Higdon hold call worst you have ever seen?
That was legimately the worst call I have ever seen in my 20 years of watching college football. Also can we please have someone blast the big ten officials publicly for the lack of holding calls on UM's dline, it is ridiculous at this point. Big ten officials are by far the worst in the country and it is not even close
September 29th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
I already called out Delaney and his consistently biased calls against Michigan and mods deleted it.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:33 PM ^
So Delaney has bought Brian and his cronies too?
September 29th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^
Did he fund MGoBlog 3.0???
September 29th, 2018 at 10:20 PM ^
Sorry, it was kind of caught in the need to clear out for the Snowflake Threads. In retrospect, there really should be a Snowflake thread for the officiating. Actually, I was thinking about it but didn't create one. Your thought probably would have spurred a lot of discussion there. My bad.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:42 PM ^
Who’s the side judge that threw the flag?
September 30th, 2018 at 12:30 AM ^
The Head Linesman needs to be looked at for his calls. He made a few bad ones in the game that could’ve changed the outcome. I think he was also the guy who stop the play with 6 seconds to go because the refs weren’t in position.
October 1st, 2018 at 12:06 AM ^
I’ve reached a point where I honestly believe some of these refs were trying to fix this game. I don’t know how to explain it any other way. I don’t know what they’re paid by the Big Ten, but it’s not enough. Whomever paid them must have wanted a money line because they had the 14.5 point spread covered already.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
At this point we basically have to overcome the other teams and roughly 100 yards of penalties every game.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
Did ref get the player number wrong? And it was someone else?
only explanation I can think of.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:41 PM ^
I was wondering that too, but from the camera angle of the TV there was no holding anywhere.
I think Higdon got tackled by a defender who thought he had the ball and somehow the ref thought that Higdon held him.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:42 PM ^
Dean Blandino tweeted that the ref must have gotten the teams confused when he made the call.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:32 PM ^
That's the only viable explanation - even the announcers were calling it a phantom call.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^
I love me some Joel Klatt!!
September 29th, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
The refs in a Lions game did that and called hands to the face against the Lions on this play:
https://www.totalprosports.com/2016/12/11/jeff-triplette-calls-hands-to-face-on-lions-ol-who-did-absolutely-nothing-video/
I can't decide whether that, or "holding" on a guy who's being tackled on a successful fake, is a more egregiously shitty call.
September 30th, 2018 at 9:18 AM ^
I understand maybe getting teams confused on a Saturday morning in a JV game, but not in a fucking Big Ten game.
Mistakes happen, but this was the worst call of all time.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:45 PM ^
Yes. Looked like Eubanks, who pulled across and was on the left side of the field (the linesman on that side is the one that threw the flag), reached out to grab the shoulder pad of one of the NW DL.
At least it looked like he tried to grab the shoulder pad. Instead all he got was a slap on the guy's shoulder. So he got 10 yards for attempted holding. I'm sure it looked like it was going to be holding to the official, but the guy didn't get impeded or spun.
I think the no-call on Winovich with 10 seconds left was as bad.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:32 PM ^
Eubanks never touched anyone on that play. They couldn’t have possibly thrown the flag on him.
September 29th, 2018 at 10:23 PM ^
It's more plausible than Higdon, who the ref couldn't see, and who was under a pile of players. I agree that Eubanks didn't hold anyone; the only reasons I think the ref called it on him are that his number also ends in 2; he is also black and so is more easily confused for Higdon than, say, Jon Runyan; and he reached out in a way that could have seemed like holding from 30 yards away if he had actually been able to lay more than a fingertip on the guy.
It's still a terrible call on Eubanks, but more in the range of "really bad call" compared to "made up bullshit" if it was truly Higdon.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:36 PM ^
That call on Winovich was just as bad.
I was going to say way worse, but I realized that neither call could be any worse than it already is.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
Harbaugh said he asked the ref and the ref said Higdon held the LB as he was going down.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^
Higdon must have an extra set of invisible hands then. Either that or that ref was on some good acid.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:41 PM ^
Or maybe some bad acid?
October 1st, 2018 at 8:07 AM ^
Nah. If it had been acid, then the penalty would have been called on number Square Root of 47 for holding the fuzzy purple dragon.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:14 PM ^
How can you hold a guy that is tackling you and both are falling down?
September 29th, 2018 at 11:13 PM ^
Apparently with invisible hands.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:30 PM ^
If he actually said that then yes, that is the worst call I've ever seen, at any level of football.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:52 PM ^
No. I went back and watched that a good dozen times and there was no holding anywhere near that (or at all). It wasn’t somewhere off screen because of where the flag was thrown down. Just a ghost call, plain and simple. There were two on punt returns that were almost just as bad.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:15 PM ^
Jim said he asked if they were sure it was on Higdon and the red confirmed it was holding on the running back.
September 30th, 2018 at 11:58 AM ^
Nope. Harbaugh got immediate clarity just so they couldn’t change it later to cover their ass. The ref clarified the hold was on Michigan running back #22.
I looked here because I had a question regarding this...
So I know the school can put in an inquiry to the conference to get clarity on specific calls. Does the public have access to this? If so I’d ewally like to hear this explanation as well as why the ref made Bush move from his spot in the last game (is the coaches request clarity there too)
September 30th, 2018 at 2:26 PM ^
I agree. Absolutely, wrong call on Higdon. I have watched that replay a dozen times and I don't see Higdon holding. Watching the replay I did see what looks like a hold from Gentry, not Higdon. Ref got so excited he could call holding on Michigan he got the wrong player.
video at: https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2018/09/many_michigan_fans_say_higdons.html
September 29th, 2018 at 8:38 PM ^
Make up for the defensive holding we got away with
September 29th, 2018 at 8:45 PM ^
And the play where Winovich got tackled?
September 29th, 2018 at 9:10 PM ^
I was sure they we going to call an illegal formation for Higdon's TD run for 6 men on the line. It sure looked like it.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:24 PM ^
I had the same thought, Collins definitely wasn't on the LOS when he was supposed to be.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
Not having 7 men on the LOS has become an odd flag. I recall that being called on the RR teams during his first few years but sometimes it gets missed by the linesmen - several times at the Nebraska game, there were triple wideouts for the Huskers that weren't quite lined up.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:40 PM ^
I have never seen a RB take a fake hand off.. be tackled.. and called for holding in my thirty plus years of watching football...
take into consideration the non hold call against Hutchinson last week and the non holding call against chase on the third down this week and you can’t tell me there is not a problem with big ten officials
September 29th, 2018 at 9:10 PM ^
Was last week's crew B1G? Honest question, I think I saw conflicting reports. EDIT: Duh. I forgot that last week was Nebraska. Or maybe I'm just so old I forgot Nebraska was now in the Big Ten. My bad.
I mean there are so many things going at least as far back as OSU 2016. I think it's pretty clear that, consciously or not, the refs play against us. And the B1G obviously plays against us - just look at our schedule.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:17 PM ^
We played Nebraska and it was o'neill's crew... are you trying to make a joke or something?
September 29th, 2018 at 9:18 PM ^
Yeah last week was B1G. John O'Neill's crew I believe.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:21 PM ^
Yep, was O'Neills crew. Think that tells you all you need to know about big ten officiating when you start remember names so easily
September 29th, 2018 at 9:42 PM ^
O'Neil is such a joke. It's like his goal in life is to ruin every game he officiates.
I can only imagine spending my entire life practicing something and being that horrible at it. Of course, he is such a douchebag he probably thinks he is totes awesome.
September 29th, 2018 at 10:03 PM ^
If ruining every games he officiates is his goal in life, then he is incredibly successful.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:21 PM ^
Well - then we've seen two amazing calls that you'll probably never see again in a century of football. (1) A second illegal forward pass that results in a penalty leading to a safety, and (2) a ball carrier being tackled and taken down but called for holding.
I can imagine in some option plays where a fake to a FB then has that some FB grab the DE or LB being optioned when the defensive player realizes that he doesn't have the ball, but the defensive player was the tackler.
Referring is hard - and a thankless job in most cases. But even they must cringe at these types of calls.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:40 PM ^
Almost as bad as the holding call on Higdon was the non call for tackling Winovich.
September 29th, 2018 at 8:51 PM ^
Oooooo boy if Northwestern pulled out a miracle at the end that non-call on Winnovich would be driving me crazy!
September 29th, 2018 at 9:25 PM ^
I almost wonder if Chase talks a lot on the field. There simply isn’t an explanation for his inability to draw a holding penalty.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:52 PM ^
Refs don't appreciate all the heart-eating
September 29th, 2018 at 10:21 PM ^
Doesn't matter. Officials are SUPPOSED to be professional enough to not turn flags into a personal weapon. That disqualifies them (or should) from their position.
September 29th, 2018 at 9:58 PM ^
Wonder? You don’t see/watch him? He does a great deal of chattering and constant communication and is relatively active with the refs.