College football replay is frustrating coaches with its frequency and inconsistency
Duke football coach David Cutcliffe knows after eight laterals in 2015 what it’s like to be on the wrong side of replay. And all the camera angles and high-definition lenses producing crystal-clear views of plays hasn’t eliminated the human error that replay was supposed to solve.
Cutcliffe is still not sure if replay is getting it right. And he’s still not convinced it’s worth the constant stoppage in play he deemed “outrageous” to try and figure it out.
Cutcliffe said he’s had talks with ACC supervisor of officials Dennis Hennigan and Steve Shaw, who is the CFO national coordinator of football officials, about replay, and he favors the NFL model of granting coaches challenges.
“There’s a lot of conversation about getting it right, I get that,” Cutcliffe said. “You want to get it right. I’ve had some time right out there (in Wallace Wade Stadium) I wish they’d have gotten it right.”
The ACC revamped its system of reviewing plays after admitting officials missed four calls on Miami’s kickoff return for a touchdown to beat the Blue Devils as time expired in 2015. And the problem was exacerbated by the replay booth not catching any of those errors. Largely because of that debacle, the league changed to a collaborative model that centralized replay for all games called by ACC officials.
The collaborative model still has one replay official at the game site, but also has one reviewing the same game from a central location. Shaw said the additional set of eyes on a play has actually helped streamline the time involved. But the system itself is still deemed experimental nationally, as not all conferences adhere to it.
Shaw said officials created a case study book of 179 plays and situations to reference, and they are guided to work within a two-minute time limit on stoppages.
“As you begin approaching two minutes, if you don’t have an answer, that’s your answer,” Shaw said. “Let it stand, there’s nothing clear and obvious in it. We’ve worked hard in the replay booth to make it less of an art.”
Rubber-stamped replay?
Having the mechanisms in place to make the correct call and actually doing it are two different things. UNC coach Mack Brown said that too many calls on the field are just being rubber stamped by replay.
Five of 11 plays Carolina has had reviewed by replay have been allowed to stand. Three have been overturned, and three were confirmed.
A play is “confirmed” when video evidence reiterates what was called on the field. A play “stands” when there is not irrefutable video evidence on the play. It’s essentially an official’s way of saying they can neither confirm nor deny the initial call.
“It seems like that the call on the field is gonna stand unless it’s just so overwhelmingly obvious on TV that it was not (correct),” Brown said. “We’re still leaning so much on the official’s call that I wonder, why do we have instant replay?”
According to statistics provided to The News & Observer by Shaw, the majority of replays in the Football Bowl Subdivision are allowed to stand, though that majority is not overwhelming. Through four weeks and 313 FBS games, there have been 652 play stoppages for review. On those plays, 301 calls — 47.1 percent — have been overturned.
In the ACC, replay officials overturned 46 plays (40.3 percent), confirmed 37 plays (32.4 percent) and allowed 31 plays (27.1 percent) to stand as called on the field. (It should be noted that reviews for targeting are included in the total.)
Shaw said the process of reviewing plays has been a topic of discussion by the rules committee because of the sheer volume. Every play is reviewed. Coaches know it and so do the players, so if a questionable play that went in their favor occurred, they have good reason to hurry and snap the next play.
“Now you literally may not even get a replay from TV, you may have to work it on your own to decide if I’m going to stop the game,” said Shaw, who is also secretary-rules editor on the NCAA football rules committee. “That may be the hardest component for a replay official — making a decision to stop the game sometimes in a 10-to-15 second window. They’ve got to make that decision and once the next snap occurs, it’s gone forever.”
N.C. State hasn’t really had a bad experience with replay this season. Two of its touchdowns in Saturday’s 27-21 double-overtime win over Clemson were reviewed. One was ruled to stand and the game-winning pass from quarterback Devin Leary to receiver Devin Carter was confirmed.
The previous week against Furman, the Wolfpack even had a targeting called against linebacker Drake Thomas overturned. Being called for targeting has big ramifications beyond just getting ejected from the game, because if a player gets three of those calls in a season they could be suspended for a game.
“Whatever the process is, you’ve got to leave that to them,” Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said. “I’m hoping that they’re being held accountable with the (ACC) office and that they’re looking at each other’s work and making sure things are right. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to me how it’s reviewed, it’s that they get it right.”
N.C. State has had four of nine reviewed plays stand with the call on the field. For Duke, it’s been just two of eight plays reviewed.
Consistency and transparency
Brown also doesn’t think there’s enough consistency in the type of plays that get stopped for review. The Tar Heels were left wondering why there wasn’t a booth-initiated review during their 17-10 loss to Virginia Tech in the season opener.
UNC receiver Justin Olson appeared to catch a third-quarter pass in tight coverage, just as cornerback Jermaine Waller was also making a play on the ball and grabbing for it. When Olson and Waller fell to the ground, Waller came away with the ball. It was ruled an interception on the field and play was not stopped in order for officials to take another look at it.
Shaw pointed out in those situations, a coach can challenge the play as long as his team has one timeout remaining. If the coach is correct, then he gets to keep one challenge and the team gets the timeout back. If the coach is wrong, then his team loses a timeout and a challenge. (The Tar Heels did not use a timeout after the Olson play.)
“The underlying philosophy of replay, is that the call on the field is correct,” Shaw said. “Unless you have indisputable video evidence to overturn it.”
Brown believes the review process should be re-evaluated nationally. He’d be in favor of having the best officials in the replay booth with the autonomy to rule on a play regardless of how it was called on the field.
“If you’ve got a review, let the review guy be the sole decision maker, because he has slow motion; he’s got all the pictures; he’s got everything,” Brown said. “But they’re very, very hesitant to overturn something that the official has called on the field. And I think that hurts the replay process.”
The Big Ten was the first conference to experiment with replay in 2004. The NCAA football oversight panel then voted to allow widespread use of it in 2005. The Big Ten declined to release its replay review totals to The N&O. The Big 12 and Pac-12 did not respond to inquiries.
The SEC, however, is one of the most transparent conferences when it comes to replay. The league keeps tabs and releases its information every week on the amount of plays stopped in games called by SEC officials and the result of the review.
Only 16 plays through 41 games and a total of 81 plays reviewed in the SEC have had calls stand, while 15 more plays the ruling was confirmed.
Since the SEC began using replay in 2005, only 37.5 percent of calls made on the field were overturned. However, this season there has been an uptick in calls reversed.
The league has had 50 calls, or 61.7 percent, of its reviewed plays overturned this season. The highest percentage of plays were overturned in Week 3, when 19 of 26 play stoppages (73 percent) had the call on the field overturned upon further review. The lowest percentage was 41.6 this past week, when just five of 12 plays that went to replay came out with a new ruling.
Duke has had two plays overturned in its favor this season. Against Northwestern, replay correctly overturned a would-be fourth-down conversion by the Wildcats. A Charlotte touchdown was overturned when it was determined the runner stepped out. But that still hasn’t swayed Cutcliffe’s opinion.
“I’m not sure officiating wouldn’t in itself be better without replay,” Cutcliffe said. “Because when you know there’s replay there, why does it matter? I’ve even had officials tell me, ‘Well I didn’t want to blow it dead because I know they’re gonna take a look at it.’ That’s a sad statement to me.”