Can Arizona Football trust Pac-12 officials to call Targeting properly?

Arizona Football’s Isaiah Hayes and other Pac-12 players have been the victim of no-calls on clear targeting hits. The Pac-12 has some reckoning to do.

Have you noticed all the no-calls on targeted helmet to helmet hits? Pac-12 coaches are not allowed to speak publicly about missed calls during games by the referees. If they do they will most probably be fined. When Isaiah Hayes got clobbered in the head at the end of a play in the Cal game, the referees somehow determined that the helmet to helmet hit that Hayes took and almost knocked him unconscious was not targeting.

Kevin Sumlin was asked in the press conference following the game about this call and he basically reiterated that he would be punished if he spoke about it. In the past, Rich Rodriguez would not comment either but would say that he was going to bring it up to the Pac-12 for review.

The announcers for the Cal game even reached out to their specialist in Los Angeles who they rely on for clarity in these instances. All agreed that it was flat out targeting. The Pac-12 Officials got it wrong. But were they overturned? We may not ever know. There is now proof that other non-calls in other Pac-12 games were overturned, but not by an official.

On October 10th, Yahoo Sports ran a piece on a similar non-call during the Washington State vs. USC game. Pete Thamel wrote that a document showed that an “untrained ‘third party’ overruled controversial targeting call in a Pac-12 game.”

Arizona Wildcats Football

The game was played on September 21 where USC quarterback JT Daniels kneeled on a play then got hit in the helmet with Washington State linebacker Logan Tago, with his helmet. The referee’s called roughing the passer and a review for targeting.

That’s when the Pac-12’s command center in San Francisco got involved. The referee’s and an independent veteran official all agreed it was targeting. According to Thamel, a lawyer overturned the call per a report which was written by the replay official in the booth, Gary McNanna:

"A replay report obtained by Yahoo Sports states that “unfortunately a third party did not agree” with the call. That “third party” was Pac-12 general counsel and senior vice president of business affairs Woodie Dixon, Yahoo Sports sources have confirmed... his opinion overruled both the trained officials in the stadium replay booth and in the league’s command center."

A lawyer?

At the time, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott denied the report in a statement. But his tone changed at the Pac-12 Basketball Media Day where his portion of the conference was spent mostly on Pac-12 Football. Scott made this statement:

"Integrity of officiating in the conference is a top, top priority, along with student- athlete health..And with what I’m announcing today — I want to take away any possible question or shadow of a doubt that anyone has that the decisions that are being made on replay review are made by trained officials that have no other role at the conference aside from that."

Ok, no lawyers, and he is admitting in his own way that he was wrong. But the irony was that Scott mentioned that Dixon was in charge of student-athlete health initiatives. Really? Hard to believe, no?

Since then, we have not seen any no-calls on clear targeting in an Arizona game, we hope to never see that again. Tago should have been taken out of the Cal game for his hit on Hayes.

Thamel seems to agree with a lot of Wildcats fans that we interact with on Social Media about Pac-12 refereeing. Thamel wrote, “[The Pac-12] has long been intertwined with ineptitude after a flurry of high-profile mishaps over the year”

A week later, Thamel Tweeted out more about the subject. This time, he obtained texts in public records from Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach who seems to be saying that he thinks the Pac-12’s Dixon is attempting to manipulate wins and losses. He quotes Leach as saying “Woodie is a total coward and is afraid of USC. I look forward to telling him in person.”

Even Desmond Howard later commented on Larry Scott’s omission or agreement with the call and later said his comments were “misinterpreted.”

Washington State lost to USC, 36-39. Ironically Leach is upset about a targeting no-call. USC’s Porter Gustin tackled Wazzu’s quarterback Gardner Minshew violently in a helmet-to-helmet hit. Targeting wasn’t called. But this incident happened in the fourth quarter.

Although it seems natural to complain about the referees, there is some merit to the complaints and it has been proven by these instances and in Pac-12 Basketball when the Head Ref was seemingly bribing his refs to T-up Miller which they did after he uttered the now famous line that will go down in history, “He touched the ball.”

Here is the targeted hit on Isaiah that wasn’t called, do you agree or not agree that this was a miss?

https://twitter.com/ZonaZealots/status/1048784333463404549

When it all comes down to it, coaches, commissioners, and referees should be mostly concerned with player safety. A lot of the controversy seems to support what Pac-12 fans are always complaining about, the referees. Let’s hope the corruption is over and the players will be safe and coaches will coach their players to try to not take out their opponents by hitting them in the head. The answer is, we can trust the Pac-12 a bit more since they are now under scrutiny, but not entirely yet. What we can’t get out of our heads now though is, does the Pac-12 really want certain teams to win? Hmm..thanks Coach Leach, you always give us something to ponder.