Curse or conspiracy?

http://www.georgiadogs.com/images/2017/7/20/UGA_Football_28Sept2013_1027Pe_2798016713_O.jpg

The Georgia Way

I don't know when it happened or who we ticked off, but at some point in the history of our great state, we were the unfortunate recipients of a sports curse. Doomed to decades of misery, fans of nearly every Georgia sports team are teased year after year with victory and elation, only to be crushed in the worst way at the very worst times. (I will spare you the residual heartbreak of having to read the list I had planned to type here of all the examples I could come up with.)  But for this year's Georgia football team, it just seemed...different. The season had gone amazingly well after getting off to what could have been a disastrous start with an injury to the starting quarterback.  The Rose Bowl double overtime victory seemed to indicate that the curse may have finally been broken. Even in the National Championship, Georgia got off to an electric and dominating start.  But true Georgians knew not to get too comfortable.  We had been here before--almost the exact same spot. I had flashbacks to that SEC Championship game over and over during Monday's game. I tried not to think about the most recent Super Bowl collapse. My husband says I'm negative.  I prefer to call myself a realist.  As a lifelong fan, I've learned to sense when things are about to unravel. I'm sure many of you have, too. My cautious optimism about Monday's game couldn't completely hide my sneaking suspicion that we were about to be in for a familiar heartbreak. When did my optimism really begin to fade? When the Big Ten officiating crew was announced. 

My crazy theory...

I would hate to be on the playoff committee.  Talk about a terrible position to be in...someone is constantly going to be mad at you. UCF, the entire Big Ten Conference, to name a few. The Big Ten is peeved because they barely got left out of the playoffs. Do I understand the frustration? Yes. Do I think they have a valid argument? No. But they're mad, y'all. So I don't think I really have to go into detail about what I think happened Monday night. (hint: evil plan, manipulation...) I'm not huge on conspiracy theories, but this is one that has actually been around a while. The head referee for Monday night's game was none other than Daniel Capron. What's so significant about him, you ask? Take a look at this article from The Purdue Exponent that claims Capron was dismissed by Jim Delany in 2002 for "not meeting Big Ten standards."  This took place after Wake Forest beat Purdue 24-21 in a game supposedly marred by multiple officiating errors. Fast forward to 2016, and Daniel Capron is back to stir up some more drama when he works the Michigan vs. Ohio State game. How and when he is reinstated is a mystery to me. Either way, the bitter rivalry game had playoff implications, as Ohio State's controversial overtime victory stamped their ticket to the semifinals. Read more about the missed call, the rest of the officiating crew for that game (spoiler alert: the other officials were Ohio natives), and Harbaugh's meltdown here.  Also note that the article's title mentions a conspiracy theory. Just saying...

Back to Monday night's game, you can read all over the internet about the pretty obvious missed calls from the game, so I'm not going into major detail again here. I just want to make a comment regarding many people's claim that "it wasn't the refs' fault" and that Georgia "had plenty of chances to win regardless of the bad calls and couldn't put it away."  True, even without the questionable calls, Georgia had a chance in overtime to make a stop and couldn't (thanks to Alabama's "perfect from close range" kicker and the announcers who jinxed him). BUT consider the momentum swings caused by those calls that could have sealed the game for Georgia and prevented overtime altogether: 

• Blocked punt negated by wrongful offside call- Georgia has the ball in the red zone and scores AT LEAST 3 more points 
• Missed face mask call- Georgia has a first down close to midfield instead of a three and out. Alabama scored on their following drive to make the score 13-7.
• Jake Fromm shoved in head, no call- This one infuriates me the most, because if you watch the play back, you can clearly see the ref RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE INCIDENT and he is literally walking toward the two players AS THE SHOVE HAPPENS. To me, the other questionable calls could be explained away by blaming ineptitude, bad positioning/couldn't see the play, etc., but there's no way to sugarcoat this one, in my opinion. That ref just plain chose not to call it. 
• Missed false start on Alabama's tying touchdown- Georgia has Alabama at 4th and 9 instead of 4th and 4

Yes, you could make the case that the outcome would have been the same even with the calls being made correctly.  Alabama still could have (and likely would have) scored the tying touchdown on 4th and 9. But it sure would have helped the defenders have some extra momentum to have those extra yards. Call it conspiracy, call it incompetence. Either way, you can't convince me that the officiating didn't change the outcome of the game, solely because the bad calls all happened at key times in the game. 

What we learned...

Alabama coaches only care about one type of victory...

...and it isn't the moral kind. If I were an Alabama fan, I would be absolutely ashamed at how the coaches handled some of their players during Monday's game. I had my suspicions about business at Alabama, and what I saw Monday confirmed every one of them. I'm not even going to get into the Bo Scarbrough controversy. All I'll say about that is as a college athlete at one of the biggest programs in the country, lots of little eyes and ears watch, listen, and emulate guys like him.  No matter who his comment was directed toward, the language should have been avoided at that moment. What really irked me, though, was watching a player go after his own team (coaches and all) and go right back in the game afterward. First of all, he should have been ejected for throwing a punch at a Georgia player before even coming off the field. But I understand that game-time emotions run high and all players say and do things on the field on impulse.  Going after a coach on the sideline, though? If Saban and his staff cared at all about that boy other than as a means to an end, he would have watched the rest of the game from the bench.  That's the kind of treatment I would want for my son. Not out of spite, but as a teaching moment.  We have to remember that many of these athletes are still teenagers. Still finding out who they are and trying to find their way in life.  Coaches and other authority figures have a responsibility to help prepare them for what's ahead and model how to be men of integrity.  In this instance, I think the Alabama coaches failed that young man.

On a high note...

Jalen Hurts earned a new fan Monday night.  How impressive was his reaction to being benched after halftime.  He supported the freshman and only had positive things to say in the end. 

Speaking of the freshmen, Fromm and Tagovailoa both are destined for football greatness.  And they both seem like fine young men off the field, too. 

I hope the seniors find so much success in whatever they pursue after college.  Their choice to play one more season had such a tremendous impact on the course of the year for the Dawgs. 

Finally, I am so proud of the Georgia Bulldogs and the season they have had.  They have carried themselves with such poise and dignity, and have provided examples of perseverance and sportsmanship for many young athletes who look up to them.  And the best is yet to come for the Dawgs. 

And if it makes anyone feel any better, we didn't really lose the title of National Champions--the University of Central Florida already had called dibs on it before Monday's game even started.