FB: American Southwest Conference

[Bill McCabe]

Take a look at the pictures from the link Toby put in his post.  There are 4 officials within 20-25 yards of the ball.  NOT ONE OF THEM saw where it hit.  Whew!!

[Bill McCabe]

Never too early to start thinking about next year.  I count 18 seniors from the UMHB website, 8 on defense and 9 on offense, plus a kicker.  It looks like heavy losses in both lines, 2 DE, 3 DT, 5 OL, plus the starting QB, TE, and FB. 

How does it look at the other schools?  HSU?

I thoroughly enjoyed this season.  Wish it was starting again in a few weeks.  Good luck to everyone in the off season.

I don't know if you are asking about ASC schools only, but since UMHB seems to play UWW every year, I thought I'd fill you in on UWW.

UWW has 6 seniors on their roster this year. 5 are starters. Lost are 2 OL, TE, NT, MLB. Everyone else is back. If you consider Anderson and Coppage a "two headed monster" at RB, this year's team has 7 "starters" that are either freshmen or sophomores.

It looks like UWW will be a power to be contended with again next year!     Good luck this weekend.  We'll be pulling for Y'all in the Stagg Bowl.

[Ralph Turner]

I'm sure it will since Pat was in attendance. It was weird seeing him in our press box, felt like I was seeing a celebrity.

Now, don't you think that Belton needs to pass a bond election to upgrade the pressbox!   

"I would like to see it used as far back as the quarterfinals and definitely in the semifinals, and I'm going to make a recommendation as such," said Dick Kaiser, chairman of the NCAA Division III Football Committee and athletic director at Defiance College in Ohio. "The biggest hang-up is the financial issue.

"There would have to be multiple cameras to provide multiple angles, so it would be quite costly not only for the equipment but also for whatever upgrade would be needed at some of the Division III facilities, which right now could not accommodate such a thing."   -- Eric Drennan in TDT

What did I say about that bond election for Belton ISD!!!

And while they are at it, how about a big Diamondvision board, too!

[crufootball]

What I think is funny is there are only three players near the ball, two Crusaders and one Warhawk. It seemed to me that the whole game players were forgetting how powerful of a wind there was and running where they always did for a punt, kick, etc and not realizing the ball was about 20 yards behind them.

In the end it is hard to say this call really made a difference but it does sting. I mean our offense had got some things going in the second quarter and that would have been a huge boost in momentium. But oh well go Warhawks, beat the Purple Raiders and prove to everyone there is atl east two teams with a chance every year.

[Toby Taff]

Ralph,

The TDT lead article was about BISD building new schools by 2018; a new elementary, 2 new middle schools and a new HS, so UMHB might have to pony-up for new digs.

Bill,
What got me was the guy standing on the 40 that missed it and the guy on the 38 who had to have known the ball hit well in front of him.  I guess the officials had a bit of half-time lag.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph,

The TDT lead article was about BISD building new schools by 2018; a new elementary, 2 new middle schools and a new HS, so UMHB might have to pony-up for new digs.

Bill,
What got me was the guy standing on the 40 that missed it and the guy on the 38 who had to have known the ball hit well in front of him.  I guess the officials had a bit of half-time lag.

Is Belton growing enough to need 2 high schools?

[crufootball]

It will be quite interesting to see how Belton handles two high schools, since everything here is GO BIG RED (wish they would throw some more support for purple but oh well).

I really hope this does inspire UMHB to get their own field, because if UMHB is still a national power in division III or even close to what they are currently and they do not have a field by 2018 it will be depressing. I know all the reason for not having one currently but to be hosting a National Semi-Finals at Tiger Field instead of Fredenburg Field, Bawcom Stadium, or Couch Cru land is sad to me.

[BoBo]

And on post-game review... The ball was not illegally touched.  It hit at the 41.  The Temple-daily Telegram has still shots from the game showing the kickoff and there's a Crusader player and an official standing between the 38 and 39 and the line judge standing on the 40 with the ball well in front of them. 

http://www.tdtnews.com/story/2008/12/16/54432

The article has a bit of a bitter tone, and has Fredenburg calling for instant replay, but also has him saying that the big difference in the game was the superior physicality of the Warhawks.  My favorite quote:

"We have to judge everything on the physicality of our guys," he said. "If there was a smidgen of difference in the game, that's what it was. I would see our running backs and our quarterbacks getting really hit. We tackled, but they really punished you.

Toby, I heard the game tape shows the ball hits at the 41.  The official told Coach Fred that it hit at the 38.  With the score 12-10, that was a huge blown call.  Everyone, including the officials, were surprised by what happened with the football on that kick.

I'm not sure instant replay would have helped as much as Coach Fred thinks in this situation ["Would instant replay have helped? Absolutely."]  My reasoning is that it wasn't just the officials that were surprised by what happened, as you said Bill, everyone including the camera operator was totally deceived, too. I remember hearing on the audio [I didn't see the video] that the video on NCAA.com during the game didn't show where the ball landed on the turf because the camera didn't follow the trajectory properly. The gentleman doing the color [I forget his name eventhough I thought he did a great job] indicated he thought the ball hit around the 41 or 42, but didn't appear really surprised to learn that the on field officials said it hit at the 39, as I remember it.  I don't think still photos should or could be used as evidence to over-turn an on field call (can anyone say Photoshop?  ), nor the coaches game video either.  IMO, I don't think it's fair to call it a blown call when, again, as you said, nobody really saw what happened. 

It will be interesting to see if any good might come out of this.

[Toby Taff]

BoBo,

The article also talks about the cost of replay and addresses the issue with a few people from the AA.  One of the things said is that there would have to be at least 3 cameras for replay to happen.  I would assume there would be a press box camera, which would have helped.  But still, that type of thing happens, and UWW took full advantage of what it was given.  That play may have shifted MO, but UWW still were the ones that brought their monkey stomping shoes and used them.

[Bill McCabe]

Bobo,  it doesn't appear the Temple paper photographer was fooled by the ball.  I think the officials blew the call badly, but could there be replays in the future?  Probably not.  A still camera would be much cheaper to use, but will they always be in the right place?  A blown call is part of the game at most levels.  It's too bad 4 guys couldn't see and get it right.  Momentum was never the same after that play.

[umhb2001]

Bobo,  it doesn't appear the Temple paper photographer was fooled by the ball.  I think the officials blew the call badly, but could there be replays in the future?  Probably not.  A still camera would be much cheaper to use, but will they always be in the right place?  A blown call is part of the game at most levels.  It's too bad 4 guys couldn't see and get it right.  Momentum was never the same after that play.

I love the first line of the article.  UMHB is hosed.  I love it.  This play reminded me of a game a few years back, not UMHB, but one I saw a clip of on tv, where a guy kicked the field goal, it gets hung up in the air, comes back and is caught by the kicker.  Everyone is looking for the ball as he is running for a TD.  Crazy!  Even if we get that ball, though, I don't see us doing much with it.  Maybe the guys are excited and they storm down the field and score, I don't know, but we hadn't done anything really to that point and did nothing after their TD.  We had our chances, we just didn't play.

As for next year, what does the starting lineup on both sides look like? Where does BTuck play next year?  It sounds as if this game could be a huge swinger for the Cru.  Coach Fred talked about big changes in philosophy and who they will be looking to recrute.  Sounds exciting.  I hope it pays off.

[Bill McCabe]

umhb2001, remember UMHB had driven for a TD in the 2nd quarter.  The kickoff had us 8 points down instead of 2.

[umhb2001]

umhb2001, remember UMHB had driven for a TD in the 2nd quarter.  The kickoff had us 8 points down instead of 2.

I know, but that was with the wind I believe.  Against the wind we hadn't done anything.  And scoring only one TD in one half against the #5 team and reigning champ doesn't mean much, not after the way we had been playing.  That first kickoff of the game set the tone.  As much as I wanted to look past it, that just set the tone for the day and we never recovered.  Look at the SO game.  We had miscue after miscue inside our own 20 and were unable to right the ship.  We don't do well when we have to battle back after miscues.

[Bill McCabe]

I agree with you about the opening kickoff.  However, UMHB was able to hang on and actually take the lead.  The 2nd half kick off was too much to overcome, particulary with a TD pass on the first play.  Our next kick off return wasn't much better and we had horrible field position.

[umhb2001]

Yeah, we did well that first half with the wind, but for some reason we couldn't control it to our favor in the second.  By the time we did have the wind, though, the game was nearly out of reach.  Any time we threw the ball or anything, we just couldn't judge it well.  I don't know what happened.  I felt so bad for the guys, I mean, they really had high expectations, as we all did, coming off those 3 quality wins.  It's just unfortunate.  I look forward to the spring and summer recruiting news and on to next fall.  We will be back!