This has already been discussed pretty extensively in another diary, but the Shipley touchdown call was correct.  As "agent orange" pointed out, there was a similar play described by an official: the expert opinion

"The integral part (and sorry about the caps, that was him, not me!) - "...THE RECEIVER'S TOE IS IN BOUNDS. THUS HE IS GROUNDED IN BOUND.  THE ENTIRE FOOT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE GROUNDED ONLY A PART OF IT.  LIKEWISE, IF ONLY HIS TOE WAS ON THE SIDELINE HE WOULD BE DEEMED OUT OF BOUNDS."

It does not matter that Shipley's heel subsequently touched out-of-bounds.  At the moment his toe touched, he was considered grounded and it was a touchdown.  No different than dragging a toe from in-bounds to out-of-bounds.  

As far as the hold on Kindle, that is definitley not something that you see on every play.  Anytime an offensive lineman grabs a defender around the neck as he is flying by him and then slams him to the ground, will get a holding call.  It was pretty blatant and obvious.

The other touchdown that was called back was clearly an incomplete pass.  Leach was just trying to deflect attention away from the fact that their defense was horrible and could not stop us from running all over them.

There is a larger issue here, several, in fact.

The first UT TD was iffy; I thought it would be called back and even the later explanation relayed by TV analyst - proper toe dragging - seemed inadequate. However, Tech had even less footing for it's complaints, all well documented on film.

So, the $10K fine is for going public with the complaint, specifically stated in the citation:

"Coach Leach's public statements called into question the integrity and competence of game officials and the conference's officiating program," Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe said.

Beebe is basically saying that questioning one official casts a dispersion on all of them, on their integrity and competence, and indirectly on all calls on the field, affecting the results of every game (well, not Baylor, maybe, but most of them).

Of course, if the officiating crews were perfect, we wouldn't need the instant replay cameras, would we? But the key human problem is that officials can't be everywhere, cover all angles at all the time, and their view, even when in the proper position, can be blocked or at least obscured. More officials might alleviate some of that natural problem but certainly not all of it.

The key questions the instant replay cameras seem to address more than anything are fine line judgments of very fast plays, from the end or sideline toe drag, completions and fumbles, and the penetration of the ball on the plane of the goal (or first down).

Some of these involve seeing things on two different planes; that is, possession on a high catch right on the end line, where one ref is trying to see both the hands and the ball and the feet at the line. These are tough calls by definition. More than one set of eyes on the event and officials' conference can sort through some of this, but it is still a tough call, particularly if the ref is too far away or even too close. Fumbles can be chaotic, with bodies flying every which way.

So, what the cameras are trying to supplement are the refined judgments which are the most difficult the officials make and to avoid mistakes which might alter the game. We all know calls, like TOs, can change a game. We just want to be confident that for a high percentage of time, the calls - and the corrected calls - are accurate and reliable.

Leach called into question both of these notions and he didn't have a strong case to represent his complaints. This wasn't an OU against Oregon type of blunder. Perhaps Leach was just reacting from an emotional basis - which I think is the case - and can't back down. Or be responsible, which is the same thing in this case.  

Tech has not responded to the charges as of yet and Leach hasn't backed down. But the problem now is scale: Leach launched a major assault, one where you must have some real meat to back up an extraordinary claim, and has no real extraordinary evidence to back it up, either in the game or as a process over this season.

For all we know, he could be right, but he has no evidence. So, he will be cut $10K for impudence and demeaning his own league. He may be a smart guy, but this wasn't too bright. He has avenues to raise hell - all Big 12 coaches do - and perhaps he could have forced some change, some better scrutiny at the very least. Now he has inadvertently raised the bar for the next coach who might have a real complaint. Whoever that might be, they better have real evidence in hand.

I think more transparency of officials would be good but they are behind a Chinese Wall. I'm sure the Big 12 won't release any of their grading or even any reprimands or punishment they levy. However, the cameras are reminding us that officials are human and do make mistakes both of vision and judgment: to humanize the refs in some manner would be a smart move by the Big 12.

If Leach had approached this in a manner to increase the integrity and competence of the Big 12, he could possibly have gained a better hearing. Bringing sour grapes to the table will only get you some bitter wine.  

Until they go back and find a series of unflagged holds on film.

A legitimate suspicion, maybe, but not complaint.  

I say a "series" because you can expect a hold to be missed here and there in any game.  Tech got away with some, too.  If Tech fans want a legitimate gripe about Texas' lack of holding penalties, break down the game and show how they were systematically ignored.

Otherwise it's still based on suspicion alone and not much better than Leach's gripe.

j-

legitimate complaint.  This link shows they are number 1 in penalty yards for 2007 (if you adjust for number of games they wouldn't be 1, but still up there):

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/sortab...

As far as I know they haven't played Texas every game this year.  Maybe Leach meant to say the refs are against Tech in general, not just when they play Texas.  Hey Mike, just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Also, Tech had 6 penalties called on them for a total of 68 yards and Texas had 7 penalties called on them for a total of 89 yards.  Someone needs to inform the refs of how biased they are so they can help us out more next time.  Alot of these penalties were personal fouls and I believe 4 were against Texas and 3 were against Tech.