\We are reviewing the ruling on the field.""
Oh, how those eight damnable words sucked much of the fun out of Wisconsin's otherwise pleasant Saturday afternoon 34-6 methodical romp through the overmatched University of Central Florida.
Instant replay was a well-received change the progressive-thinking Big Ten made in the offseason. You see, football referees make mistakes occasionally, just like you and me. Except their errors are always caught on video and relayed to thousands of people via gorgeous new video boards (more on this later) or on television screens across the country. Since rabid fans (and Penn State's Joe Paterno) get just a bit upset when their team gets screwed over, we need instant replay to make sure incorrectly called plays are fixed.
But we don't need it in the manner we had it Saturday.
It started OK. Sure, it took away junior linebacker Dontez Sanders' 50-yard fumble return for a touchdown, but even from two-thirds of the way up in Section P, it did kind of look like his knee was down when he picked up the ball.
Minutes later, however, the game came to a stultifying halt. Following a 21-yard stroll down the left sideline by Anthony Davis, who was hit in the eye on the play and forced out of the game, play was stopped twice to check the spot of the ball. It was moved from the UCF 28 back to the Knights' 41-yard line, drawing the ire of the crowd. Then, just as the players were finally lining up again, another delay, and the ball was moved back up to the UCF 29. It's at this point that I think Davis in fact poked himself in the eye, just to give himself something to do.
Then, just to make sure that Central Florida could join in the fun of being upset at the officials, junior wide receiver Jonathan Orr's 16-yard touchdown catch near halftime was not reviewed, despite how close he appeared to be to the sideline on replays on the video board.
Speaking of the video boards, what a marvelous upgrade to Camp Randall. I would pity the underclass students sitting way up at the top of the end zone sections who can't behold it in all its wonder, but section L row 70 is the price you pay for not taking the extra step on Wednesdays to get decent seats.
The deep irony to having this spankin' video board combined with instant replay is that, to help the officials keep control of the game and prevent the inevitable uproar that ensues when a replay shows a botched call, the video board operators will never show us controversial plays, especially ones under review. That's why we didn't get a look at Sanders' fumble return once it was being reviewed, as well as Davis' run. And they held off on showing Orr's questionable touchdown grab until after the extra point was kicked and no review could be initiated.
So we now have this great replay board, and nothing significant to show on it. Excellent. Maybe everyone was a bit quick in collectively heaping praise on the Big Ten for introducing this whole instant replay business.
But then again, I could always change my mind, upon further review.
mtworringer@wisc.edu.
