Holds on UM Opponents
I think last year Brian or someone else did a analysis showing how far UM was from the average in the Big Ten in terms of drawing holds. Can we just agree at this point that there is some sort of bias going on from the officials at this point? 4-5 just absolutely egregious ones tonight, the hold on Hawkins was one of the most egregious non calls you are ever going to see. Like what is the remedy here, other than UM sending tapes to the conference of missed holds?
October 25th, 2020 at 1:10 AM ^
Nothing can be done. It is what it is.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:10 AM ^
Say something in public.
Started to work in 2018 after the joke call on Hidgon against Northwestern.
October 25th, 2020 at 1:39 AM ^
I talked to a college official about holding last year and posted it here. Could be helpful
https://mgoblog.com/diaries/zebra-cakes
October 25th, 2020 at 8:32 AM ^
That was awful to read, I wish I hadn't.
His responses were basically, "cuz I dun wanna" not "because it wasn't a hold".
That's fun. I wonder how much of the game is officiated based on ref emotion rather than, ya know, the rules.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:50 AM ^
I refer you to Thanksgiving weekend of 2016 in regards to ref emotions.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:02 AM ^
What bugs me about the ref response you got is that it kind of creates a Catch-22. If you don't play through it, you're basically flopping around showing you got held. If you don't get the call then you're just an idiot flopping around.
If you play through it like a good athlete is trained to do, you don't get the call even though you should. This is the kind of refereeing that leads to soccer dives.
October 25th, 2020 at 2:11 AM ^
You could write your senator.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:25 AM ^
Or ask for a supervisor.
October 25th, 2020 at 6:29 AM ^
They’ve probably read this blog for the last several months and this is the payback for all the petty bickering that was witnessed. Outside of that, this was a 2020 performance. A win is a win, but I’m glad that I was hammered and passed out by the 4th.
October 25th, 2020 at 7:58 AM ^
let's start a kickstarter and raise money to cure referee blindness.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:03 AM ^
I looked at this a couple years back.
Generally - the better your D-line, the LESS calls you get.
OSU and Alabama are regularly two of the teams that get the LEAST holding calls in their favor.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:28 AM ^
That matches what my perception has been with Michigan too. Hurst, Winovoch, and Gary never got calls.
My pseudo conspiracy theory is that a few years ago the B10 told their officials basically to stop calling it. There are very few OL holds called in the conference when you know it happens a lot, especially with some of the crappy OL.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:34 AM ^
I've often wondered if they call them less because games would either get out of control with defenses basically taking over. Or if it has something to do with game length and tv spots / game length / commercials.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:36 AM ^
QB health has to play into it.
October 25th, 2020 at 8:44 AM ^
Makes sense because Hutchinson was dominating out there last night and was blatantly held 3 or 4 times with no flag being thrown.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:05 AM ^
Holds help with the big, flashy offenses which are (at least according to the talking heads) what people want to see. A lot harder for both teams to put up video game numbers if the defense is getting to the QB every 2 or 3 plays.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:21 AM ^
Blatant missed holding is something that's never going to get fixed, sadly.
October 25th, 2020 at 9:47 AM ^
I couldn’t take it!!! IT HAPPENED TO HUTCH right in front of the refs and they didn’t do nothing I know that’s improper but,”They did Nothing!” Absolutely Nothing!!!! I was losing it!!
October 25th, 2020 at 10:57 AM ^
Aren’t holding calls down across the board? NFL and NCAA?
October 25th, 2020 at 11:21 AM ^
Don’t have the numbers but just from the eye test, the NFL definitely has way more holding calls than college