MrSEC.com Q&A With The SEC’s Coordinator Of Officials

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Rogers Redding has become a popular man this week.  That’s not unusual, as the SEC’s Coordinator of Officials, Redding’s phone rings each and every time there’s a debatable call in a Southeastern Conference football game.

As we all know, last year resulted in more interviews with Redding than he likely would have preferred.  At least this year, his crews stayed out of the spotlight until October.  Considering the number of calls each week, that’s actually quite a feat.

For those of you who read this site regularly, you know a few things about our views on referees, officials and the art of officiating:

1.  Officiating in every sport is said to be worse now not because it actually is, but because fans now have the technology to second guess officials from the comfort of their recliner.  Fifty years ago, the end of Saturday’s Tennessee-LSU game would have played out over the radio and the story would have died down by Sunday evening.  Twenty-five years ago, the interception call in last year’s Alabama-LSU game would have been made… and then everyone would have moved right along to the next play.  But now we have instant replay (both at the games and on television), 10 camera angles per play, super slow-motion technology, and TiVos to catch the action at home.  We also have the internet and call-in shows to share our views, complaints and questions.  And the views shared via some of these media are just flat wrong, which only leads to more confusion and more complaining.  There has always been human error when it comes to officiating, but only now do we have the technology to see in slow-mo on TV what officials on the field might not be able to see in real time.

2.  We’re not big on crying.  Each team has numerous chances to win a game.  One call might go against a team, but one call can not beat a team.  Missed tackles, dropped passes, and failed third down conversions all play into a loss.  Aside from Colorado getting a fifth down against Missouri in 1990, there haven’t been many cases where we believe it can be definitively stated: “The refs cost that team the game.”

3.  Most people who scream about a “blown call” would not be screaming if the situations were reversed.  Example: If Tennessee had beaten LSU in the exact same fashion as the Tigers’ won on Saturday, no one in the Volunteer State would be frame-by-framing their TiVos three days later.  Instead, they would be calling LSU fans — who would be the ones screaming — sore losers.  That fan filter skews any honest discussion of officiating.

All that said, we wanted to tackle some of the issues from Saturday’s game with Redding ourselves.  He was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about the end of Saturday’s Tennessee-LSU game.  No doubt Georgia fans will be interested in these responses as well, considering their own end-of-game experience in their team’s game with LSU last year.

And before you scoff and suggest that the SEC’s top official would never do anything but support his refs, please remember that the SEC went so far as to suspend one of its crews last season.  In our view, that gives Redding’s comments quite a bit more credence.


MrSEC.com:  What does the rule book state with regards to the umpire allowing a team time to bring defensive personnel onto the field?

Redding:  The rule in question (Rule 3-5-2-e) specifies how this situation should be handled, when the offense is at the line and then makes substitutions: “The game officials will not permit the ball to be snapped until Team B (the defense) has placed substitutes in position and replaced players have left the field.  Team B must react promptly with its substitutes.


MrSEC.com:  Did the game officials on Saturday handle the timing correctly?

Redding:  Absolutely.  The action of the crew is a perfect textbook example of how this rule should be used.  (This play will be shown on a national officiating training video as an exemplar of this procedure.)  The umpire stood at the ball until he received a signal from the referee, who accurately determined that no more subs were coming in for either team and that the defensive players on the field were giving no indication of going to the sideline.  The video clearly shows that the defense was “set,” albeit with 13 players.



MrSEC.com:  LSU center T-Bob Hebert tossed his helmet in frustration on the final play.  No flag was thrown.  Why was a flag not thrown?  The spirit of the rule?  The letter of the rule?

Redding:  Several points are to be made.  One, the video shows that in addition to the LSU player having his helmet off, several Tennessee players also took their helmets off.  So if — and it is a huge if — the officials were to call a foul for helmet removal, there would have been fouls against both teams, which would offset, and the foul for the extra defensive players would have been the only operative action.  Whether the ball was still alive or not makes no difference, for these fouls are administered as if they had taken place after the ball had become dead.

Two, the letter of the rule is that unsportsmanlike conduct may be ruled if a player removes his helmet before he is in the team area.

Three, the spirit of the rule is this: the statement in #2 is in the section on Unsportsmanlike Acts, which requires the officials to make a judgment whether the act itself was carried out in an unsportsmanlike manner.  Officials nationwide are trained to allow a player a brief, spontaneous, sudden human expression of emotion without interpreting this as unsportsmanlike.  When the behavior goes “over the line” as being demeaning, taunting, vulgar, etc, then it is flagged as a foul.  Given the intense emotions at that point in this game, to have called fouls for the many helmets being off would have the height of irresponsible and hyper-technical officiating.  Our officials did nothing in response to the helmets, which was precisely the right non-action.


MrSEC.com:  Last season, Alabama’s Terrence Cody removed his helmet after a field goal attempt was blocked (against Tennessee) on the final play of that game.  No flag was thrown on that occasion, either.  Does the same reasoning apply to one as the other?

Redding:  Yes, the same principle and interpretation is involved in the two situations.


MrSEC.com:  Video shows that Hebert tossed his helmet before the final fumble was recovered in last Saturday’s game.  End zone video also shows that some Tennessee players tossed their helmets (in celebration) after the fumble was recovered.  Some in the Volunteer State believe that Hebert should have been hit with a dead-ball penalty (if at all).  Comments on that scenario?

Redding:  I addressed this above.  This is another example of why people should be absolutely certain of a rule before they jump to conclusions about whether a situation was or was not administered correctly.


MrSEC.com:  The league took some heat after a celebration call late in last year’s LSU-Georgia contest.  Did the furor surrounding that call lead the league to take a more “spirit” of the rule approach on these types of ticky-tack penalties that could change a game’s outcome?

Redding:  Nationally, the administration of fouls for unsportsmanlike conduct continues to be a work in progress.  The conference and the national officiating organization are on the same page regarding this topic, and we continue to stay in tough with colleagues around the country about the issue.  The conference is very comfortable where we and national football officiating are on this situation.



Just as a visual aide for all of this, a snapshot from Saturday’s CBS broadcast appears at left.  If you click the headline of this story, you will see the picture in larger form.

You will notice that LSU’s T-Bob Hebert (far left of the photo) is removing his helmet as Tennessee’s Nick Reveiz and LSU’s Jordan Jefferson dive to recover the fumble (at the 18 yard line).  To the right and top of the photo, you will notice that Tennessee offensive players Da’Rick Rogers (#21) and Jarrod Shaw (#74) along with coach Derek Dooley (in white, far right) were already well onto the field of play before fumble had been recovered.