Final word on ISU game

The Big XII officiating coordinator this week explained the two controversial calls at the end of the ISU-CU game that essentially prevented the game from going into overtime. The conference official is quoted below:

"The exception that is in there is to prevent a team that is wanting to run the clock out," Anderson said. "So if it becomes fourth down and the defense is going to get the ball, but rather than punting the ball they just line up in a scrimmage kick formation and intentionally let the clock run out. Because it was running, the rule says that you assess the penalty and then you wind the clock. That exception is in there so that a team is not allowed just to bleed the clock down."
"It's also at the referee's discretion because the opposite also holds true. If you have a team that doesn't want the clock to run but doesn't have any time outs, you don't allow them, in essence, to commit a foul thereby causing the clock to stop."

So the key point here is that the referee's decisions were not technically incorrect. HOWEVER the calls were discretionary meaning that they could have gone the other way and the refs could have done more to enable a surging team dealing with an expiring game clock to snap the ball when clearly they were lined up appropriately and ready to go. "At the referee's discretion" a 50 yard field goal and then a 55 yard field goal were wiped off the board. In SMQ's words this is "negation of accomplishment" and damned hard to swallow.

Forget that the Buffs shot themselves in the foot for the better part of the second half. The fact remains that they actually tied the game in heroic fashion and yet "at the referee's discretion" they were denied overtime. That's a pretty critical discretionary call, no?

So who exactly is this referee who made said discretionary call? Well, it's none other than a gentleman by the name of Clete Blakeman. While he's not refereeing Big XII football games, he's an Omaha attorney. Oh yeah, he is also a FORMER NEBRASKA CORNHUSKER QB. Who finds it shocking that a Cornhusker given the discretion to determine the outcome of a CU game would choose to feed the Buffs a big old crap sandwich? I can barely contain my astonishment...

So with that, my friends, I declare the commencement of the annual Nebraska Hate Week. Act accordingly.