Sunday, November 20, 2011

Dear UT Fans, It's Not You, It's the Refs

I want to be very clear that my rantings about the play that should never have been reviewed, and the whistle that was ignored, has nothing to do with Tennessee fans and is not designed to take anything away from the Volunteers' win. They won a hard-fought, if sloppy, game. Vanderbilt fans fell burned. That it happened against Tennessee makes it a little worse, but ultimately about Commodore fans feeling they've got to beat their oppoent and the officials.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

You do realize that if they had not ruled that a TD it would have been the incorrect call right? How are you getting beat by the officials when his knee never touched?

OldDore said...

Anonymous - you are missing the point completely.
The issue here is that the ref blew the whistle and then lied about doing so on the field. The human element of the game includes the refs. Regardless of the play or the outcome, the ref and the players need to stand behind the call that was made. The ref cannot change his mind and cover it up on the field. It is very likely that the UT would have gone on for the win anyway but that pick six should never have been allowed because the whistle blew and the play was dead, right or wrong.
Vandy fans are not mad at UT fans - it is a great rivalry but the SEC officiating is the worse that I have seen it in decades and Vandy fans are tired of it repeatedly going against us.

Anonymous said...

Ok, look at it this way then. Say they had allowed a terrible call to stand, Tennessee has to play the next possession but Vandy blocks their FG and scores. Would you then say you won because of the refs? After all it was a bad call to say his knee was down so the refs would have won you the game much as they lost it for you right?

Get over yourself. Your kickers are horrible and our QB threw the game away in regulation and OT.

Anonymous said...

*your QB

Anonymous said...

Stop whinning franklin, you are like a 3 year old throwing a temper tantrum

OldDore said...

I'm guessing this is a difficult concept for you to understand, but it's about integrity. Both integrity of the game and consistency in officiating. Good calls and bad calls happen but the refs need to stand by their call - not lie about it or change it.
Yes - Vandy was being outplayed and most likely would have lost anyways, but to state that a referee lied about a whistle and that it was OK because it was the right call anyways is moronic.

AspenVU said...

That's what happens when VU does not take a big lead and let's the other team hang around. Terrible kickers, poor special team decisions and JR doing his Cutler interception impression. Lost it in regulation with many chances including the last drive which should have led to a field goal.

At least the stadium was only 75% full of that ugly orange - that UT program has really fallen off.

Anonymous said...

AspenVU:Keep insulting the ugly orange. It has to be frustrating to see it around your own campus. Keep insulting our program....it has to be frustrating to see us fall off this bad and still watch the Vols beat the Dores year after year.

By the way, VU never "takes a big lead" nor does it "let other teams hang around". We are the ones who pull for you to come back and beat other teams when they let you hang around.

How one improved season changes things.

Anonymous said...

Let's not pretend that the "no whistle" play was the only questionable call/no-call. On the long pass play to 1 yd line, the receiver was pulled down from the back of the jersey. No horsecollar, no offsetting penalties. On the Waggner interception, he clearly gets there before the ball. No pass interference flag. By the book, the roughing the kicker call was correct. But on the very next play, Da'Rick Rodgers relieves himself of his defender. No flag. Any one of these and the game probably turns out differently.

Anonymous said...

@Anon (9:15):

Please review the game film against Kentucky and Ole Miss for big leads and the game film against Arkansas for letting another team stick around.

AD said...

Whistles blowing a play dead affect the players playing on the field in the moment. I didn’t stick around long enough to see enough replays to know whether Vandy defenders let up and otherwise could have caught the UT defender who recovered the ball, but that isn’t the sort of secondary judgment call replay officials should be making, and it’s why the on-field official likely correctly stated the scope of review as whether whistles blew the play dead. If the play had been blown dead, even if erroneously, we don’t get to imagine what would have happened had that erroneous whistle not been blown, even if that’s what it looks like we got here. That’s why the rule, as Shaw stated, is that a play is not reviewable if the whistle was blown, as it plainly was in this case.
http://aldland.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/moonshine-hangover-what-happened-at-the-end-of-vandyut-last-night/

Anonymous said...

I just don't understand why vandy fans feel they were robbed of a win. U should blame your qb for throwing a pick in ot. Not the refs fault u lost this one.

Dores will rule said...

UT fans are thr dumbest I ever see on these boards. What a bunch of ignorant, blind fools. They have no idea we are passing then by right before thier very eyes and will now not only own them in Baseball, but football and basketballl as well bwcause of their awful hires there the last few years. LMFAO

And BTW, should't you guys in orange be picking up trash on the roadside right now? Get of our boards you pukes!!!

KHH said...

Why can't UTers see that if they were in our shoes, they would feel the same way we all feel.

Apparently in SEC land, two wrongs do make a right!

We'll get 'em next time. I still believe!!! ALL IN!

Bobby O'Shea said...

There is no need to insult UT fans, their program, or school. This isn't about UT fans.

Anonymous said...

Always enjoyable beating the Vandoormats. UT played Charlie to Lucy in two games last season. Now it is time for VU to enjoy having the ball pulled out from under them.

A guide to winning for VU. Don't run into the kicker and don't throw a pick or a pick six in OT. Either way you guys were done. Whether there was a whistle or not the VOLS were getting the ball and had 4 downs to either get a TD or FG. Consider it a mercy ruling that your pain was ended then and not carried over to make it an even more painful loss for you guys.

Prior to this game I was a Franklin fan. After seeing his antics and hearing he declared "We'll be back you SOB's" to the fans I have no respect for him. Combine that with the cheap shot clipping shenanigans and Vu is turning out to be both losers and classless.

As for the being owned by VU in B-Ball. Didn't you guys lose a game to a no name team a few days ago?

Anonymous said...

Why do people only look at the game changing bad calls? How about the SAFETY call that went Vandy's way? or the roughing the passer that was not called when the Vandy linemen smacked Bray in the head? The fact is, is that Gordon's knee never touched, so even if he did blow the whistle, it was incorrect. Why would you stand behind a blatant horrible call?

VandyPhile said...

Just last week, we were told that the refs are calling late hits for when they deem the play over, even though no whistle has blown. Now they are saying that play continues even if the whistle is blown.
Either way, they messed up the last play. By rule, it should have been stopped before the TD, only because of the wrongly blown whistle (audible on the replay, even). It has happened to us several times in years past, just this way.
This seemed to be a pretty well called game.
Our mistakes killed us.
UT is still highly over-represented in the "obnoxious fan" category.

TPAIN said...

I think this point has been made in bits and pieces above, but we really need to be looking beyond the officiating when pointing the finger at the end of the loss. First it was a blown no-call for pass interference in the Florida game. Now it's complaining that the refs didn't make a bad call and allowed the correct result to play out on the field. I realize the point about the whistle blowing the play dead, but if that had happened it would have been a mistake. Vanderbilt needs to win games in which they are favored, not take them to overtime and allow it to be decided on a fluke, like a pick six, bad call, blocked field goal, missed field goal, whatever.

Winners don't complain about the officiating because they overcome bad calls. I think this is an important part of "changing the culture" of the team. This team is close and is getting better. But right now they are not finishers. Hopefully these are learning experiences that will make them a better, more experienced team next year.