Previously in this series covering the 2010s: Worst Calls of the 2000s, Favorite Blocks, QB-RB-WR, TE-FB-OL, Defensive Line, Linebacker, Secondary

We've put these in two sections for balance: five calls that went in favor of Michigan and calls against Michigan. Calls are being judged 75% on the level of ref boner, and 25% on situational relevance (e.g. if the most insanely bad call in history is overturned on review that gets a 7.5/10—also this happened). 

Specifically Omitted Non-Errors

The Spot. Unknowable: this was an impossible call that was bound to stick with whatever was called on the field, and what was called on the field could have been anything. Yes, karmically in the context of that game and cosmically for what it did to Harbaugh's program, The Spot is emblematic of factors outside of Michigan's control having an outsized effect on how we all feel today. It's also a coin-flip that the most competent line judge in the world would call that a first down. Complaining about The Spot is a bad look.

Canny Doale. Danny Coale's overturned completion in the Sugar Bowl is also left off the list. Here again is a call that infuriates the people at the business end of it because of the karma built up at that point by other calls. Also because the announcers didn't know the catch rule, which is a weird rule. VT fans stick around: you absolutely got screwed in this game.

It Wasn't the Refs. Calling the 2011 WMU game early because of weather does not make the list because that was an agreement between Michigan's and WMU's athletic directors, not the officials.

Correct. It was pointed out to me that Penn State fans are mad about the offsides on PSU's successful onside kick in the Coach Failtacular of 2014. I watched it again three times to be sure but it's not even close: he was offsides. Also not offsides: the final stuff of 2015 Minnesota, which complaint warrants mention only because it's why I named our segments with Steve Lorenz "Inside the Crooked Blue Line."

In Which Making the Incorrect Call Was Absolutely the Correct Call (2016 Rutgers)

You’re Rutgers, it's 57-0, Michigan is well into your territory again, and the only thing their fans haven’t gotten yet for their price of admission is to see the cannons fire. Since the offense responsible for giving the artillerymen cause has yet to record a first down, the chances of that aren’t great. Now, as they chant “Fire the can-non” the cannoneers' pride is the only hope of yours.

The third stringer’s in—the onetime “five-star” recruit everybody knows they’re planning to ship off to some directional MAC school. He got to throw a block last play, because everybody’s getting a career highlight at your expense tonight. The scrub now drops back to throw. There isn’t even play-action, is how little they respect you. But it’s low. There’s some commotion—pass interference? probably a pass interference flag—no, the ball’s ricocheted into the air. It’s going to be caught! OMIGOD that’s Deonte Roberts! Your GUY! He’s going to SCORE! TOUCHDOWN RUTGERS! FIRE THE CANNON!

BOOM!

Oh man, you gotta see the replay of that! It’s….oh, that bounced right of the turf. But it was right in front of that ref and he didn’t signal incomplete, so maybe he’s a competent human being who saw something you didn’t. And just like that…

it’s gone. Michigan then scores with a walk-on fullback. It's a great play by that guy. Probably a career highlight.

[After THE JUMP: Five times Michigan was bailed out, and otherwise.]

In Which Michigan Is Bailed Out

5. The Spot Before Clowney (2013 Outback Bowl)

So bad spots are hardly uncommon in football, and if the refs can get it within an inch or two on sight that's actually pretty impressive. The thing about this one however is South Carolina fans find nothing wrong with the spot.

It’s January 1, 2013 and the Hoke Poops Magic thing is still a thing we believe in, because there's no other explanation for why going for a fake punt on 4th and 4 from our own 37 up by a point in the 4th quarter felt like the most natural thing. Of course we'll get it. Even if South Carolina's all over it we'll get it. Even if we don't get it we'll get it. Even if the spot says we didn't get it, well…

The best part of this call is Old Ball Coach in there pointing at it like he's the last sane person left in the world. Clowney's response is to remove Vincent Smith from existence on the next play, causing a fumble that leads to SC's winning points.

4. Flepargeting (2016 Penn State and 2018 Maryland)

The NCAA as a whole struggled throughout the 2010s to pin down a definition of targeting and promulgate it. But this one makes the list because it was (as James Franklin argued) a correct interpretation of a rule that was so bad a man was charged 15 yards* and ejected for two halves** for just this:

As a Detroit Lions fan I have the greatest sympathy for the rare non-Detroit Lions team that gets to be on the business end of one of those calls that proves the rule was badly written. In this case, the NCAA used the following offseason to add an intent clause to their targeting guidance. That was small solace to Nittany Lions fans watching their last plausibly capable*** linebacker, Brandon Smith, escorted off the field for going for the ball.

* Actually 4 yards because it was half the distance to the goal from the 8.
** Actually 1.5 halves; it was the first play of the 2nd Q.
*** Actually the walk-on at MLB turned out to be pretty good but this was his 2009 Kovacs year.

There was a similar call in a John O'Neill special against Maryland in 2018 on that incredibly weird play when a huge Higdon catch and run was knocked back for a block in the back by DPJ.

From this angle you can see the Maryland player who's chasing Higdon and reacts instinctively when DPJ presents himself. Also they missed Ronnie Bell clearly in an illegal formation at the snap. Also the penalties offset, which reset the play, which turned out to be worse for Michigan than if they hadn't called targeting because DPJ's block happened so far downfield.

3. Get Up and Giles (2019 Indiana)

In my mind when rating these I gave them scores on a 100-point scale with 75% of those from the insanity of the call and 25% from the situation. Here's one that scored 75 points on that scale because review exists. Watch again in awe:

I guess they figured they had review .

2. No More Sugar for Brendan Gibbons (2012 Sugar Bowl)

Gibbons had a tendency to take a few shuffle steps to get comfortable before an important kick. The problem is you're not allowed to do that. He first got away with one right before the end of the first half, on the Jareth Glanda play:

It's some kind of incredible that this Pac 12 crew got that wrong but knew the long snapper was allowed to catch a deflection. Gibbons was clean on his next two, but the officials fell asleep again on the OT game-winner:

It was a silly game.

1. Power Slide! (2013 Northwestern)

Speaking of false starts on game-defining kicks, before there was M00N there was the nearly as stupid trip to Evanston the previous year, when the Wildcats wore star-spangled gray pajamas with power words instead of nameplates and fought Michigan in horizontal rain to what probably should have been a 9-6 laugher. With 11 seconds left on 3rd and 23 and no timeouts, Devin Gardner hit Roy Roundtree inbounds at the 30.

Then chaos! Michigan's field goal team races onto the field, gets in position, hikes it with 1 second on the clock, and the kick is good to force overtime, whence Michigan is victorious. Notice something missing from that sequence?

Yeah, hard to believe the line was set for a full second there before the snap. Specifically tight end A.J. Williams is still going down into his stance at the 2-second mark, and then he puts a second hand down inside of it. Under college football's then brand-new rule, the false start should have resulted in a 10-second runoff, and game over. Instead we got to sit in the rain and watch a Hoke team pull yet another one out of their asses against the Wildcats.

That is Greg Dooley running underneath the crossbar with his arms raised by the way.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Loads and loads and loads of "rubbin's racing" cornerback play, 2015-'19. Butt Breaks All Rules, 2016 Colorado, 3rd & Long vs Illinois 2019, Purdue's Good Jam 2017, Devin Bush's Frey-Removal Service 2016, Darboh tackles a guy 2014 Rutgers, Gift spot vs SMU that sent Sonny Dykes into a rage oh wait sorry that's the play after.

Outrages(!) In Which Michigan Is Screwed

Once again, a reminder that this is mostly about how bad the call was. Or calls. We had to do some shoehorning.

5. Pass Interference is a Judgment Call (The Game 2016)

The Spot is a red herring. Anyone of substance will tell you it's a coinflip of a call. The reason The Spot feels like an injustice is because, well,

we felt we were due.

Teddy Greenstein, who's no fan of Michigan, interviewed former head of Big Ten officiating Bill Carollo, who admitted he's no fan of Harbaugh, upon the latter's recent retirement. Via Carollo Greenstein had this to say about the first Replay above:

There was one egregious no-call, as bad a whiff as the officials had at any moment of this Big Ten season. On third-and-7 in the first quarter, Michigan's Amara Darboh got fouled twice on one play — defensive holding and pass interference — and neither penalty was called. What makes it worse is he was the intended receiver.

The PI call on 3rd and 7 of OSU's last drive of regulation was more tetchy than insane, and wouldn't make this list if an identical play on a far more catchable throw hadn't been overlooked one overtime later.

4. APO Address, No Return to Sender (Army 2019)

Here's the flip-side of the Giles Jackson thing. With Giles, the refs knew they could overturn it later so they let the ludicrous stand until then just in case. Here's why that's a good idea:

Army's whole thing is they churn down the field, burn through clock, and turn games into a matter of a handful of possessions where anything can happen. This is a 7-7 game at the end of the first quarter in which Army's score came off a Shea Patterson fumble, but the nature of the beast is one big break against the Black Knights means they have to start doing things they can't do, like pass the ball.

It wouldn't have been so bad—starting one of like seven possessions you get all game on Army's 19 yard line—but on the next play Michigan missed a blitz pickup, Shea got stripped, and the patented service academy sphincter-clencher was on.

There was a similar and far worse play in the Trash Tornado game:

Again, if you have replay let it ride! If they don't blow the whistle Avery's probably got a pick-six.

3. Replay Official Mails It In (2015 Michigan State)

That call

— Ezekiel Elliott (@EzekielElliott) October 17, 2015

We've all been there: Somebody wants you to look over something, you don't really have the time or inclination at that moment, and you're tempted to just send it back, unlooked-at, and say "It's fine." I mean, they've already looked it over, right? Whatever: if it got past the first rung already it's probably just a tiny typo or something than nobody will care about. What are the chances there's something extremely, glaringly obvious in there?

Say the object is a short video, and you have to decide if fits the moving target of the NCAA's ill-defined new targeting rules? Do you even know the rule? Do you want to take the time while millions of football watchers are waiting on you to look it up and apply it? If they're asking you it probably was targeting anyway right? A quick glance at the helmets and yep, helmets. Together. Sure, targeting. /send

Oops.

2. John O'Neill's Magnum Opus

Everyone who's serious about the craft has that moment when they became aware of John O'Neill. I didn't put a name to the comical ineptitude until Craig Ross mentioned O'Neill on the WTKA podcast before 2015 Oregon State, an O'Neill special of warning proportions:

He's made a mess in plenty of games since: 2016 Iowa, 2018 Nebraska, etc.

We all have theories, and I'll give you mine: it's his crew, and he's lazy. If you think about it what are the hallmarks of O'Neill Special™:

• Pass interference calls make no sense.
• Egregious missed holds on the edge.
• Flargeting, worse than normal.
• Missed facemasks.
• Dirty/chippy behavior gets out of hand.
• Confusion at the rules.
• Way too may reviews.

So is it really John O'Neill, or one of the seven guys he's working with? My theory is O'Neill is a specific kind of bad: the lazy kind. Study the rulebook? Nah. Can it be reviewed? Then let it. Line judge got something wrong? Not worth the argument. Were you watching that play? No, but the receiver went to the ground and it was incomplete so it was probably PI.

Nothing John O'Neill does will ever get him fired, or removed from plum games like Michigan-Notre Dame in prime time. Not 100 atrocious calls in a season, not 15,000 Penn State fans signing a Change.org petition, and certainly not 100,000 towels.

1. The Call from Mars

O'Neill may hold the title for the worst football official on Earth, but there are more bodies in the solar system than our tiny wet rock, and Joel Klatt thinks he has an idea where the worst holding call in the history of football came from.

I'm realizing this morning that my comment was a disservice to Mars...It is a much better planet than this call ‍♂️ https://t.co/qiGjvxjV96

— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) September 30, 2018

The end.

Dishonorable Mentions:

DPJ's touchdown at Wisconsin. A million other things from O'Neill's crew in the lopsidedly officiated 2015 MSU game. Big Ten makes good with PSU, with extra sauce. Darboh completes the process in triplicate, Rutgers 2014. Taunting on Tarik Black. Taunting on Devin Bush. Kelvin Grady shorted two yards to set up the 4th and 1 that got Denard blow'd up. The ludicrous fourth quarter of Defeated with Dignity. Various thuggery by Dantonio's Angels, #1 being taking out Mike Martin's knee. The dipshits who took a swelteringly stupid SMU game and ratcheted it up to ludicrous with constant reviews and a cascade of increasingly mind-blowing phantom PIs. IU guy knocks a ball out of a ref's hands to end Michigan's disorganized end-of-half drive. Big Ten refs who don't know a punter outside of the pocket is no longer protected: 2015 Oregon State, 2015 Ohio State, and 2016 Iowa. James Vandenberg asks for and receives a roughing the passer on Kovacs. Lots and lots of service academy chop-blocking. Metellus hands to the (shoulder pads) face.