Watched this in pieces over the last few days. Terrible officiating...
1. Michigan had to burn two timeouts in the second half to get the Sun Belt officials to actually take a look at a replay. Replay was relatively new that season, with the Big Ten on the forefront and Many other conferences not using it.
2. Bad no-call on 4th and 8 at the NU 18 for Michigan (32-28 NU at the time) with under 3 minutes left (and no timeouts, see #1 above for where two of those went), Zach Bowman hooked Mario Manningham's arm while going over him to bat away a pass at the goal line.
3. Long delay in spotting the ball and starting the play clock on NU's 4th down that shaved another 10 seconds off the clock (NU called timeout with 18 seconds left before punting).
4. The last play. How did the officials not throw a penalty on our bench or at least offsetting penalties because Michigan players also came on the field? (Answer: they were too embarrassed to continue the game is my guess.)
That was all in the second half. Michigan had plenty of chances to pull away and didn't, but my goodness, the officiating was atrocious. I think that was an impetus to change how bowl officials are selected.
How about that Michigan WR core in 2005? Jason Avant, Steve Breaston, Mario Manningham. Wow.
1. Michigan had to burn two timeouts in the second half to get the Sun Belt officials to actually take a look at a replay. Replay was relatively new that season, with the Big Ten on the forefront and Many other conferences not using it.
2. Bad no-call on 4th and 8 at the NU 18 for Michigan (32-28 NU at the time) with under 3 minutes left (and no timeouts, see #1 above for where two of those went), Zach Bowman hooked Mario Manningham's arm while going over him to bat away a pass at the goal line.
3. Long delay in spotting the ball and starting the play clock on NU's 4th down that shaved another 10 seconds off the clock (NU called timeout with 18 seconds left before punting).
4. The last play. How did the officials not throw a penalty on our bench or at least offsetting penalties because Michigan players also came on the field? (Answer: they were too embarrassed to continue the game is my guess.)
That was all in the second half. Michigan had plenty of chances to pull away and didn't, but my goodness, the officiating was atrocious. I think that was an impetus to change how bowl officials are selected.
How about that Michigan WR core in 2005? Jason Avant, Steve Breaston, Mario Manningham. Wow.