Post by FredFan7 on Dec 7, 2020 12:50:45 GMT -5
From The Athletic theathletic.com/2242853/2020/12/07/football-coaches-referees-mike-defee/
The art of working the refs: CFB coaches dish on their delicate relationships
Millions of college football fans — and some very confused viewers waiting for “Saturday Night Live” — watched closely on the night of Nov. 7 as Notre Dame drove down the field looking to send its game against Clemson into overtime.
On a key third down, quarterback Ian Book threw for Ben Skowronek, who was hit from behind by Clemson cornerback Sheridan Jones a split-second before the ball arrived. A flag was thrown for defensive pass interference right in front of the Clemson bench, and Tigers coach Dabo Swinney went berserk just a few feet away as the officials convened to discuss the ruling. Like magic, the flag was picked up.
To the casual viewer, it certainly looked like the presence of a two-time national champion coach influenced the officials’ final call.
“I didn’t think it was PI,” Swinney said two days after Notre Dame’s eventual 47-40 double-overtime win. “But they just called it and then all of a sudden, they huddled up and I guess the other ref had a better view of it, and I guess they talked about it and waved it off. I’ve been on both sides of that.”
He laughed.
Sideline encounters like that are the most visible examples, but they’re far from the only moments when coaches and officials cross paths over the course of a football game. Some interactions are routine and pleasant; others are contentious. Some coaches believe they can work over an official to eventually earn a makeup call; others don’t believe any amount of one-on-one time will produce breaks in their favor.
A dozen active Power 5 head coaches and two Group of 5 head coaches spoke to The Athletic about how they approach their relationships with officials, granted anonymity so that they would discuss the topic candidly. Football coaches are paranoid, fanatically competitive people by nature, and those traits come out in countless subtle and unsubtle faceoffs with the officials charged with making the rulings that decide games, seasons and careers.
About 90 minutes before kickoff, the officiating crew’s referee seeks out the two head coaches for five- to 10-minute meetings. He typically starts with the home team, as that head coach may have additional pregame responsibilities.
“I always tried to make sure I had my ducks in a row when I went in,” said recently retired referee Mike Defee. “I always wanted to make sure I was a little bit early in arriving for that meeting and that I’d done my homework on both teams, knowing players that were injured or a new quarterback. It’s important, as a referee, to go in there already knowing a lot about the team.”
As a sign of respect to the coach, Defee said he always took off his hat upon entry before giving him a firm handshake. He would look the coach straight in the eye each time he addressed him, in his first attempt to establish who was really in control of the game. He then solicited questions from the coach, about the opposing team’s style of play or any information the coach had sent in to the conference office. He wanted coaches to know that although the game was about their teams, he was the one responsible for its administration.
Most coaches took the opportunity during those meetings to run through potential trick plays or unusual formations, clearing them beforehand so they didn’t take the officials by surprise in the game.
“I’ll have five or six plays that they could possibly screw up — that, if they screw up, it’s a problem because you can’t just review it,” said one Power 5 coach. “I’ve got to make sure they see it. So I’ll draw those on the board for them. I’ll even show a little video. And then, prior to the play, a lot of times I’ll say, ‘Hey, here comes that one I told you about.’ ”
“I don’t trust ‘em. I tell them as little as possible,” another Power 5 coach said.
“I did not tell them plays I might run early in my career because I didn’t trust any of them,” a third said.
Begrudgingly, the third coach has opened up somewhat. If he’s planning to exploit a seldom-used rule or make use of shuffling eligible and ineligible receivers, he’ll call his conference’s coordinator of officials during the week. He said he’s gained a little bit more trust in the refs as he’s gone through his career. They have not tipped him off to anything his opponents were planning to run, so he’s more confident now that they wouldn’t let his opponents in on what he told them.
But the paranoia remains for some. One Group of 5 coach said his approach to the pregame meeting is “be cordial but don’t tell them too much.” Another Group of 5 coach said if he has a particularly funky play prepared for that day, he doesn’t completely spill the beans. “I’ll just tell them, like, ‘Hey, we’re going to have a backwards pass, it’s going to be a double pass — it’ll be very obvious for you.’ Because I don’t want to give it to them.”
Sometimes, the same coach tells the referee about a couple of trick plays he has no intention of calling, “just to mess with him.”
“This is my own personal game that I enjoy playing,” he said, laughing. “I’ll pull out some old plays and put them in front of him. He’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, is that a double reverse pass to … a tackle? That’s going to be backwards, too?’ He’ll be like, ‘When are you going to do this?’ I’ll say, ‘Probably somewhere in this area.’ I’ll just be messing with him to keep him honest.”
The longer he’s been a head coach, the more he’s gotten to know individual referees and, eventually, learned how to trust them. He now (usually) explains plays he actually plans to call.
Other coaches give referees a longer leash, at least until they feel they’ve been burned.
“If you treat people a certain way, they respond to you a certain way,” one Power 5 coach said. “I think you can establish a reputation that’s, ‘Hey, this guy does it the right way, and we respect the way your kids play and how hard they play now, but they play by the rules and doing things the right way.’ I want to be known as that kind of person. … In my heart of hearts, I don’t think they’re trying to intentionally hose us.
“If you’re an idiot to a guy, I promise you, when it comes down to it, they’re not gonna give you anything. That’s human nature. You get a lot more with sugar than you do with vinegar.”
Coaches begin working the referee the second the door opens for that pregame meeting. Well, they try. It doesn’t always work — both sides know exactly what is happening.
“The only thing that has ever helped us was one time in a cold, cold game — like, it was nine degrees — we had chicken broth on the sidelines,” a Group of 5 coach said. “I offered chicken broth to one of the officials, and he was like, ‘This is the greatest thing that I’ve ever had right now in this moment.’ And I said, ‘Just remember that.’ That official and I have had a good relationship since.”
Defee remembers a specific Colorado State game back when Steve Fairchild was the head coach. Fairchild had clearly done his homework and knew where Defee was from. The two had a pleasant conversation on the sideline prior to kickoff.
“Then, during the game, he called me everything but a human being,” Defee said. “So, it can change rather quickly. What’s important, as a football official, is to know: You’re not going to work me. At the end of the day, I’m going to do what’s right for the game. My credibility and reputation is on the line.”
Steve Shaw, who was selected as national coordinator of officials in December 2019 after a long run as an SEC referee, shared a story about working one of the first Tennessee-Florida games that Urban Meyer participated in as the Gators’ head coach. On one Tennessee punt, a Florida player drilled the punter after the return man had gone out of bounds, and Shaw flagged him immediately.
“Well, Coach Meyer didn’t react well to that,” Shaw said. “He said, ‘We’ve coached him to do that!’ I said, ‘Coach, he was late.’ He was like, ‘You missed that one! Usually you’re pretty good. But I’m telling you, you missed that.’ He went at me pretty good.”
Shaw admitted he was a little bit worried afterwards. The only copy of the game he received was the TV copy, and the broadcast had focused on the return and missed the infraction. Shaw knew he was right, but he didn’t see confirmation until later on, when he got a copy of the coaches’ cut.
Later that season, Shaw was assigned to Florida-LSU. He walked into Meyer’s office with his umpire for the pregame meeting, and everything seemed normal.
“Halfway through the meeting, Coach Meyer said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute.’ He said, ‘Shaw, I owe you an apology. You were dead right on the foul. Back in the Tennessee game, you were right. I was wrong. I was out of line,’” Shaw said. “So, I’m feeling pretty good. We walk out of the meeting and I say something about how it was pretty cool of him to admit that. The umpire looked at me and he’s shaking his head. He said, ‘Forget it. He’s just working for that break-even call.’”
Shaw laughed.
“I use that story as an illustration that the coaches are genuine, but also some will start working you right out of the gate,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘I’m so glad you’re here today, you’re the best we’ve got, oh man, we love it when you’re here. Now, by the way, you know their left tackle holds a lot. So we appreciate you watching that.’”
Even mild-mannered coaches with the best intentions say things they later regret. It’s an emotional game, filled with emotional moments. Shaw notes that in normal seasons the number of games a certain crew can call involving one team is capped (at two), to avoid both sides becoming overly familiar or carrying over resentment from past games. (Crews are allowed to do three games per team this year, due to the increased need to prioritize regional travel during the pandemic.)
“I try to be calm and then when I lose it, I lose it,” one Power 5 coach said. “You want to treat them with respect and in the right way, but there comes a point where, like, OK, I’ve had enough. You know, those great basketball coaches who kind of intimidate, I mean, work officials. There’s going to be a little bit of that — or at least that you want to try to do it respectfully. But I’m not the best at it. I wouldn’t say I’m one of the better ones.”
One Group of 5 coach who doesn’t swear said he’s gotten some strange looks from officials, who are probably used to more colorful language.
“I’ve told them they’re a cheater. Or I’ll say, I can’t believe you just made that call,” he said. “How can you go to bed tonight with a clear conscience? They’ll look at me, like, what? Some guys take that personal, they tell me they don’t appreciate me calling them a cheater. But, like, get some thick skin. I’m sure you’ve been called worse.”
Said a Power 5 coach, “I try not to be a jerk to them.”
Defee said it’s relatively easy to tune out coaches who spend the entire game complaining. Former NFL referee Red Cash told a story that resonated with Defee: Bill Parcells never said a word on the sideline, “but when he did, you better listen,” as Defee recalled. “Most of the time he was right.”
Football coaches’ strategies differ from that of their college basketball counterparts, who have to nurture more involved relationships with officials due to their proximity on the court and the frequency of games. A Power 5 coach pointed out that Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski can be in the ref’s ear all game, with a running commentary, if he so chooses. It’s harder for football coaches to do that on a wide-open field, with loud fans and music.
“I don’t think you’re able to influence the ref while the play is going on nearly as much as in basketball,” the Power 5 coach said. “But my thing is: I try to be very understanding and as a whole less aggressive or aggravating when it’s an opinion call. These are human beings making the calls. But I do expect referees to be 100 percent right on administrative calls. Like, 12 men on the field, not a legal formation, ineligible receiver. Those are administrative calls and they’re either right or wrong.”
Multiple Power 5 coaches believe that the marquee programs in their league get a better whistle than they do. “They go with the team that has some history,” one said. “There are a lot more people more paranoid than me for sure, but do have some paranoia about this. Let’s just have a game called fairly and don’t worry about the name on the jersey.”
One first-year, first-time Power 5 head coach said he mostly goes to officials to ask clarification questions. He doesn’t always know, procedurally, how things are supposed to go or what his options are. “I ask them to communicate with me,” he said. “And they’ve done a good job of that.”
From the referee’s perspective, ongoing communication helps preemptively avoid potential flashpoints. If he can talk to a player about how he’s holding on every play and tell the head coach what’s going on, too, maybe the player will change his behavior and avoid getting whistled for it. When Defee talks about controlling the game, this is what he means. The action can be cleaned up without a whistle or a flag through alternative de-escalation strategies.
For the officials who lose control of games or miss key calls, there are real repercussions. Every play in every game is graded by the coordinator of officiating for that league. Officials’ standing in the league and postseason assignments can be affected. Coaches also can submit certain plays for review by the conference office, and confirmed missed calls can lead to apologies or public reprimands.
“There are kids’ careers in your hands,” one Power 5 coach said. “This is what they work hard for. I don’t think any official misses on purpose. I don’t. But I do think accountability matters, and we can’t always excuse it every which way we can.”
Referees understand coaches will vent to them. They know they will be called names. “You have to remain calm when all hell’s breaking out all around you,” Defee said. “As long as you keep it reasonably professional, and you’re not questioning my heritage or my integrity, you can pretty much say anything.”
Defee declined to share the specific language used in one of his most memorable confrontations, with then-Georgia coach Mark Richt at the 2013 Capital One Bowl against Nebraska. Richt was furious that a Nebraska touchdown hadn’t been negated by a delay of game penalty.
During the TV timeout, Defee went over to explain to Richt what had happened. They moved their conversation to the sideline to avoid becoming a spectacle. It became a spectacle anyway. Richt kept ranting as Defee tried to explain that the back judge’s job is to check, once the clock hits zero, whether or not the football is still on the ground or if it’s in the process of being snapped.
“I joked with him that we’re not Marty Feldman, we’re not a chameleon, we don’t have one eye on the football and one on the play clock,” Defee said. “I told him the mechanics, and he told me, ‘That’s not how we do it in the SEC.’ Well, (the Capital One Bowl) wasn’t the SEC. That lit him up, and he kind of lunged at me. I knew he didn’t want to touch me, so he stopped about two inches from me.
“I had three choices. One, I could have flagged him. Two, I could have walked away. Or three, I just belly up and give him some. That’s what I chose to do. I didn’t want to penalize the kids for the actions of the coach. I didn’t want to walk away because I’d look weak. So I got up in there and we’re giving each other the business. It wasn’t fit for print.”
That’s just one private moment in a career full of them. It’s easy to forget that officials are people, too. A years-later apology can make someone feel better. A cup of chicken broth can make someone’s day.
Two years ago, Defee was assigned to the Miami-LSU season opener. He walked into Richt’s locker room and saw Richt grinning. They hadn’t seen each other since the Capital One Bowl.
“He says, ‘I think I owe you an apology,’ ” Defee said. “I said, ‘You don’t owe me an apology. The moment that was over, it was over in my mind.’ I told him I had a ton of respect for him and understood the emotions of the game. We had a moment there.”
The art of working the refs: CFB coaches dish on their delicate relationships
Millions of college football fans — and some very confused viewers waiting for “Saturday Night Live” — watched closely on the night of Nov. 7 as Notre Dame drove down the field looking to send its game against Clemson into overtime.
On a key third down, quarterback Ian Book threw for Ben Skowronek, who was hit from behind by Clemson cornerback Sheridan Jones a split-second before the ball arrived. A flag was thrown for defensive pass interference right in front of the Clemson bench, and Tigers coach Dabo Swinney went berserk just a few feet away as the officials convened to discuss the ruling. Like magic, the flag was picked up.
To the casual viewer, it certainly looked like the presence of a two-time national champion coach influenced the officials’ final call.
“I didn’t think it was PI,” Swinney said two days after Notre Dame’s eventual 47-40 double-overtime win. “But they just called it and then all of a sudden, they huddled up and I guess the other ref had a better view of it, and I guess they talked about it and waved it off. I’ve been on both sides of that.”
He laughed.
Sideline encounters like that are the most visible examples, but they’re far from the only moments when coaches and officials cross paths over the course of a football game. Some interactions are routine and pleasant; others are contentious. Some coaches believe they can work over an official to eventually earn a makeup call; others don’t believe any amount of one-on-one time will produce breaks in their favor.
A dozen active Power 5 head coaches and two Group of 5 head coaches spoke to The Athletic about how they approach their relationships with officials, granted anonymity so that they would discuss the topic candidly. Football coaches are paranoid, fanatically competitive people by nature, and those traits come out in countless subtle and unsubtle faceoffs with the officials charged with making the rulings that decide games, seasons and careers.
About 90 minutes before kickoff, the officiating crew’s referee seeks out the two head coaches for five- to 10-minute meetings. He typically starts with the home team, as that head coach may have additional pregame responsibilities.
“I always tried to make sure I had my ducks in a row when I went in,” said recently retired referee Mike Defee. “I always wanted to make sure I was a little bit early in arriving for that meeting and that I’d done my homework on both teams, knowing players that were injured or a new quarterback. It’s important, as a referee, to go in there already knowing a lot about the team.”
As a sign of respect to the coach, Defee said he always took off his hat upon entry before giving him a firm handshake. He would look the coach straight in the eye each time he addressed him, in his first attempt to establish who was really in control of the game. He then solicited questions from the coach, about the opposing team’s style of play or any information the coach had sent in to the conference office. He wanted coaches to know that although the game was about their teams, he was the one responsible for its administration.
Most coaches took the opportunity during those meetings to run through potential trick plays or unusual formations, clearing them beforehand so they didn’t take the officials by surprise in the game.
“I’ll have five or six plays that they could possibly screw up — that, if they screw up, it’s a problem because you can’t just review it,” said one Power 5 coach. “I’ve got to make sure they see it. So I’ll draw those on the board for them. I’ll even show a little video. And then, prior to the play, a lot of times I’ll say, ‘Hey, here comes that one I told you about.’ ”
“I don’t trust ‘em. I tell them as little as possible,” another Power 5 coach said.
“I did not tell them plays I might run early in my career because I didn’t trust any of them,” a third said.
Begrudgingly, the third coach has opened up somewhat. If he’s planning to exploit a seldom-used rule or make use of shuffling eligible and ineligible receivers, he’ll call his conference’s coordinator of officials during the week. He said he’s gained a little bit more trust in the refs as he’s gone through his career. They have not tipped him off to anything his opponents were planning to run, so he’s more confident now that they wouldn’t let his opponents in on what he told them.
But the paranoia remains for some. One Group of 5 coach said his approach to the pregame meeting is “be cordial but don’t tell them too much.” Another Group of 5 coach said if he has a particularly funky play prepared for that day, he doesn’t completely spill the beans. “I’ll just tell them, like, ‘Hey, we’re going to have a backwards pass, it’s going to be a double pass — it’ll be very obvious for you.’ Because I don’t want to give it to them.”
Sometimes, the same coach tells the referee about a couple of trick plays he has no intention of calling, “just to mess with him.”
“This is my own personal game that I enjoy playing,” he said, laughing. “I’ll pull out some old plays and put them in front of him. He’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, is that a double reverse pass to … a tackle? That’s going to be backwards, too?’ He’ll be like, ‘When are you going to do this?’ I’ll say, ‘Probably somewhere in this area.’ I’ll just be messing with him to keep him honest.”
The longer he’s been a head coach, the more he’s gotten to know individual referees and, eventually, learned how to trust them. He now (usually) explains plays he actually plans to call.
Other coaches give referees a longer leash, at least until they feel they’ve been burned.
“If you treat people a certain way, they respond to you a certain way,” one Power 5 coach said. “I think you can establish a reputation that’s, ‘Hey, this guy does it the right way, and we respect the way your kids play and how hard they play now, but they play by the rules and doing things the right way.’ I want to be known as that kind of person. … In my heart of hearts, I don’t think they’re trying to intentionally hose us.
“If you’re an idiot to a guy, I promise you, when it comes down to it, they’re not gonna give you anything. That’s human nature. You get a lot more with sugar than you do with vinegar.”
Coaches begin working the referee the second the door opens for that pregame meeting. Well, they try. It doesn’t always work — both sides know exactly what is happening.
“The only thing that has ever helped us was one time in a cold, cold game — like, it was nine degrees — we had chicken broth on the sidelines,” a Group of 5 coach said. “I offered chicken broth to one of the officials, and he was like, ‘This is the greatest thing that I’ve ever had right now in this moment.’ And I said, ‘Just remember that.’ That official and I have had a good relationship since.”
Defee remembers a specific Colorado State game back when Steve Fairchild was the head coach. Fairchild had clearly done his homework and knew where Defee was from. The two had a pleasant conversation on the sideline prior to kickoff.
“Then, during the game, he called me everything but a human being,” Defee said. “So, it can change rather quickly. What’s important, as a football official, is to know: You’re not going to work me. At the end of the day, I’m going to do what’s right for the game. My credibility and reputation is on the line.”
Steve Shaw, who was selected as national coordinator of officials in December 2019 after a long run as an SEC referee, shared a story about working one of the first Tennessee-Florida games that Urban Meyer participated in as the Gators’ head coach. On one Tennessee punt, a Florida player drilled the punter after the return man had gone out of bounds, and Shaw flagged him immediately.
“Well, Coach Meyer didn’t react well to that,” Shaw said. “He said, ‘We’ve coached him to do that!’ I said, ‘Coach, he was late.’ He was like, ‘You missed that one! Usually you’re pretty good. But I’m telling you, you missed that.’ He went at me pretty good.”
Shaw admitted he was a little bit worried afterwards. The only copy of the game he received was the TV copy, and the broadcast had focused on the return and missed the infraction. Shaw knew he was right, but he didn’t see confirmation until later on, when he got a copy of the coaches’ cut.
Later that season, Shaw was assigned to Florida-LSU. He walked into Meyer’s office with his umpire for the pregame meeting, and everything seemed normal.
“Halfway through the meeting, Coach Meyer said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute.’ He said, ‘Shaw, I owe you an apology. You were dead right on the foul. Back in the Tennessee game, you were right. I was wrong. I was out of line,’” Shaw said. “So, I’m feeling pretty good. We walk out of the meeting and I say something about how it was pretty cool of him to admit that. The umpire looked at me and he’s shaking his head. He said, ‘Forget it. He’s just working for that break-even call.’”
Shaw laughed.
“I use that story as an illustration that the coaches are genuine, but also some will start working you right out of the gate,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘I’m so glad you’re here today, you’re the best we’ve got, oh man, we love it when you’re here. Now, by the way, you know their left tackle holds a lot. So we appreciate you watching that.’”
Even mild-mannered coaches with the best intentions say things they later regret. It’s an emotional game, filled with emotional moments. Shaw notes that in normal seasons the number of games a certain crew can call involving one team is capped (at two), to avoid both sides becoming overly familiar or carrying over resentment from past games. (Crews are allowed to do three games per team this year, due to the increased need to prioritize regional travel during the pandemic.)
“I try to be calm and then when I lose it, I lose it,” one Power 5 coach said. “You want to treat them with respect and in the right way, but there comes a point where, like, OK, I’ve had enough. You know, those great basketball coaches who kind of intimidate, I mean, work officials. There’s going to be a little bit of that — or at least that you want to try to do it respectfully. But I’m not the best at it. I wouldn’t say I’m one of the better ones.”
One Group of 5 coach who doesn’t swear said he’s gotten some strange looks from officials, who are probably used to more colorful language.
“I’ve told them they’re a cheater. Or I’ll say, I can’t believe you just made that call,” he said. “How can you go to bed tonight with a clear conscience? They’ll look at me, like, what? Some guys take that personal, they tell me they don’t appreciate me calling them a cheater. But, like, get some thick skin. I’m sure you’ve been called worse.”
Said a Power 5 coach, “I try not to be a jerk to them.”
Defee said it’s relatively easy to tune out coaches who spend the entire game complaining. Former NFL referee Red Cash told a story that resonated with Defee: Bill Parcells never said a word on the sideline, “but when he did, you better listen,” as Defee recalled. “Most of the time he was right.”
Football coaches’ strategies differ from that of their college basketball counterparts, who have to nurture more involved relationships with officials due to their proximity on the court and the frequency of games. A Power 5 coach pointed out that Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski can be in the ref’s ear all game, with a running commentary, if he so chooses. It’s harder for football coaches to do that on a wide-open field, with loud fans and music.
“I don’t think you’re able to influence the ref while the play is going on nearly as much as in basketball,” the Power 5 coach said. “But my thing is: I try to be very understanding and as a whole less aggressive or aggravating when it’s an opinion call. These are human beings making the calls. But I do expect referees to be 100 percent right on administrative calls. Like, 12 men on the field, not a legal formation, ineligible receiver. Those are administrative calls and they’re either right or wrong.”
Multiple Power 5 coaches believe that the marquee programs in their league get a better whistle than they do. “They go with the team that has some history,” one said. “There are a lot more people more paranoid than me for sure, but do have some paranoia about this. Let’s just have a game called fairly and don’t worry about the name on the jersey.”
One first-year, first-time Power 5 head coach said he mostly goes to officials to ask clarification questions. He doesn’t always know, procedurally, how things are supposed to go or what his options are. “I ask them to communicate with me,” he said. “And they’ve done a good job of that.”
From the referee’s perspective, ongoing communication helps preemptively avoid potential flashpoints. If he can talk to a player about how he’s holding on every play and tell the head coach what’s going on, too, maybe the player will change his behavior and avoid getting whistled for it. When Defee talks about controlling the game, this is what he means. The action can be cleaned up without a whistle or a flag through alternative de-escalation strategies.
For the officials who lose control of games or miss key calls, there are real repercussions. Every play in every game is graded by the coordinator of officiating for that league. Officials’ standing in the league and postseason assignments can be affected. Coaches also can submit certain plays for review by the conference office, and confirmed missed calls can lead to apologies or public reprimands.
“There are kids’ careers in your hands,” one Power 5 coach said. “This is what they work hard for. I don’t think any official misses on purpose. I don’t. But I do think accountability matters, and we can’t always excuse it every which way we can.”
Referees understand coaches will vent to them. They know they will be called names. “You have to remain calm when all hell’s breaking out all around you,” Defee said. “As long as you keep it reasonably professional, and you’re not questioning my heritage or my integrity, you can pretty much say anything.”
Defee declined to share the specific language used in one of his most memorable confrontations, with then-Georgia coach Mark Richt at the 2013 Capital One Bowl against Nebraska. Richt was furious that a Nebraska touchdown hadn’t been negated by a delay of game penalty.
During the TV timeout, Defee went over to explain to Richt what had happened. They moved their conversation to the sideline to avoid becoming a spectacle. It became a spectacle anyway. Richt kept ranting as Defee tried to explain that the back judge’s job is to check, once the clock hits zero, whether or not the football is still on the ground or if it’s in the process of being snapped.
“I joked with him that we’re not Marty Feldman, we’re not a chameleon, we don’t have one eye on the football and one on the play clock,” Defee said. “I told him the mechanics, and he told me, ‘That’s not how we do it in the SEC.’ Well, (the Capital One Bowl) wasn’t the SEC. That lit him up, and he kind of lunged at me. I knew he didn’t want to touch me, so he stopped about two inches from me.
“I had three choices. One, I could have flagged him. Two, I could have walked away. Or three, I just belly up and give him some. That’s what I chose to do. I didn’t want to penalize the kids for the actions of the coach. I didn’t want to walk away because I’d look weak. So I got up in there and we’re giving each other the business. It wasn’t fit for print.”
That’s just one private moment in a career full of them. It’s easy to forget that officials are people, too. A years-later apology can make someone feel better. A cup of chicken broth can make someone’s day.
Two years ago, Defee was assigned to the Miami-LSU season opener. He walked into Richt’s locker room and saw Richt grinning. They hadn’t seen each other since the Capital One Bowl.
“He says, ‘I think I owe you an apology,’ ” Defee said. “I said, ‘You don’t owe me an apology. The moment that was over, it was over in my mind.’ I told him I had a ton of respect for him and understood the emotions of the game. We had a moment there.”