating
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  Speaker 2: specifically is The white hat and the head referee, the
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  Speaker 2: guy that's reporting, or gal, guy or gal that's reporting
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  Speaker 2: every call to the TV, to the stands, he's really
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  Speaker 2: just the primary communicator. Yes, he has responsibilities, but he's
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: not watching every play and throwing every flag. Does he
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  Speaker 2: have the capability to overrule somebody? Not really. Not really.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if a guy throws a pass interference downfield,
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  Speaker 2: he can't just come in and say, now from my
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  Speaker 2: perspective in the backfield, that wasn't pass interference. He can't
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  Speaker 2: do that. He can ask questions on, hey, what did
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  Speaker 2: you see, and why did you throw this flag? Oh, okay,
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  Speaker 2: I see that. All right, we'll call it. But he
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  Speaker 2: can't just come in and say, nope, that's not right,
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  Speaker 2: because he saw something different. So the head referee, he's
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  Speaker 2: the guy at the white hat. He sits behind the quarterback.
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  Speaker 2: His general responsibility is administration and managing the game. He's
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  Speaker 2: got some quarterback backfield responsibilities. Um, and his main thing
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  Speaker 2: is protecting the quarterback. Uh, that, that, that is his
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  Speaker 2: primary responsibility. The other thing he has to do is
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  Speaker 2: know all of the rules, make sure that everything is
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  Speaker 2: correct by the rule book. Um, and, and if any
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  Speaker 2: major thing happened, it's going to be on him because
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  Speaker 2: he's the crew chief. Uh, and, and, College football, you
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  Speaker 2: have the umpire. He's the one sitting right in the
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  Speaker 2: middle of the field, right behind the linebackers in there.
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  Speaker 2: He's looking a lot at holdings. And he also has
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  Speaker 2: some passing responsibility, but most of the time he's looking
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: at holdings and anything inside on the line. Then you
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: have two guys on the line of scrimmage. You have
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  Speaker 2: one on each side of the field. They're looking at
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  Speaker 2: do you have the appropriate number of players in the line.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: They're looking at motions. They're looking at formations. Um, and
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: then as the ball moves down the field, they're going
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: with that and then helping with the spot. And then
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  Speaker 2: you have your field judge, back judge, side judges, the
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  Speaker 2: guys that are sitting deeper that are mainly your past guys, uh,
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  Speaker 2: looking at receivers, defensive backs, interference. They have a lot
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: of the kicking responsibilities. Um, those guys are in the back.
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  Speaker 2: Now the, the, the key thing you got to remember
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  Speaker 2: with football officials is the responsibility is divided and you
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  Speaker 2: have a specific role in and specific things that you
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  Speaker 2: are looking for. If you watch them in a game,
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  Speaker 2: they often get overlooked because you're watching the players. But
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  Speaker 2: in a game, not... Every official is responsible for something different.
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  Speaker 2: You don't have six set of eyes on the ball.
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  Speaker 2: If you do, that's really bad officiating. So... Anyways, I
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: think that's important to say because I think you forget
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: about that when you're watching the game on the players
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  Speaker 2: and the officials come in and you just think that, oh,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: this guy announcing sucks. He's the worst. Well, he's really
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: just the reporter and communicator. Another point that I want
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: to talk about this morning. Replay. It's evolved, obviously, a
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: lot over the last, I don't know, however many years.
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  Speaker 2: And we're to the point now where we have almost
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: everything at our hands to use. And here's my take
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  Speaker 2: on it. I've thought this now for a while. If
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: we're going to use replay, get it right. It's gotten
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: obviously a lot more useful and technology is crazy. I
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: still think we can go even further. We have the
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: ability now to communicate and specifically watch video in real
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: time in instant replays seconds after the play. I know
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: there's still a lot of judgment that needs to be
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: made live. But if we have the angles and if
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: we can get it right by the rule, why not
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: use it? And I'm specifically thinking, I'll go back to
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: pass interference again down the field. Well, you got one
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  Speaker 2: official maybe on it given where the play goes and
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't get a great angle because he's trapped in
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: a certain spot. Well, use video. and get someone to
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: come down and talk about it and tell them, hey, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: that's pass interference. We have the ability to do it.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: It's not going to take that long of extra time
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  Speaker 2: to actually review and get it right. So the other
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: alternative is don't use it at all and make it
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  Speaker 2: complete judgment. Where we get in trouble, I think, as
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: officiating and managing a game is when you hear people say, well,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: we can't review that play because... It's not in the
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: rule book to review that. We can't go back and
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: review that because that to me, we have the ability
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  Speaker 2: to do it. Let's just do it. Rule changes for 2026.
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  Speaker 2: There's a handful. I want to go into these a
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: little bit so we know what we're getting ourselves into. Targeting.
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  Speaker 2: They changed the rule now that if you get a
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  Speaker 2: targeting call, Yes, you still get kicked out of the game,
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  Speaker 2: which is the same as last year, but it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: automatically create the old next game first half carryover because
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: it happened in the second half. Now, a second targeting
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  Speaker 2: during the season will add that, and then a third
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  Speaker 2: will add a full game. But your first targeting is
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  Speaker 2: not going to punish you for the game after. I
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  Speaker 2: think that's a lot better. It still keeps that player
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  Speaker 2: safety real strong, but it doesn't automatically hurt yourself. and
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: your team for the next game. Another rule, offensive pass
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  Speaker 2: interference is now 10 yards. So it was 15 last year.
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  Speaker 2: It's been 15 in college for a long time. OPI
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  Speaker 2: is now 10. The challenges for the coaches, you now
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  Speaker 2: have two replay challenges. If you win one of those
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  Speaker 2: first two, you earn a third provided that the challenge
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  Speaker 2: requirements are met. So, um, Oh, here's another one. The
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: fair catch kick. This is maybe a new rule. I
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: think it's been a rule in high school. Maybe it's
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  Speaker 2: added into college. Um, After you call a fair catch
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  Speaker 2: on a kick, the team then can elect to attempt
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  Speaker 2: a field goal from that spot with the defense at
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  Speaker 2: least 10 yards until the kick. If the fair catch
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  Speaker 2: ends a half, an untimed down can be used for
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  Speaker 2: the attempt. So let's just say someone fair catches and
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: someone punts from their own 10 and you fair catch
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  Speaker 2: it at the 50. You then have the ability to
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  Speaker 2: kick a field goal. From there with basically a free
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  Speaker 2: field goal with no one can block it. This is
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  Speaker 2: just a different rule. Let's see. I guess let's dive
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: into what makes a great officiating crew here before we
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  Speaker 2: close it out. These are my five things. If an
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  Speaker 2: officiating crew does these things, they're usually pretty good. And
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  Speaker 2: reffing a lot of games in the postseason. One, Pretty obvious.
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  Speaker 2: Know your rules and know how to apply the rules.
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  Speaker 2: You're by the book officials. You better know that to
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  Speaker 2: be good. If you mess something up, you're in big trouble.
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  Speaker 2: Number two, get in good position and know where you
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  Speaker 2: should be at on every play. If you're good at positioning,
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: you're going to be able to see things the best
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  Speaker 2: to make the right call. Number three, communicate. Communicate to
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  Speaker 2: your crew. Communicate to players. Communicate to coaches. Be a human,
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  Speaker 2: don't be a robot. Number four is be consistent with
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  Speaker 2: how you call a game throughout. Do not just make
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  Speaker 2: bogus random calls. And five, be a game manager. Just
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: make the game flow appropriately. Don't get in the way. Yes,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: let the players decide the outcome of the game, but
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: manage the game appropriately with substitutions, knowing the clock, make
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  Speaker 2: sure that's right, administer everything. Don't get in the way
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  Speaker 2: and make it all about yourself. I think some officials
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: have a tendency to do that, and nobody likes to
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  Speaker 2: watch that as a fan. So here's my challenge, I guess,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: to Nebraska fans. Before saying that refs cost us a
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: one-score game, go back and look at the rest of
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: the game. Ask what did we as a team control?
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Were there turnovers, missed tackles, penalties, third-down failures, missed points,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: bad coaching decisions? We can go back to blaming the coaches. Officials, obviously, yes,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: they can impact the game. Bad calls can matter. But
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: they aren't the villains. They're not secretly out to get
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Nebraska and cost us a game. So demand accuracy, demand consistency,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: demand the correct rules, applications, demand great game management. And
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: demand the same standard on play one. is also demanded
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  Speaker 2: on the final play because every play matters. That's my
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: little take on officials there as we get ready for
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the season. We'll be back Monday. Go Big Red.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: The headlines change, but the mission stays. From Memorial Stadium
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: to PBA days.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Football Saturdays, basketball nights. Every story chasing red and white.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Recruiting buzz, big time commits. Camp battles, coaching hits. Transfer
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: moves and rising stars.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: The road to glory's never far. This is Return to Glory,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: where every headline tells a story.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: Big Red pride every season, Husker Nation's got a reason.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: From touchdowns, dunks, and championship dreams, we'll be back with
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: the latest from every team.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Until next time, keep the faith.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: Keep believing, because the Return to Glory is just beginning.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Go Big Red!
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: See you next episode!