Pwnn Wagers Would Like a Word

Boy, is this going to go really well....

“We haven’t said to them, gosh your toe was on it. We’re not going to be ridiculous,” said Steve Shaw, the SEC coordinator of officials. “What we’re saying to them is if you come out on the field of play and you protest a call, it’s unsportsmanlike.”

Pwnn Wagers would like to make sure you know this



wasn't his fault.
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Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

Or something:

"I didn’t say a word," Ganus said. "I just signaled incomplete and I saw a flag at my foot. I told someone else I’m not going to bash the refs. Coaches weren’t mad, so that’s a sign I probably didn’t do anything wrong."

I get it, but what Jake did is being done on nearly every play. It was a terrible call, at a terrible place in the game. That is the kind of call by ACC refs that gets Dawgnoxious very fired up.
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Shouldn't have made fun of the dog

Seriously.

Jasper was down.

And for good measure, to Hell with Tech.

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Pwnn Wagers' greatest hit

For my money, it was his awful step back looking for a reason to penalize Richt at Auburn in 2013.

What's your best worst Wagers call?
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A little something to get mad about

Was digging through some old post from last year when I found the .gif of Coach Richt getting Wagered...

Almost like Pwnn wanted Mark to take a poke at him.

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Jasper is up

Nice piece on Jasper Sanks in the AJC. Glad to see he is doing well as an explosives engineer in the oil industry. I have to assume he is past the things that got him booted from UGA.

There is also a documentary about his life coming out:

Sanks’ rise and fall as a football player — and the triumphant reconstruction project he executed to become an upstanding citizen — is the subject of an upcoming documentary.

The working title is a pretty good one: “Inches Away.”

Don't expect Dawgnoxious to go see it. It is still too soon for him.
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The QB Strike Zone

The SEC thinks they know how to protect QBs more: By defining the area of the body a defender can hit them when they are in a throwing posture. The area from below the neck to above the knee is the area a defensive player can hit an offensive player in a 'passing posture.'

The penalty will be called regardless if the QB is inside or outside the pocket. If a player is blocked into the passer, there will be no penalty called.

On paper, this is a pretty good idea. It puts defensive players on notice that if they lunge for a QBs knees as he's passing the ball, he's getting a penalty. Think Nick Fairley type plays. We have targeting the head penalty in place already. The problem arises from the judgement calls on where hits are and if a player was blocked into the passer. 

Remember, these are the same folks that called a targeting on Ray Drew for a hit, which was upheld upon review, which was neither above the neck, nor anything remotely near a hard hit. In fact, he backed off the last second:

I'm all for protecting players, but their is a certain...zeal...officials have for making these calls. These calls, mind you, often change the momentum of drives and games, given the length of the penalty and the award of a first down. The officials now have more decisions to make in a split second, all while the voice of conference commissioners are in their heads about 'protecting players,' which is a cover for 'reducing exposure to lawsuits.'

Yeah, I don't see how this goes badly at all.

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The SEC refines it's posture on targeting

Hooo boy. Steve Shaw spoke at media days. We all knew that the Ramik Wilson amendment was coming on the targeting penalty. Now, if targeting is over turned, the 15 yard penalty and the ejection is over turned. But Steve Shaw wants his guys protected, too:

"Any time there's a targeting foul, you need to really listen to the referee's announcement," he said. "What you will hear ... makes all the difference for replay. If you hear him announce, 'Personal foul, roughing the passer with targeting,' now regardless of the review, that 15-yard penalty is going to stand for roughing the passer. Same thing with kick/catch interference with targeting, late hit with targeting. In that announcement, if there are multiple components to the targeting foul, the 15-yard penalty will stay in."

If I'm reading that right, the officials can now name two penalties, just to cover themselves. Go back and review Ramik's hit in the Vandy game:



What would Pwnn Wagers call?
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On the targeting penalties

In an effort get ranting about stuff that has nothing to do with Georgia's team and what they can do to improve, ect., I need to get this off my chest about the targeting rule.

The NCAA needs to tell Rogers Redding to kiss their ass and stop worrying about the officials' feelings. That is the source of not overturning the penalty on the targeting calls. That is the only reason. Either there is a penalty or their isn't. Yet Redding was able to convince the NCAA member schools that you can't have a replay official over turning judgement penalties from the booth. Oh, you can say it didn't happen, but the penalty still stands.

In my mind, this is a far more dangerous to "the game" than players celebrating. This goes beyond player safety. In fact, the rule, while good in that it can help with player safety, as applied is probably not helping, because it is getting called extremely inconsistently.

Ray McGuiness told CBS that Ray Drew's call would have been overturned if he'd wrapped up the QB or just held up a little. Really? Getting pushed down (note: not hit in the head or with a player by his head or blindsided, for that matter) isn't safer than having a 300 lb man put you on the dirt with his full weight. How does an official or a replay official tell if a player 'held up' a little? On Ramik's penalty, the official who was less than five yards and looking directly at the play unfold in front of him never reached for his flag. The official who threw the flag was 20 yards away. And nealy three seconds after the play was over.

Then to still penalize the team for a penalty that gets over turned on replay is asinine. Just asinine. The flag on Ramik changed the whole complexion of the game. Yes, he stayed in the game, but Vandy gets a first down and fifteen yards for free on a non-penalty when they hadn't converted on fourth down .

Think about that.

The schools or conferences need to step up and fix that. Tell Redding to shut up. The game officials are prone to error and that's fine and all. I can accept that. I can't accept a rule that gives great latitude to officials, that is reviewable, but still doesn't remedy all the error.

That is asinine.
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-SEC Statement on targeting rule (Emmerson)

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Targeting

Yeah.

I'm just now getting to see this. Oh my. Just. Oh my.

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Quinton Dial's hit on Murray

Not saying this was a determining point in the game, but had it taken Murray out, it absolutely would have been, but an official five yards away missing (or not calling) penalties like this is how Georgia got penalized 7 times to Alabama's 2.


Also, don't question Murray's heart after that hit.

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Vandy Penalties Revisited

One of the things I talked about was the mindset of Georgia considering the penalties we racked up last year and how much we let them punk us into terrible penalties. This game, we did much better.

Penalties: Number-Yards: 

Vandy 11-68 vs. Georgia 7-47     

Considering they came in the game averaging just a bit over 4 penalties per game, it isn't hard to see Georgia did a better job of handling themselves. Vandy got hosed on one call (the roughing the punter) but completely got away with tackling Mitchell despite his clearly calling for the fair catch on a punt, so things equaled out.

As an aside, how can you, as an official, not immediately throw a flag when a Georgia punt returner is tackled. We fair catch somewhere in the neighborhood of 105% of all punts. Do these guys not watch game film?

Overall, Vandy got whistled for six false start/off sides/substitution penalties. They picked up the aforementioned roughing the punter. Most importantly, they picked up an unnecessary roughness at the worst possible time, killing Vandy's most impressive offensive drive of the night. They didn't bait Georgia into making dumb decisions.

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Florida-Tennesse Game or Why I Think It is Ok to Root for the Mayans to be Right

This is a weird week. CBS isn't covering Florida at Tennessee. They will be at Alabama-Arkansas, a game they picked many weeks ago, and I am sure they'd like to have the option to reconsider that decision. The coaches aren't smack talking. It seems that my father's always prophetic 'the sun don't shine on the same dogs ass every day' is now true. This ain't your 2000 Tennessee-Florida game. Both are rebuilding and both are looking to show they belong back at the top of the SEC East.

Still. Still, I can't find myself wanting one team to lose more than the other. Perhaps it is because this game always (well, almost always) has been the first SEC game of the season for either. Needing one team to lose has a way of making strange rooting interest. I honestly don't want either team to win. I want them both to lose. Badly, if at all possible. A 32-30, quintuple overtime game that ended at 9-9 in regulation would suit me.

So, I guess I hope Pwnn Wagers is in Knoxville and finds a way to penalize both teams into the stone ages. Oh, and I hope Dooley's hair gets mussed. That would be awesome.

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New Rules for Penn Wagers to Piss People Off With

There will be some significant rule changes going forward in 2012. Some rules make sense, see numbers 3 and 4. Other are ripe for abuse misinterpretation.

Misunderstood or Public Enemy?

The five new rules, in order of likelihood that Penn Wagers and his crew will be the subject of a segment on The Finebaum Show over:

1. Interference with the kick returner - We aren't having a halo rule. Except we are having a halo rule. Coverage players can't get within a yard of a returner until he fields the ball. The odds of this becoming an issue rank up there with Brian Van Gorder being cast as an extra in Boogie Nights 2 - Straight to Betamax.
2. Punt blocking – Players have to politely excuse themselves around the punter's personal blockers when they are attempting to block the kick. A 15 yard penalty and a mandatory subscription to the Rogers Redding's podcast on French Colonoscopic Techniques if you try to, you know, go over or through them.
3. Vandy, no more clipping and we mean it! – Offensive players can't go toward their own goal line and block below the waist.  I like to call this the 'Vandy and Georgia Tech are going to get called on this alot' rule.
(Video Credit: AJC)
4. Helmet Rule – Players must leave the game for one play if their helmets come off for any reason outside of live contact or penalty, and a 15 yard penalty will be assessed if a helmet comes off for any reason and the player continues that play. This will encourage players to keep their helmets tightly strapped and properly securred. This will also kill a nice little drinking game we have for when my wife goes bezerk over said helmets popping off during a play. Double points were awarded for when the same player has it happen twice in a series. 
5. Kickoffs – Teams will kickoff from the 35-yard line. Teams will start drives after a touch-back on the 25 yard line. Now, instead of asking a guy to kick it out of the endzone, we will ask them to not kick it out of the endzone. Probably to a corner where they can be covered better. You know it isn't hard. Just kick it to that corner. The kicker has to do it right for the scheme to work! /pokes eye out

I'd love to see Evil Richt get rung up a time or two, though

Also, officials will focus on coach's sideline behavior. That does not bode well for Spurrier, Saban or New Vandy™.

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Football 101

Not sure if you are familiar with Football 101, the day long camp for women football fans held in June in Athens with the coaches. If you aren't, it is a day long session to familiarize ladies with the finer points of football. The proceeds are used to build a scholarship fund in the program's name in women's athletics at UGA. The wife participated this year and had a blast.

We just watched the video put together by the fantastic video coordinators in the football program.  There are a couple of thoughts that come to mind:

• Women are inherently better defensive players than offensive players. There were a couple of picks, including a terrific read of a short pass that a linebacker read the play and jumped the route. She picked off the pass, then out ran Garner to the end zone, complete with a high step and end zone dance that I'm pretty sure Penn Wagers instinctively threw a flag on during his shift at Rogers Redding's Radio Shack.
• I wish Mike Bobo would be as invested in getting an advantage in games as he is in doing so at Football 101. If he were, we'd make Mike Leach embarrassed with all the scoring.  
• Joe Terrishinski is much more cuddly on Betamax DVD than he seems in person.
• The Beat Tech pump up video should never be anything but quotes from Sting Talk, pictures of Ben Jones with turf in his mouth, and female Georgia fans.

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"Jasper was down!"

I only post this to give Dawgnoxious a chance to use one of his favorite lines.

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(h/t @ThinkingBulldog)

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Hookers and Blow?

"I'll bury these coaching cockroaches," said Redding.*
From the two day old news bin, I have to ask. What exactly has the SEC been spending it's $2.5 billion on if not HD TVs for the replay officials to view the games? If Slive and Redding are spending ESPN's money on coke and whores, I give them style points. But it's likely nothing so cool.

If we're saving that cash for a rainy day, look around fellas. It's raining. At least on your refs. I literally refuse to watch sports on a standard non-HD set...at a bar. And when I'm at a bar, I'm drinking with my head on a swivel looking for hot chicks...and barely paying attention to the TV to start with. I certainly wouldn't run my business through a standard TV.

I would be more indignant about this, but Slive and Redding won't read a blog posting. The Internet is a fad.

PWD


*Obviously not.

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