By all accounts, Saturday proved to be a capital day for Alvarez to tip the century mark.
The sun shined bright upon the 82,000 in attendance while Wisconsin had an impressive performance against, albeit, a less-than-impressive opponent.
John Stocco didn’t offer any reason to doubt his ability to start. The running game clicked fairly well and, most importantly for a non-conference game, nobody suffered a serious injury.
Yet despite all the successes, something was awry at Camp Randall that day — that is, in addition to the absence of several time-honored second half anthems (no, not “Varsity,” the ones that actually matter). The afternoon that served up Alvarez’s 100th win at Wisconsin also ushered in what is sure to be a frustrating new era in Big Ten football, with the rather ungainly implementation of instant replay.
The debacle began days before the first brats hit the grill game day morning. UCF head coach George O’Leary claimed he received no opportunity to decline the utilization of the new technology. While Big Ten match-ups mandate its use, non-conference opponents reserve the option to decline — and several right-thinking coaches nationwide are doing just that.
Dirk Koetter of Arizona State, Dan McCarney of Iowa State and Karl Dorrell of UCLA all made the correct decision and chose rhythm and action over cumbersome logistics.
According to O’Leary, he never got a chance. The Big Ten maintains that it received approval, although perhaps from the MAC and not O’Leary himself. Or the Golden Knights coach gave the nod and then decided to play drama queen (it is O’Leary after all).
But the befuddlement hardly ends there.
As a sea of red filled the stadium to bear witness to the start of the football season, the Big Ten’s experiment with instant replay blew up in the beaker.
Over the course of four frustrating quarters, the officials at the helm of the new system confused players, refs and fans with some questionable reviews. First came the retraction of the Dontez Sanders touchdown. While certainly a buzz-killer, the review was at least warranted. The reason instant replay exists is to curb mistakes on game-turning plays.
The real catastrophe occurred during the second quarter when tailback Anthony Davis led the charge deep into UCF territory. On one run, Davis scorched the Knights for 22 yards — or so everyone thought. Then the announcement goes over the wire that the officials spotted Davis step out at the 41-yard line.
For five agonizing minutes, the capacity crowd stood scratching their heads while officials mulled relentlessly over the replay tape, like 82,000 people helping one person find a lost contact lens. In the end, they placed the ball at the 29, one bloody yard from where the refs originally marked it.
Then, oddly enough, it wasn’t reviewed when Jonathan Orr flirted with the sideline in his second quarter touchdown grab. Dave Huxtable, UCF’s stand-in coach while O’Leary attended his mother’s funeral, certainly didn’t like the call. In Big Ten replay, coaches have no input.
Huxtable’s malcontent may not have been without just cause.
All things considered, the Big Ten needs to kybosh this trend. Too often in college sports, things change just because the pro leagues do. For the NFL, replay definitely served the best interests of its audience. Officials implemented the technology in a just manner, giving coaches the ability to prompt review in a league that quite frankly, was built for television.
To watch football on television is a preoccupation, to attend a game is an experience. That experience is what defines NCAA ball, or at least it used to. In fact, there’s just too much changing this year. Luxury boxes segregate fans, monitors distract them, changes in policy curtail decades of game day student tradition and then replay makes everyone wait five minutes to find out if Davis stepped out here or there. At some point the gauntlet needs to hit the floor — television audiences be damned.
The fact that Joe Paterno, who’s been coaching at Penn State since before the invention of the wheel, spearheaded this initiative is the biggest wonder of all. If anyone should know the value of protecting college ball from NFLization, it should be old Joe Pa.
In addition to the impact on the game day pace, replay raises questions regarding non-conference opponents.
“I would think the only reason you would turn it down is if you were bringing your own officials,” Alvarez mused in a press conference the week before the game.
Well, in effect, the Big Ten is taking control of the officiating to a frightening degree. Instead of the coaches prompting review, the power lies in the hands of a Big Ten official. It requires no great stretch of the imagination to see the potential problem with that. The Big Ten offices would certainly love to see Michigan or OSU in the BCS Championship game.
This game didn’t mean anything, fortunately. Count Sanders’ touchdown and Wisconsin scores a few more points against a squad packed with more freshmen than Johnny-O’s on a Saturday night. Non-conference games down the road may make the difference on the BCS scene, however.
The Big Ten schedule sports a number of Pac Ten and Big 12 challengers, some in the running for bowl berths. Most, if they’re smart, will turn down the replay for their own sakes. Although as a bonus, all fans will get to enjoy at least a few more weeks of fluid football.
