Critical Calls (or Lack Thereof) That Benefitted Michigan?
The history of Michigan getting screwed in critical moments is a long and colorful one: from Spartan Bob to The Spot to tonight and all events in between. But let's focus on the other side of the coin. What instances in Michigan sports history can you think of where you were relieved the refs gave us the benefit of the doubt?
For me, I can only think of a few
- Kam Chatman MAY have shuffled his feet right before hitting his buzzer beater against IU in the BTT. I don't think they would ever call that in that stage of the game, but to me it looks like both feet move back and forth
- Roy Roundtree is the hero Under The Lights, but thank God we didn't have to sit through a long review of the catch. The angle is mostly obscured by fans, but the ball does look to shift some after the ND defender hits him. I cringe to imagine the results if that were a Lions game.
- Brendan Gibbons false starts on a few kicks in the VT Sugar Bowl, including the game winner but never gets called for a penalty. Not a huge error, but always bugs me when refs miss obvious, objective penalties like false starts and delays of game
And... that's all I can think of. On mobile so can't embed clips if you want to review the plays, but should all be easily available on YouTube. What other calls do you think Michigan has actually benefitted from? Genuinely would love some answers since I'm stumped
February 4th, 2020 at 10:43 PM ^
Man this board today, wish we still had moderators
February 4th, 2020 at 10:55 PM ^
This post isn't bad - it asks what memories you have a favorable calls. It's not shitting on anyone or anything. It isn't talking shit about an opponent. It isn't railing on the players or coaches. WTF is your problem with it?
February 4th, 2020 at 11:14 PM ^
I bestow you with mod status. Feel free to delete this thread from your memory.
February 5th, 2020 at 2:58 AM ^
I have a great idea! If you don’t like the post then simply don’t click on it...
February 5th, 2020 at 11:50 AM ^
Username checks out.
February 5th, 2020 at 12:15 PM ^
Yeah this is fine.
February 5th, 2020 at 6:30 PM ^
Seth Stamp of Approval
Fuck yeah
February 4th, 2020 at 10:45 PM ^
Lloyd Car, 2005 at home against PSU. Adding a second.
rose bowl runoff against WSU.
im sure there are more, and this thread my help, but as I tell myself, fandom is unconditional: you are going to get breaks and not get breaks. Does it change your support of Michigan? Course not, sucks but GO BLUE
February 4th, 2020 at 10:49 PM ^
Both of those were the right calls I believe though, and the OP's list is kinda stretching it. No way in hell Roundtree's catch gets overturned.
February 4th, 2020 at 10:53 PM ^
I agree that they're marginal at best and reaching at worst, but they truly are the only examples I can think of where I can say, Michigan got a break in a crucial moment. We've never been on the good end of a Spartan Bob or a 5th down
February 4th, 2020 at 11:06 PM ^
Yeah, came top of mind.
February 5th, 2020 at 12:46 PM ^
Well the 'negative' calls are also generally argued as the right calls by other fanbases. Nobody outside of Michigan thinks we got screwed on the spot in 2016 for example. It was an incredibly close play that went against us by an inch, nobody outside of Michigan thinks we got screwed.
February 4th, 2020 at 10:51 PM ^
Forgot about the PSU controversy. Definitely one of those instances where a play overshadowed the call before it
February 4th, 2020 at 11:03 PM ^
That was not a controversy at the time. On PSU's final possession, JoePa called timeout and the officials asked for two seconds to be put back on the clock. Then on our last possession (with 30 seconds left, not right at the end) Lloyd did likewise and also got two seconds added. That's a routine thing that happens in almost every game. It only became a "controversy" because our next-to-last play ended with 1 second left and some PSU fans figured out that two is a larger number than one.
But for an actual answer:
-2000 Illinois: Anthony Thomas fumbled and got away with it before our game-winning TD.
-2008 MSU: Brandon Minor somehow was credited with a TD for kicking the pylon despite never landing inbounds.
...and while it's not quite a blown call, the foul that sent Rumeal Robinson to the FT line in '89 was soft, I'll be honest.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:14 PM ^
Thank you for reminding me about Minor!! I remembered the individual play against MSU but couldn't remember who did it or when it was. I thought it was a game played in EL so I was looking at all the wrong highlight tapes. Very bizarre call. Of course we only get the benefit for our first td in a home rivalry game that we would lose
February 5th, 2020 at 2:45 AM ^
ya, the minor play blew my mind at the time, because they actually reviewed it. and still got the obvious call wrong.
February 5th, 2020 at 12:22 PM ^
Man I went to go post these three. You nailed it.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:10 PM ^
Forgot: sugar bowl, OT (I believe) play ruled a catch by VT but overturned for “bobblingly”.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:17 PM ^
Yup! I thought he didn't have it but that there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call
Even in our luckiest year of 2011, we got fucked on the road in Iowa City by taking away a late Michigan td. Either Roundtree or Hemingway caught it in the back of the end zone but they didn't give it to us
February 5th, 2020 at 2:46 AM ^
hemingway. it was a calvin johnson type overturn.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:22 PM ^
I don't know why people bring up 2005 PSU. Carr called timeout, the clock kept running, and he asked for the refs to reset the game clock, which they did. It would have been an injustice if they hadn't.
But in the 2002 PSU game, we dodged a bullet when a PSU receiver was wrongly ruled out of bounds late in regulation, and the game went to OT.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:36 PM ^
That reminds me of the 2015 MSU - Nebraska game
This is weeks after the fumble, but MSU loses a game when a Nebraska receiver runs out of bounds on his own and then comes back in to catch the winning td. It was the same crew as the Michigan MSU game so it made me smile that between this game and the Alabama CFP game AND going 3-9 the next year, MSU got the shaft pretty endlessly after the fumble
February 5th, 2020 at 11:25 AM ^
The confusion over the Johnson catch in the 2002 game was the ref messing up what had actually happened (shocker, I know.) Both feet were in bounds but he was bobbling the ball slightly while falling out of bounds. The ref called catch out of bounds and he should have called no catch. Either way, it's the same result. Still close, and terrifying in real time. A definite bullet dodged.
I just hated how Penn State nation tried to milk this "Refs against PSU" mentality after this game. Michigan was was flagged for more yards. Brian Scott mugged the sh*t out of Braylon Edwards on a long pass during our second TD drive and did NOT get flagged. In overtime, Zach Mills hiked the ball 2 seconds after the play clock had run out and did not get flagged for delay of game. PSU was rewarded a 1st & goal at the 9 yard line when they should have had 2nd & 15 at the 35.
In the 2005 game, Carr correctly argued for time to be put back on the clock and got the second. As a result, PSU nation was livid. But JoePa argued to get time back on the clock in the 1st half of that same game and they had no problem with that. Sooooo....hypocrites much?
February 5th, 2020 at 3:00 PM ^
The 2002 "two feet inbounds!" non-catch occurred right after the refs blew this 3rd and 12 "catch":
which Penn State fans somehow have all forgotten.
February 5th, 2020 at 6:40 PM ^
I'm crying, how the FUCK is that a catch? I had never seen that play before and I'm sure the rules regarding completed catches were looser in 02, but holy shit
February 4th, 2020 at 11:39 PM ^
Why are people negging you? Those are two good examples.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:41 PM ^
They were correct calls, and really nothing remarkable - the refs reset the game clock all the time, and WSU was idiotic to try to line up and spike the ball with 2 seconds left. Spikes normally take 3-4 seconds off the clock. They were trying to run up to the line of scrimmage, get set, snap and spike in one second. Dumb.
There was an actual blown call in the last minute but it went against us - Woodson was shoved to the ground on the long pass completion just before.
February 5th, 2020 at 10:51 AM ^
There was an actual blown call in the last minute but it went against us - Woodson was shoved to the ground on the long pass completion just before.
That is what I was going to mention. The WSU receiver pushed him in the back right in front of the ref, the ref then proceeds to take the flag out of his pocket and then signal a complete pass with the flag still in his hand. Just a horribly blown call, especially considering the ref saw it.
February 5th, 2020 at 12:42 AM ^
Rose Bowl runoff would not have been a thing without the absurdly missed OPI against Woodson. That negates any controversial play that happened next. So no, we got fucked first.
February 5th, 2020 at 2:49 AM ^
ya, plus a guy faked an injury on the play before i think. stopped the clock. he was laughing on the bench right in front of my seats.
February 5th, 2020 at 12:52 AM ^
Any semblance of discussion on the runoff is eliminated by the offensive pass interference which could have gone down as the most damaging blown call in my lifetime.
February 5th, 2020 at 1:43 AM ^
February 5th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
I'm not sure why people cite this one so frequently. After WSU's first down, the clock read 0:02. This means there were between 1.01 and 2 seconds remaining. How long does it take to:
-Blow whistle to put ball in play
-Snap the ball
-Spike the ball
-Blow whistle to end play ?
It's definitely more than one second. Perhaps not a full two, but they didn't have a full two seconds. Price should have called a play instead and taken the risk out. I have no idea why anyone would even use the word runoff here.
And yes, two plays earlier the blatant OPI would have obviously made it moot. Ref even pulled the flag out of his pocket, but instead marked the first down. But thinking about that further, would at least two Coaches/SIDs have voted Michigan #1 instead of Nebraska had the game ended with yet another interception by the Heisman Trophy winner, resulting in an outright title for Michigan? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Because if so, one could argue that it was the most impactful blown call in Michigan history.
February 5th, 2020 at 1:06 PM ^
Ever since the '98 Rose Bowl, I've paid attention to how long it takes to spike the ball. It seems that it almost always takes three seconds off the clock.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
The thing about the second against PSU is I feel like the replay they showed justified them putting back the two seconds though if I am remembering right.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:09 PM ^
This was nothing like a Spartan Bob situation.
With 32 seconds, Lloyd started signaling for a timeout. The refs blew the whistle but the timekeeper didn't stop it until there were 28 seconds. Lloyd then asked for time to be put back on and the officials agreed - but put two seconds back (to :30) when it actually should have been four. This kind of thing happens all the time. This was several plays before the finish.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:22 PM ^
It seems like a Michigan thing - as in State Of but no one gets it worse than Wolverines. The one that is most egregious in recent memory for M is the Higdon fake handoff where he gets tackled without the ball and Shea picks up the 1st but Higdon gets called for holding. When announcers are laughing and mocking your pathetic officiating live it's not good.
Lions eff jobs over the years are too many to name but the last two playoff games are indicative of how the NFL feels about certain teams vs others. We get an oops and an apology. Saints get a rule change. When Brady got hit low and knocked out - rule change.
Buster Posey gets knocked out for season - rule change. A rule that every player that's played baseball has understood since baseballs inception. Meanwhile Tigers get a top 10 all time blown call to screw a perfect game on the last out.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:28 PM ^
Tried to look at the positives because the list of negatives is so, so long
The Higdon play was probably the worst individual penalty I can remember. It's bad when the refs miss calls, it's INEXCUSABLE when they make things up like calling holding on a player on the ground. Unfortunately I think tonight was another example of a ref inventing a call when none was present
Imperfect game was a travesty but has its place in history and is usually mentioned when talking about perfect games. I think the Hall of Fame even asked for Gallaraga's glove
Can't even touch on the lions because that's such a whole other stratosphere of insanity. Only rule change they ever got was getting rid of an automatic penalty and no review if a coach challenged a scoring play. Why that rule existed, nobody knows. But leave it to the lions to get it called on them
February 5th, 2020 at 12:19 AM ^
So true my friend.
Desmond getting blatantly tripped in the end zone with a #1 ranking on the line.
http://umgoblue.com/Old/HTML/Football/90/90UMMSU.htm
Spartan Bob giving MSU an extra second to throw the game winning TD.
Referee John Gravelese whistling dead an OT goal by Michigan that would have sent them to the Frozen Four over Miami.
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/i-have-friend-who-hockey-east-referee
"Michigan coach Red Berenson said he was not given a reason why Lynch's goal did not stand.
"That's a tough one to swallow," Berenson said. "There's a loose puck in the crease and the referee blew the whistle because he was calling a penalty on them and yet, we had control - or were about to have control - of the puck."
The disallowed goal was just part of a dominating overtime performance when the Wolverines - who appeared gassed for much of the third period - outshot Miami 20-6. Besides Lynch's controversial disallowed goal, Rust hit the crossbar with a shot - all part of a collection of chances the Wolverines had to end the game and move on to their 24th Frozen Four appearance."
Trey Burke making the cleanest, most beautiful block of a layup in NCAA history but gets whistled for a foul during a critical, end-of-game situation.
www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2013/4/9/4204318/final-four-2013-louisville-referee
The OSU-Michigan "Spot Game" and overall screw job in 2016 at the Shoe
Gene Steratore taking an incredible 4 minutes and 25 seconds of review time to say that there was "indisputable evidence" that Purdue hit the ball off Matthews hand to give the game to Purdue, and take away any chance a 33 win Michigan team had of winning a regular season B10 championship.
www.mlive.com/wolverines/2018/01/inside_the_final_seconds_of_mi.html
These are just the iconic memorable screw jobs. There are many atrocious moments that are forgotten because they occurred in the early stages of games where the outcome would boil down to plays and possessions much later in the game.
Plays like the phantom Higdon hold or the fake DPI against ND:
www.mlive.com/wolverines/2018/10/jim_harbaugh_big_ten_admitted_1.html
or the overturned Ronnie Bell catch:
These relatively insignificant bullshit calls against Michigan pre-populate in Google searches!
And will continue on. Look no further than last month when Juwan picked up his second technical foul of the season because he was fed up. This, following a two-game stretch where Michigan was on the other side of a FT attempt differential that totaled -27 (!) and 25 (!) in favor of Minnesota and Iowa respectively!
Of course that nothing compared to the -38 FT differential Michigan had to deal with vs. MSU in all 3 of its losses to them the year before. You know, the same year when referees Paul Szelc and Lewis Garrison ejected John Beilein for the first time in 4 decades because he raised two fingers at them for a blatant missed blocking call against Simpson at the end of first half of a game vs. PSU:
https://twitter.com/bigtennetwork/status/1095510426417274881?lang=en
It's fucked up people. Wake the fuck up.
The "common sense crowd" always makes themselves feel better (and you and I to some extent) by saying, "yeah but, we should have shot the ball better, and if the receivers wouldn't have dropped so many passes, and if Michigan would have just buried that breakaway..."
Screw that shit. B10 officials hate UM. And yes, it did start with Bo calling Delaney a crook. That grudge has been passed along for 4 decades now. And will carry on as long as Delaney appointees like Bill Carollo and Rick Boyages are able to hire and assign the same cancerous group of B10 officials to our games.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-08-16-9003080807-story.html
www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-12-sp-489-story.html
Only way to stop it is to unify as a fanbase and boo the hell out of the officials until everyone notices and starts talking about it. Sadly, the names of "John O'Neill" and "Dan Capron" and "Terry Wymer" and "DJ Carstensen" and "Paul Szelc" and "Lewis Garrison" don't resonate with 95% of our fans who'd like to believe there is no bias because referring is something they cannot control.
Boo and boo often. Get salty. Don't give a shit what the "Michigan fans are whiners" and "you gotta play above it" crowd has to say.
February 5th, 2020 at 12:30 AM ^
Other fanbases don't realize to what extent the bullshit reaches
I was laughing my ass off at all the incredulous OSU fans believing they got screwed out of a championship game (that they would've gotten blown out in anyway) because a 50-50 call went against them for the first time ever (which was the right call, btw)
That was the first time OSU has ever been told no and they couldn't handle it. Michigan gets screwed like that every WEEK. We had the exact same play happen to us against army except it wasn't a pass, it was a ref blowing the play dead because he thought Metellus was on the ground when he wasn't. OSU would be in the big 12 right now if they got even half the calls Michigan gets screwed by on an annual basis
February 5th, 2020 at 12:38 AM ^
I’m pretty sure this thread was asking about bad calls that HELPED us. And the reason for it was to counter our having repeatedly rehashed the plays you cited. You don’t follow instructions, do you?
February 4th, 2020 at 11:25 PM ^
I remembered another terrible one
2013 Outback Bowl, middle of the 4th quarter, Michigan up by 1 goes for a fake punt on 4th and 4. They bring out the chains and Michigan is clearly short and they...award us the first down anyway?
Why does nobody remember this play? The Clowney play was the next snap. You can't make this shit up
February 5th, 2020 at 12:00 AM ^
This next one isn't a blown call, but just something that makes me laugh.
2013 northwestern firedrill fg could've easily been prevented if Fitzgerald literally subbed in anyone because we subbed in our whole fg unit and by rule the refs have to prevent the snap to allow for the defense to sub if the offense subs. We had no timeouts and literally got the snap off with less than a second to go. I know Fitzgerald gets a lot of praise because nw is a hard job, but he makes a lot of bad decisions and never even beat Hoke in games he was trying to lose
February 5th, 2020 at 12:48 AM ^
Adding another
2016 MSU, a freshman Devin Bush targets THE FUCK out of Chris Frey on a punt return. No penalty or even a review. Chris Frey went to my high school in Columbus and I can guarantee you he is a perfect fit in the Spartan Dawg culture. Bush went on to do bigger and better things his next visit to East Landfill...
February 5th, 2020 at 1:16 AM ^
The whole waiting for the defense to substitute rule didn't exist in 2013
February 5th, 2020 at 1:35 AM ^
Oh, is that true? What year was it in instated? I thought I remembered the announcers criticizing Fitzgerald during the game for that
February 5th, 2020 at 1:08 PM ^
Was going to post this! I actually remember it well because Spurrier was, justifiably, losing his shit. So I wasn’t even mad about the turnover, felt like a ball don’t lie moment
February 5th, 2020 at 6:41 PM ^
Was at the game behind the far endzone and could tell from there that we didn't get the first down
Amazing that karma gets Michigan back immediately but never touches OSU...
February 4th, 2020 at 11:35 PM ^
I want Warde to stand up for his school like Gene Smith does. The refs have a healthy fear of OSU. We get run over by refs more times than not.
February 4th, 2020 at 11:37 PM ^
Definitely amazed that the call tonight happened because this was probably the loudest I've ever heard Crisler. We were on the refs for bad calls all game and then in the most crucial moment when the arena was at its most tense, they do the opposite of swallowing the whistle. Unbelievable