To San Diego State: Shut up!

This whole replay thing between SDSU and BYU is a freakin’ joke. You want to get my blood boiling? Bring up this stupid story.

It all started with a poorly written story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Insinuations were made, but the only actual information that was in the article was that a BYU employee was part of the replay crew. The Union-Tribune even called out the name of one of those in the booth — which means someone (potentially an SDSU or MWC employee) broke confidence rules by revealing the names. But hey, who cares about breaking confidentiality? Much better to uncover half truths and make baseless accusations.

Should BYU employees be working on the replay staff? It’s not a simple answer. Yes, ideally you would separate it completely, but who’s going to work the booth in Laramie or Fort Collins? I think the MWC was making a compromise for cost and ease and it bit them back big time.

Was the call incorrect? Absolutely; the replay showed he fumbled. A mistake was clearly made. But mistakes are made every Saturday, and in comparison, this particular situation was not more game-changing that a dozen other calls that same Saturday. Heck, on the self-same play the officials missed a face mask. It happens.

What burns me about this is the reaction. San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke made a stink about it. I truly believe coaches (especially at the collegiate level) should never publicly blame officials for a loss. The message to his team should have been about the improvements they could make to get better. And this came from the same guy who said, when BYU went independent, that the Cougars could never fill an independent schedule.

This got even more annoying when three prominent SDSU alums called on BYU President Cecil Samuelsen to launch and investigation into the matter and potentially forfeit the game if foul play was discovered. Never mind that BYU had nothing to do with who was working in the booth, that the MWC was at fault (if any organization was). These three grand standers thought it was their place to tell a university president how to do his job. Pure ridiculousness.

Why is my dander up on this one? Here are my major beefs:

• Was their foul play involved? I can’t say for sure, but there is no evidence of that, no smoking gun. This is pure speculative nonsense, that has already soiled the reputation of one BYU employee and cast the entire program in a bad light. And that’s with absolutely no evidence that this was anything more than a dumb mistake.
• SDSU did not lose this game because of that call. Like the ‘Tuck Rule’ game or any other infamous blown call, the Aztecs had other plays to stop the Cougars on that drive, and then had the ball and could have scored more points. They didn’t execute and that’s why they lost. As a fan, I have stopped blaming officials for loses. Bad calls have a way of evening out over a game and season. If the Aztecs had pounded the Cougars 41-7, we wouldn’t have ever talked about this.

And now SDSU wants to schedule a game against BYU? When twitter account @byudeepthroat tweeted that this was a possibility, my response was simple: No. The coach has berated our program, insinuated foul play, and we should play them? Holmoe should say no and walk away. I wouldn’t schedule then at any point in the next few years.

Am I too emotionally charged on this one? Maybe, but I’m not about fire off a letter to the SDSU program asking for an investigation into how the names of the replay officials were leaked and asking for the dismissal of any SDSU employee that facilitated leaking that to the press.

Glad to get this off my chest.

– Adam