Worst official's call in Alabama history (or at least as far back as you remember) ?

[BamaNation]

Continuing our theme of reflections, what is the worst official's call you have seen? Don't want to dwell on the negative but I believe these bad calls sometimes really bond us together I know they do during game threads for me. We'll jump back to positives tomorrow, but I want to see some terrible officiating that you guys remember!

 

[B1GTide]

For me it was not an Alabama game so I'll offer a two part answer:

Worst - 2015 Miami vs. Duke game ending. Duke scored with six seconds left to take the lead over Miami. who responded with a kickoff return for a touchdown as time expired. They lateraled the ball 7 or 8 times. The officials missed four calls, including a player being down before he released the ball. The officiating crew was suspended for two games.

Best worst call - 2002 BCSCG. The last play was magical. 🎆

 

[rolltide_21]

Bama game? 1995 Iron Bowl Curtis Brown's game-winning TD being ruled out of bounds. Replay would have reversed the call imo. For once in his career, Freddie Kitchens dropped a dime instead of shooting a cannon.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

Worst call IMO was 1983 Alabama @ Penn State where Preston Gothard made the potential game winning TD catch but was called out of bounds.

 

[colbysullivan]

Preston Gothard was bad, but the blatant DPI in the 2004 LSU game is one of the worst no-calls I’ve ever seen.

Also, I know this is recent but Moss stepped out of bounds, period. And the Barn getting a free field goal simply can’t be allowed to happen. Those 2 plays killed our season.

 

[B1GTide]

If I am going just Alabama - the 2012 "interception" in the regular season LSU game.

 

[Elefantman]

I bet 7 of the top ten bad calls ocured in JHS

 

[81usaf92]

I don't remember if it was 95 or 97 game , deferring to @selmaborntidefan on this, but one of the Arkansas games was just a bunch of nonsense from the officials.

But passed that I would say 2004 LSU non DPI and the 2017 National Championship game

 

[DzynKingRTR]

Bama game? 1995 Iron Bowl Curtis Brown's game-winning TD being ruled out of bounds. Replay would have reversed the call imo. For once in his career, Freddie Kitchens dropped a dime instead of shooting a cannon.

View attachment 6789

I saw that game with my brother-in-law and his family. They are all auburn fans. That was also the last game I ever watched with any of them. In typical auburn garbage, they all said I was crazy for saying it was a catch. They thought it was "clearly" incomplete.

 

[Padreruf]

Fumble that wasn't against LSU -- right in front of me. RB was astonished...cannot remember the year or RB -- in B'ham in the 80's.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Preston Gothard ruled OB in 1983 PSU game. Horrible call at the time, and cost us the win.

BTW — the uncle of Mike Guman (the guy that Krauss stopped twice for The Goal Line Stand) was on the officiating crew. Many also say he made the erroneous call, but that wasn’t the case....someone else did. Still, what a conflict of interest! He should never have been allowed on that crew. Caesar’s wife and all that.

As a pure miss, the non-DPI against LSU in 2004 was the worst. It was so obvious that even LSU fans were shocked — and that’s not easily done. But it was early enough in the game that it’s hard to say it led directly to our loss. Certainly cost us at least three, and probably seven points.

Not so the Gothard miss. That was in the final seconds and did change the outcome.

Side note: Saban was LSU’s coach in 2004. Wonder what he would say today, 15 years removed.

 

[B1GTide]

JMO, but anything before we had official replay isn't as egregious as those which came afterward. Those which came afterward and could/should have been corrected but were not are almost criminal.

 

[Con]

Worst call IMO was 1983 Alabama @ Penn State where Preston Gothard made the potential game winning TD catch but was called out of bounds.

This is my vote. It was the first play I thought of when I read the thread title by @BamaNation.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I don't remember if it was 95 or 97 game , deferring to @selmaborntidefan on this, but one of the Arkansas games was just a bunch of nonsense from the officials.

But passed that I would say 2004 LSU non DPI and the 2017 National Championship game

You have to be talking about the 1995 game at BDS, where:
a) Tim Brando called the game for JP (Rolaids, please!)
b) the Arkies had 12 men on the field on the next to last play of the game and got away with it so well that it wasn't until Danny Ford said they'd done it that anyone knew
c) JJ Meadors traps the damn ball on fourth down and they give it to him.

That one was a personal nightmare for me because I was stationed at Little Rock at the time. For two solid years, all I heard was bout their b-ball team that won the title in 94 and then lost it in the final in 95. EVERY single football game no matter the score, they'd insist the refs screwed them.

But then for a solid year it was non-stop Hawg blather about how great they were and won the West and all that stuff. I've never been so glad for the political ads to pop up as they did the next year to drown out the insanity.

It was awful to live there for that, and I loved that place. But yikes.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I didn't see the Gothard call because I was in Germany and the time difference meant I hit the sack when we were trailing, 34-7. But that one was so bad that I've had multiple Penn St fans through the years say, "You guys got hosed on that call."

The one sticking in my throat is the one at Auburn at the end of the first half last year. I'm not gonna go so far as to say it cost us the game because the two pick sixes did that. But in no universe anywhere should Auburn have gotten to START with their field goal unit on the field that could never have made it on the field had it been correctly called in the first place. What's truly funny is for 35 years I've heard "Richardson didn't get out of bounds, and they couldn't have gotten the kick away."

So......Alabama could not have lined up the kicker with six seconds left in 1985 but Auburn could with one second left in 2019?

I accept that bad calls happen, nor will I endorse the whole "it cost them the game" nonsense (in 99.9% of the cases).


Another awful one that people forget was the 15-yard flag on Lassic for "excessive celebration" that cost us four points in the first half of the 1993 Sugar Bowl. That COULD have been huge if the game was close.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

JMO, but anything before we had official replay isn't as egregious as those which came afterward. Those which came afterward and could/should have been corrected but were not are almost criminal.

It would be VERY interesting to see how they'd handle Fifth Down nowadays. Can you REALLY go to Colorado - when YOU are the one who misinformed them on the downs - and say, "Hey, I'm sorry, but it's Missouri's ball"?

 

[rolltide_21]

You have to be talking about the 1995 game at BDS, where:
a) Tim Brando called the game for JP (Rolaids, please!)
b) the Arkies had 12 men on the field on the next to last play of the game and got away with it so well that it wasn't until Danny Ford said they'd done it that anyone knew
c) JJ Meadors traps the damn ball on fourth down and they give it to him.

That one was a personal nightmare for me because I was stationed at Little Rock at the time. For two solid years, all I heard was bout their b-ball team that won the title in 94 and then lost it in the final in 95. EVERY single football game no matter the score, they'd insist the refs screwed them.

But then for a solid year it was non-stop Hawg blather about how great they were and won the West and all that stuff. I've never been so glad for the political ads to pop up as they did the next year to drown out the insanity.

It was awful to live there for that, and I loved that place. But yikes.

Im sure we would all like to forget the 1997 Arky game if we could, haha. Houston Nutt’s team took us behind the proverbial woodshed.

 

[We_are_Bama]

Gus was flat out awarded time that simply wasn't there. He only got that call because it was at JHS. Whitlow was down. The refs knew it but they weren't going to deny the barn that call. Home cooking. To that end, remember when the barn lost at home to 13essee in 2018? The final score was 30-24, but the refs gave the barn a cosmetic TD in the end where the receiver never had full control of the ball. The game was over by then, but it just goes to show how weird games are at JHS.

One that doesn't really stand out because we won the game was in the 2014 Iron Bowl. Nick Marshall threw a pass to the sideline that our defender came up with. But the refs awarded the catch to the barn receiver. Of course, not long after that, we went on a 34-3 run en route to the win. 🙂

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Im sure we would all like to forget the 1997 Arky game if we could, haha. Houston Nutt’s team took us behind the proverbial woodshed.

You're thinking 98 and the 42-6 game.

Nutt wasn't the coach in the 97 game, where the final score was 17-16, Arky.

 

[rolltide_21]

You're thinking 98 and the 42-6 game.

Nutt wasn't the coach in the 97 game, where the final score was 17-16, Arky.

That’s right. If I remember correctly there was a close ending in the 97 game too. I was at the game with my dad who had gotten us good seats from a salesman. He was a purchasing agent and took the occasional “benefit.” We beat them in 99 in BDS with something like 6 turnovers with 5 being fumbles in the “revenge” game.