ATTENTION IOWA FANS: SPIELMAN FEELS YOUR PAIN.

I have been reading this site for awhile now and have been anxiously awaiting your post about Spielman. As an Iowa fan, I realize that we played poorly most of the game and deserved to lose the game. I am also one of the few that actually believes that we lost that game ourselves, not because of the refs. A good team doesn’t put themselves in the situation where the refs can change the potential outcome.

All of that being said, Spielman was hilarious yesterday. Iowa fans have had Spielman do a couple of games this year and he is awful everytime. He is horribly biased towards any defensive player and just starts shouting at inappropriate points during the game. I think in the fourth quarter yesterday, he realized he wasn’t going to shout and yell for 8 months, so he decided to go off on whatever he saw in front of him. Unfortunately for the CUSA, it was their refs that he went nuts on.

A final quick note, can we find a way to get BCS conference officals when two BCS conference teams are playing. I don’t know what games these officials did all year, but something tells me the Tulsa vs. Southern Miss games don’t have the coverage or intensity of a major bowl on New Year’s Day.

We like his total lack of balance—at any point, Spielman is liable to launch into a rip and rant on something no one else on the planet would get excited about. He also likes to note a good block by saying, “He threw him out of the saloon!” Both positives, we say.

And Iowa did get jobbed—but pardon us for not caring and running to the hills with a W in hand. You’ll get it back somewhere else down the line.

Probably had a bit too much of the purple stuff at the ESPN new years party. Clearly he was suffering from a case of “gator-hateritis” as it is quite contagious around the ESPN studios. They should all be given a drug derived from Dickie V’s DNA, he seems to be the only ESPN employee that has not fallen ill…

This is still not the best officiating performance of the bowl season thus far. That honor goes to the drunken, blind guys the Alamo Bowl people found somewhere in the parking lot. They cleaned them up a bit, gave them some striped shirts and whistles, and called them a crew from the Sun Belt. The upside is that crew only screwed Michigan and Nebraska, and I absolutely love Michigan fans crying about getting hosed by the officials. Where’s your :02 now, Llllloyd?

On the onside kick, coming from one who has been the ref staring down the line, I tend to think he was offside. Remember, the line is a sheet of glass. If he touches the line at all before the kick, he is offsides. Is it a “touch-foul”? Sure. But the call wasn’t necessarily wrong. If you use your imagination to justify the camera angle, you can see that his knee/helmet could have/probably did break the plane of the line of scrimmage perhaps just milliseconds before the kick.

The helmet-to-helmet penalty I also agreed with. The offending player didn’t hit Leak with his helmet, but he sure clubbed the hell out of him after he slid. You can’t hit quarterbacks if they slide. He would have gotten away with it if he hadn’t tried to decapitate Chrissy. Since he tried to rip his head off, he got a penalty. If anything, I think the official deserves a gold star of ballsiness for calling that on the Iowa sideline.

Dude what the fuck happened to Gator D in the 4th quarter? They weren’t covering the receivers at all.

I little credit is due here to the qb for throwing darts on the run. Even the best secondaries can cover forever.

My big problem with the offsides onside call is that players break that sheet of glass ALL THE TIME before the ball is kicked, and it is RARELY called.

The Gators looked exceptional throwing the ball, because Leak threw with no pressure all day, due to excellent protection.

And Chris Leak is a flower.

Offsides on NORMAL kickoffs are RARELY called (whether you think it right or wrong) to keep the game flowing. Onside kicks are always closely watched and rightfully so. They usually can have a direct impact on the game. Had that call been made on a standard down-field kickoff, and the returner fumbled the ball and a kicking team member recovered the ball and ran for a touchdown, I would be as livid as the Hawkeye fans (SEE: Billy Latsko FSU/UF ‘03)It’s just a case of sour grapes, or I guess in Iowa it would be rotten corn?

Oh yeah. Chris Leak can throw some fucking bombs, but I think he’s a major pussy. I’m sure Urban told him to not take any risks, but we all know little Chris is fine with that!

My favorite was when instead of a slide, he just fell down in a semi fetal position.

Come on now, gents. Let’s cut Chris Leak a bit of slack.

How many of you have suffered 2 years of Ron Zook as your gulp coach?

You think that kind of abuse can be overcome in one season? This guy is lucky not to be self-admitted to a local padded cell with Nurse Ratchett hiking up his meds.

And volpundit: a ‘flower’ can be pretty tough … think snapdragons … even roses have thorns.

P.S. saying the offsides shouldn’t have been called is like saying my girlfriend is only a little bit pregnant.

P.P.S. saying the offsides shouldn’t have been called is like saying we’ll just ignore that pesky little shot clock at the end of the roundball game.

This was by far the worst officiating crew assembled. Spielman was correct on almost every account. First, the imaginiary face mask? huh?, a ticky-tac roughing the kicker (perhaps the closest call), a helmet to helmet or roughing the passer penalty – what? The helmets never hit, the QB was a runner and he was hit at the same moment he started to slide. Horrible call. Then the clear catch by the Hawkeye receiver IN BOUNDS. His shoulder even landed in after he was attempted to be knocked out of bounds. Another blown call that would have clearly kept the drive alive. Then lastly the off-sides call. This call clearly sums up what happened (see picture above – you can’t argue a picture – anyone who thinks Iowa was off sides is a DUMB ASS!!! and needs a good ASS whoopin!)- a superior Big 10 team in a bowl game playing in Florida’s back yard. Iowa wins 9 out of 10 times, and 10 out of 10 on neutral ground or in Iowa’s back yard.

I’m sick of teams getting hozed by the refs and in the opposing teams back yard. Why not play the games in Minneapolis or Detroit or Indianapolis? Is it that Florida is not tough enough to walk 10 minutes in 40 degree weather to the dome!?

Chris Spielman did a great job and was right on.

As an Iowa fan, I won’t deny my own bias, but I think that the onside-kick picture is at best “inconclusive”.

i’ll agree with Mizidy Mizark, though, that we didn’t play very well to begin with.

I picture posted of course is actually a joke given the obviously bad photoshop job… as for the in bounds catch… you are allowed in the college game to knock someone out of bounds, Spielman was referring to an NFL rule which does not exist in college.

I took a look at your rendition of the badly photoshopped picture. You have only done the lines based on the heads of the players… if the knee is in front of the head, then that is the line you should use… which would still appear onsides in this picture, but it will be close.

The coordinator of Conference USA officials released the following statement: “Out of approximately 175 plays in this game, we have five under specific review—including an important call at the end of the game. We do teach our officials that toward the end of the game, the calls should clearly be a foul. In this case, the onside kickoff call was too technical and should not have been made.”

To enjoy a number of Spielman’s outbursts, the DM Register has a transcript of a number of his outbursts.

Opps, please delete my last comment, I didn’t realize it was linked in the original post. Sigh.

‘Others he was wrong on the rules, like when he was pissed that they didn’t give Iowa the completion when the receiver was forced out of bounds before landing.’ So Stranko, exactly what are the rules as you see them. It was clearly a catch. Without the defender taking Hinkel out of bounds, he would have landed in the field of play. That makes it a catch. Do all of you Florida fans have to justify the officials? You won. We lost. I would only like to see the officials review the entire game and explain how they made some of their calls. And DHC – you really need better analogies.

The rule in college is that you must get one foot in bounds for it to be a catch. Unlike the NFL, they do not allow a referee to make a judgment call as to whether you would have gotten that foot in bounds if you were not forced out by the opposing player. That was my reference there.