Two Football Officials Speak to Spartan Nation About the Nebraska Game and What You Learn May Shock You

Officials Make It Clear That the Game of Football is Changing…. There is no doubt that the officiating at the Michigan State vs. Nebraska game was terrible.Â

Officials Make It Clear That the Game of Football is Changing….

There is no doubt that the officiating at the Michigan State vs. Nebraska game was terrible. Horrible, bad and any other adjective you can add. In fariness it was bad against both teams. It still doesn’t slow the fact that the game of football is changing. I spoke to two officials this week about three particular calls that went against Michigan State last week.

I am not saying Michigan State lost because of those plays, because they didn’t. MSU and Nebraska had multiple chances to win the game and it was the Cornhuskers that did. That fact doesn’t change how poor the officiating was and I asked these two about the big three penalty calls against Michigan State.

1)     Johnny Adams hit on a defenseless player during the Darqueze Dennard return for a TD. “It was a bad call, but not against the official. I know that doesn’t make sense, but I can explain. There is genuine fear and I might even call it terror among college football that there will be some type of lawsuit against the college game like you are seeing in the NFL right now for injuries. It doesn’t get talked about, but they are worried beyond reason. Each week officials are given keys and extra things to watch for. We are constantly told that we are to err on the side of player safety. Looking at Adams and how he ended up and when he ended up in the endzone it is a bad call. You can’t make calls with the benefit of the replay. I probably would have made that call. You err on player safety. Forget the fans, the media and the coaches, what matters is the conference. You don’t want to sit out or get downgraded and I can tell you that they would never downgrade or suspend and official for erring on player safety. If you don’t make that call and the Cornhusker gets hurt? You may end up back at pee wee ball. Was it the right call? No, but the official didn’t have a choice.”

2)     The helmet to helmet call on Kurtis Drummond vs. Taylor Martinez. “Again it is the same as the last one. You err on player safety. If you see that play live you think it is brutal. Replay clearly shows that it isn’t a penalty. Replay isn’t the world we live in making game speed calls. It looked violent. You look as an official and see that you throw the flag. It isn’t reviewable, but you have to make that call with all the emphasis we get, and I mean get ever week about player safety. The only thing bigger than the game of football is the money it makes and they want the QB and other players protected from helmet to helmet. There is genuine fear of a class action suit against the NCAA and the conferences from past players. Right call? Replay says no, but on the field I throw that flag.”

3)     The Darqueze Dennard pass interference call at the end of the game. “You always hear that refs can’t decide a game. We don’t. Players do. When a rule is broken you call it.” After reviewing the game film I was told about the call that, “On the DPI (Defensive Pass Interference) on Dennard, I think it is a good call. Looks like his right arm made constant contact impeding the WR path and did not allow the WR to get his left arm up to make the catch. Just my 2 cents and trust me I wanted State to win.”

The game is changing. Both of the above officials used in this article have helped Spartan Nation numerous times. As always we protect their identity because officials are not supposed to speak to the media this way. Both are well respected and both have worked Michigan State in the past, but did not this past Saturday.

I used these comments to ask Dantonio about the changing state of football. Below is my question and his answer.

Q. I spoke with an official yesterday who was not working this game but has worked your games in the past and asked him specifically if he saw those two plays, the Johnny Adams and the shoulder to shoulder that was called as a head‑to‑head he did. He said the onus of the blame goes on the fact that they're constantly harped at by the people who sign their paychecks. Better to err on the side of player safety than not. He doesn't like it any more than you do. My question is there coming a place where they're going to change the game of football‑‑ I don't know how I would say‑‑ but you're going to lose what's made the game great?
COACH DANTONIO: I think that when you look at the game of football they're trying to err on the side of safety, but I think the game has definitely changed dramatically in the last three to four years based on all the evidence on concussions and past concussions, things of that nature. So I think you see a lot more flags on hits out of bounds than you've seen. Some of them, right, wrong or indifferent, I think you can't touch them. Certainly I don't know how the interference penalty plays into that, but I don't know.
These are all tough things. Things that go on in the game of football. Needless to say, I'm disappointed in them, but what are you going to do? It's not going to change the outcome of the game right now.
The one thing I can control and say is these are the things that we didn't do as a football team. These are the things that we needed to do as a football team. Then the other stuff that I can't control, I have to let go and somebody else has to control those aspects, but I can't control those. So I'm best just trying to deal with‑‑ we have enough that we need to fix. And I'm sure that everybody looks at their area of expertise, whether that's seeding people or getting people in the stands or whether that's writing. You look at your expertise and say how can I do better and how I can critique it? That goes on every single day.
It's not like people don't make mistakes. We all make mistakes. Some of them are more unfortunate times than others, in and outside of football. How is that for a political answer today?