Football Big 12 exonerates officiating crew Posted September 28th, 2015


Story highlights Walt Anderson told the American-Statesman that the crew led by referee Alan Eck "got the vast majority of the calls right"

Walt Anderson told the American-Statesman that the crew led by referee Alan Eck "got the vast majority of the calls right" Charlie Strong said Monday he'd never seen a defensive player called for holding on a running play.

Charlie Strong said Monday he'd never seen a defensive player called for holding on a running play. "None of them (mistakes) in our opinion were egregious," Anderson said

The Big 12 officiating supervisor on Monday night admitted “a couple” of incorrect calls in the Texas’ loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday but basically exonerated the officiating crew and didn’t rule out the crew working future Longhorn games.

Walt Anderson told the American-Statesman that the crew led by referee Alan Eck “got the vast majority of the calls right,” even though Longhorn fans have been outraged ever since they felt 16 penalties for 128 yards helped cost Texas the game in a controversial 30-27 loss.

Anderson said, “I’ve been working on that (Texas game) all day. I’ve seen the whole tape. I evaluate every play, and I think we got the vast majority right. The good news was the vast majority of fouls were there and correctly called. Unfortunately, a couple of them were missed, and we’ll correct that. I’ve never seen one perfectly officiated, and I’m not expecting to do so.”


Texas fans were livid over several questionable penalties, including a critical unsportsmanlike call against Texas head coach Charlie Strong who was vehemently arguing a defensive holding call against Texas defensive tackle Poona Ford. Strong said Monday he’d never seen a defensive player called for holding on a running play.

“Oh, I’ve seen a quite a few of them,” Anderson said of defensive holding penalties on runs.”We’ve got a lot of examples of that. I’ve already shown our staff a couple of examples on video.”

Anderson said Strong was flagged for “things that were said. Some things rise to the level they’re not acceptable.”

Asked if line judge Kelly Deterding crowded or bumped Strong on the sideline before the coach’s outburst, Anderson said, “No, I think that’s an unfair statement. The one thing we tell officials to do is go over, be professional and walk the coach back to the sidelines. If you do come out on the field, we’re not going to be trigger-happy.”

Overall, however, Anderson said the crew did a good job. Big 12 policy prohibits him from making specific comments on particular plays.

“None of them (mistakes) in our opinion were egregious,” Anderson said. “Those, we’ll correct that, move forward and learn from them.”

As for future games, Anderson said his office schedules the officiating crews three weeks ahead of time.

“And that’s it. I haven’t finalized the schedule for the rest of the year,” he said. “And it’s not information that we make public.”