Referees

[hico125]

Where do I start. Let me say first I enjoyed the game tonight even though the outcome was not what I wanted. I felt the officiating could have been the worst job I have ever seen and I have seen a lot of games. Shortly after the game started and McKenzie was flagged for block in back and a PF the officials took 10 minutes to make the call and figure the correct spot. They were very slow to stop the play once a players progress was stopped. This went both ways. I think both teams were fortunate not to have anyone hurt. I thought once we got this far in the playoffs you got the better crews.

 

Hats off to Lewis Co.'s defense. Coach Spivey did an outstanding job in preparation for this game and his kids did a great job tackling and wrapping up.

 

Good luck to Lewis Co. next week

[donhaney]

I will agree with you 100%... This crew of officials was clueless. And this is coming now from a McKenzie and Lewis County fan. As hico125 stated, just minutes into the game, the crew called a holding on the Rebels. After the play was over, they called an unsportsmanlike penalty on the Rebels. The holding would have made it 1st and 12 and then with it being a dead ball foul, an additional 15 yards would have made it first and 27 yards. They moved the chains and all back several yards and spotted it first and ten for McKenzie which set off a comical ten minutes!

 

Coach Sharp of Lewis County called a timeout and asked to speak to the referee who told Coach Sharp that you could not have a first and 25 in high school? That was his words... "you can't have a first and 25 in high school." The debate continued for several minutes until the umpire finally convinced the crew and referee of their luncacy and corrected the call.This took at least ten minutes.

 

As for the rest of the game, I thought that they were totally out of sync with everything. And please don't accuse me of being a "homer"... We won the game and had 30 yards of penalties while McKenzie had almost 90 yards in fouls but the fact of the matter is that they looked like a bunch of "b-team" officials trying to get their practice games in, no offense to any "b=team" crews who could have worked wonders around these guys!

 

They were out of position.. they were slow to react and just looked like a bunch of beginners? For the life of me I can't understand how the TSSAA or whoever assigns these officials can not find functional, intelligent and better than average crews when you get into the second round of the playoffs?

[hico125]

Don, that is amazing that they don't even know the rules of HS football. Good luck to ya'll next week. You will see lots of speed.

[bigwes68]

Where was this crew from? I'm an official myself, but I can't believe that someone that incompetent would be officiating a playoff game. I remember my senior year of high school we were playing at Bruceton and we had a crew from Memphis. You could tell that one of the guys had either never set foot on the field or had never worked at umpire, because he had no idea how many yards to mark off on penalties. I am not making this up, I think we had a couple of 7-yard penalties called on us in that game. Not like it mattered, we lost by 40, but he was totally incompetent.

[donhaney]

HA HA Big Wes..... I spoke with our A.D. before the game and he told me that the referee was from Memphis for "tonight's game" so I assume that the entire crew was from Memphis. I wonder if they play by high school rules in the bluff city?

 

By the way, we enjoyed having the McKenzie fans at Panther Stadium tonight but it seemed like your crowd was down quite a bit from two years ago?