September 15, 2013
Official Fail
The set up: Wisconsin is trying to center the ball on first down, with the intention of spiking the ball and bringing out the FG unit. The problem is without time outs, you are at the mercy of the officials to set the ball in a timely manner, which the officials were clearly in no hurry to do. Wisconsin kneels with 15 sec on the clock. Arizona State jumps on the ball.
In the confusion (which should have been managed better by the officials), the ball doesn't get set to play for over 13 seconds, with the official standing over the ball and holding back Wisconsin's defense for the last five of those. We can place the blame on Wisconsin's decision here, but the game officials have to have more urgency in this situation. They train on end of game situations such as this.
Oh, and Arizona State probably could have been flagged for delay of game, but that is quibbling.
Outside of a reprimand of the officials of the Pac-12 crew, nothing will happen. Not saying they did anything intentionally wrong, but you have to give teams a chance to do their thing in this situation.
TD
