I'm sorry if you don't think this deserves it's own thread, but I just have something I need to be talked off the ledge about.
Let me preface this by saying I blame Mario, the staff, and the players 100.0% for the loss on Saturday. We're having a lot of discussion about refs, and this is another, so I get the inevitable rolling of the eyes on this thread in general. But this game wasn't lost by the refs, it was lost by our braindead coaches and players. But I need to explain, because I'm a little confused here.
I personally know an ACC official. He's a friend of friends, but we know each other fairly well, have spent time together and conversed plenty. He didn't do the game Saturday, but he has done games in the past. I haven't spoken to him since the spring, but in the past we have had discussions about his job, overall. I asked him about how the officials are graded, among many other things. And one thing he told me is, as you'd expect, every call or non-call is graded, but one of the "harshest" grades you can get is by making a call that is wrong or unnecessary. The example he used for me is, if there's a quick screen or sweep left, and you call a hold on the right tackle, it better be the world's worst hold, because it really has no impact on the play. Basically even if the RT wasn't even there, or never got out of his stance, the defender over him isn't making the play. And that makes sense. He didn't say this part verbatim, but the way I pretty clearly understood it was, they want you to err on the side of "non-calls" versus making calls that are borderline or bad that impact games.
So, to the tin foil hat part. I am NOT a conspiracy theory guy. At all. Maybe I'm a moron for that, but it is what it is. And when I watch Miami games, I genuinely try to watch them through non Orange and Green glasses. I'm almost never the guy who complains about refs. I try to be impartial. I'm also not trying to let this NBA stuff cloud my judgement. No, to be clear, I do not think everything is rigged. But watch this ******* play. It's 3rd and 8. The entire world knows, if Miami converts, the game is over. They have no timeouts. This is literally, 100.0%, the play of the game. If you were going to make a call or non-call to impact a game, this sure seems like the one to do it on. And back to what I said, these guys are being coached/taught to NOT throw needless flags.
If one person here can tell me with a straight face that this is a hold, kind of a hold, maybe a hold, or one ref on one planet in the entire solar system would even be confused and call this a hold, I will gladly delete this thread. But....this isn't a hold. It's not even close to a hold. It can't accidentally be interpreted as a hold. Remember, these are the refs who watch our games live. They watch tape of our games. They watch Bain get held on almost every single snap, and almost never call it. So, if you watch him all game long, and swallow the whistle, that's cool. But you CANNOT call this bull****. Not on 3rd and 8 with the literal game in the balance.
So, watch this if you have a minute and give me your opinion. As a total non-conspiracy theory guy, am I out of my mind for being REALLY ******* suspicious of this?
