Week 3 Kirby’s: Three blind mice and the SEC

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It took me a little bit to review the tape and see who would be eligible for a Kirby this week since I was traveling back from Gainesville.

Perhaps it would be UCLA giving up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to lose to Fresno State a week after beating LSU convincingly? Or maybe Geoff Collins and Georgia Tech for allowing his offense to conduct a 16-play, 70-yard drive that took 6:53 while down two scores against Clemson with 8:12 left?

Last week, we gave a second Kirby to Mike Norvell (and deservedly so), but made room to give one to USC athletic director Mike Bohn as well for getting rid of Clay Helton after two games. So we’ve established that the Kirby doesn’t have to go just to a coach, and so this week, we’re giving the Kirby to the guys you only notice when things don’t go your team’s way:

The SEC referees.

I generally loathe blaming officials when my team loses. While I think there were some bad pass interference penalties in the Gators loss to Alabama, most of those were judgment calls. The one that wasn’t was what should have been an offensive pass interference penalty against John Metchie on Trey Dean.

I’m not sure why Metchie hates Dean so much, but this is clearly PI. The fact that this one turned directly into a touchdown was a killer for Florida and they couldn’t stop the momentum until they were down 18 points.

But that wasn’t even close to the worst call by SEC refs for the weekend.

In Happy Valley, Penn State was able to hold on for a 28-20 win over Auburn, but I’m sure there would have been grumbling in Big Ten land had they come up short. That’s not just because of bad calls. In the first half, Penn State punted on third-and-11. That wasn’t a strategic decision, but a decision made because the refs lost track of what down it was and had it marked as fourth down.

But again, that wasn’t even close to the worst call by the SEC refs for the weekend. That distinction my friends – and the reason they’re getting the Kirby – happened in Mississippi State’s loss to Memphis.

Mississippi State touched the punt. The ref threw the bean bag indicating that he saw the Mississippi State player touch the punt. Then they allowed Memphis to pick up the ball and run it for a touchdown.

What?

If ever there was a reason for instant replay, this is it. Still shots were released after the game that showed the Mississippi State player with his knee on the ground and his hand on the ball. Even if you didn’t have access to that, the bean bag getting throw indicates that the ball should be down and Memphis shouldn’t be allowed to pick it up.

This is just embarrassing for the conference. You can’t have your officials costing its own teams a game (Mississippi State lost 31-29) with calls that are just flat out wrong. When it’s that bad, you get statements released by Mississippi State admonishing your performance.

You also get a Week 3 Kirby.