Leftover Ribs

There really wasn't anywhere to fit this bit into my Monday Rivals column, so here it is as an FTB extra:

The officiating, as usual, was terrible. Referee Penn Wagers is so clueless he doesn't even know not to stand in front of a kick returner when the ball is in the air, so what did you really expect from his crew? Don't expect things to get any better on that front; if the last decade-plus of officiating incompetence has told us anything, it's that the SEC's old boys club is much more concerned about squelching bad press than in actually fixing the annual buffonery of its punch-line zebras.

The best thing you can say is that the bad calls generally canceled each other out--but that still doesn't excuse the sheer awfulness on display when Wagers and his buddies inserted themselves into seemingly every other play.

From what I hear, whining about the refs dominates the discussion in Hogland today. As far as I can tell, though, there doesn't appear to be any acknowledgement of the phantom holding call that set up Arkansas' first drive, or the terrible spot that saved Arkie from turning the ball over own downs in the second half, or any other Penn Wagers screw-ups if said screwup didn't hurt the Pigs. But that's life in the SEC--especially if you just beat Arkansas

Thankfully for the nation's sanity, Wally Hall's columns have been pulled behind a paywall, but I'll bet his conspiracy theorizing after 65-43 was epic.