Worst ref call in State history (topic from the pay board)...

civildawg88

All-Conference
Aug 22, 2012
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just reading this thread makes me pissed off. I was too young to care about the BYU game but that Calvin Ridley TD was blatant cheating. The ref threw his hat indicating OOB and when he scored I was like it doesn't matter there's a flag for the receiver OOB. When they didn't call it, I was just speechless
 

RocketDawg

All-Conference
Oct 21, 2011
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The BYU game wasn't just a single call; it was the entire game, but concentrated in the 4th quarter with blatant holding never called. And it wasn't biased fans. Everybody in the stadium could see it other than the officials.

But the worst single call I can think of that I was present for was Ridley coming back in bounds to catch TD pass. That mis-call determined the entire game. I wasn't there, but the Auburn "first down" was absurd.
 

Baddog11

All-Conference
Aug 28, 2013
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When Steve Shaw sold his soul in the second half of the SEC championship game to help Tennessee remain undefeated.
 

DAWGSANDSAINTS

All-Conference
Oct 10, 2022
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I was on our sidelines for the BYU game in 2001 and had it been a baseball game, Jackie would have been tossed by the Umps.
I think those refs that night were going to do whatever it took to get back at him for the rightful tongue lashing he gave them all night and have BYU win the game at all costs
A questionable block in the back call on a punt return that put us inside the bama 10 yd line in 1999 in Tuscaloosa
A phantom call in our EZ against bama. - a PI call that was called based on what the Ref thought was going to happen vs what actually did happen and I do think that guy or crew was suspended maybe ?
we’ve been screwed so many times over the years it’s laughable really.
 

Motodawg

Senior
Apr 19, 2018
583
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Not in a game but remember when Ole Miss complained to the SEC the year we beat LSU in Red Stick and they got Dillon Day suspended for a game for unsportsmanlike for stepping on lsu defender??
 

msubrave

Redshirt
Nov 17, 2015
282
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Maybe not the worst but, a game against bama during the Mullen era. We punted and the returner caught it cleanly. The ref decided we were too close and gave a 15 yard penalty. Mullen rightfully lost his **** and got another 15 yards tacked on. I've never been more upset with a ref.
 
Nov 20, 2023
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I was at that BYU game. If I recall correctly they kept running an illegal play with no calls. All the fans in the stands were livid. Some BYU fan called into Coach Sherrill’s show after the game asking if we wanted cheese with all our whine.
No offense but 17 those polygamist weirdo’s. Not to say they all are, still, 17 BYU. Good ol BYU. Michael Jackson’s favorite university… lmao. The 2017 Alabama game was absolutely maddening as well as many others have said as well. Gets old being us and earning victories only to have an official 17 the whole game. I’ll come up with more believe me. Also the umpire called a completely 17ed up super regional vs Georgia just to throw that out there. Quite literally influencing the outcome. Even after we’d thrown strike 3 twice. Until the hitter got the perfect pitch to hammer. That’s not nearly all.
 

Maroon13

All-Conference
Sep 29, 2022
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Dick Pace call in 1981 is the worst. State would have won the game if not for that call. I was there. Only egg bowl I ever attended in Jackson.

99. We got called twice for block in back on punt returns. Vs Bama and Arkansas. Well maybe the Ark game was an int return. None the less, the sec did not want us back in Atlanta after the 98 game.

I don't think the 17 bama game call was significant as State fans believe. Even with that call, which happened on Bamas 2nd down, State had the lead later.... and just like every year... 91, 92, 94, 99 and 14. Bama dropped the accelerator down the stretch and took the game.
 

DawgTown Blues

Redshirt
Aug 31, 2022
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I'll add in the Auburn "first down" that was 2" short.
So…fun fact. The morning of that game, the misses and I went to Chic fil A in Auburn. There were zebras eating with Auburn fans. As a referee myself, I emailed the SEC Dir of officiating to tell him that wasn’t a good look. He replied promising me it wasn’t the refs as they were already at the stadium and that it was likely THE CHAIN CREW!!!
 
Nov 25, 2019
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does nobody remember Dick Pace robbing us of the OLE miss game and at Tuscaloosa for Glenn Young turning up field too early?
Both game changers.
 

Baddog11

All-Conference
Aug 28, 2013
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Maybe not the worst but, a game against bama during the Mullen era. We punted and the returner caught it cleanly. The ref decided we were too close and gave a 15 yard penalty. Mullen rightfully lost his **** and got another 15 yards tacked on. I've never been more upset with a ref.

because we remembered this premeditated attempted murder being allowed to be normal.

 

vhdawg

All-Conference
Sep 29, 2004
4,594
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Maybe not ref related but this was the most traumatic play in MSU football history to me. I had nightmares about it as a kid.

I have said this for 26 years and I still believe it....if MSU doesn't lose that game it doesn't win the next one.
 

tcdog70

Junior
Sep 24, 2012
1,388
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who remembers Wiley Peck dunking an inbounds play for the lead at Rupp. the the Refs waved it off and called Him for an offensive foul, we would have won the game and The SEC. instead we came in second and went nowhere.
 
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Jan 9, 2016
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2009 Houston: Tyson Lee wasn't past the line of scrimmage.
2017 Alabama: Calvin Ridley ran out of bounds before coming back in to score the winning touchdown.
2021 Memphis: The referee waved his hands on the punt return, which is the same thing as blowing the whistle.

No guarantee that we win any of these games without those bad calls, but I suspect we probably win all 3.
2017 Alabama is the 1st one I thought of.
 

60sdog

Senior
Oct 9, 2010
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1968 vs LSU in B R. Late in game we are about LSU 10 yard line. First down. We run a play get stopped. The down marker flips from 1st to 3rd. We lose 20-16.
A famous game in Tiger Stadium. Only got three total downs and were forced to kick a short FG, which cost the 4-point difference in the game. I remember listening to that one on the radio.
 

seshomoru

Junior
Apr 24, 2006
5,634
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1993. Tallahassee Regional vs Long Beach St. "Ball Four" from Jay Powell to walk in the winning run.
 

FlotownDawg

All-American
Aug 30, 2012
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It was Moorhead's first year, 2018 and we were playing Alabama in Tuscaloosa. We threw a screen pass to the RB, which went for a touchdown except we were called for a block in the back at the goal line. Replays showed our player didn't even touch the Alabama defender. The defender just dove trying to make the tackle. That touchdown would've tied the game or at least put us within a couple of points. Instead, the penalty pushed us back and we wound up missing a field goal, lost the game 24-0. That call was so egregious that I thought it was intentional.
 
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Perd Hapley

All-American
Sep 30, 2022
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There’s so many good ones in this sadist thread already mentioned…..Toefield, Pace, Ridley, BYU, John Wall lane violation, Tyson Lee vs. Houston, 2011 Auburn mystery first down, and 2021 Memphis punt return all very near and dear to my MSU fan codependency trauma bonds.

Others to add:

1) 2014 Alabama - Trent Richardson fumble at the MSU goal line. Ruled a fumble on the field….clearly recovered by MSU. There was no camera anywhere that could show you when the ball came out or when it crossed the goal line. Goes to review booth, and is mysteriously converted to an Alabama TD. This may have cost us a shot at the CFP.

2) 2014 Egg Bowl - Dak absolutely leveled from behind and flipped over backwards by Trae Elston while standing 17ing still after jogging to a halt at least 5 seconds after the whistle blew for a false start. No call.

3) The entire first 5 minutes of the 2004 MSU / OM basketball game at the Hump, the one where a normally pretty reserved Stans got himself tossed 25% of the way through the first half and did the choke gesture.

4) 2018 Bama. MSU defense forces a clear fumble near midfield on Bama’s opening drive. Runner ruled down. Call was so egregiously bad on the field that it shouldn’t have even mattered, but Moorhead made it even worse by not challenging it.

5) Morgan William getting absolutely mugged at mid-court in the national championship game with no call, immediately before the Ogunbawale 3-pointer to win it. ND was only down by 1, the worst part of this one is they were actually TRYING to foul her to make sure they got one more possession, and they still didn’t call it.
 
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dogmatic001

Junior
Sep 30, 2022
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A culmination of BYU 2001.

Easily the maddest I've ever been at a sporting event. Truly a sorry show by the officiating crew. One unsportsmanlike penalty after another after another. There've been plenty individual bad calls over the years, but that whole game was a systematic screw job -- almost unbelievably so.
 

Pilgrimdawg

All-Conference
Aug 30, 2018
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The really sad part, is that while there are many, many examples of us getting screwed, turn it around try to think of examples of where we were the beneficiary of a terrible call. Mistakes have a way of evening out over the long run. Most of what we experience are not mistakes. Just good ole SEC cheating us to protect certain other teams. Its had 70 years to even out and it’s not even close.
 

Mjoelner

All-Conference
Sep 2, 2006
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........Saban and Jimbo schemed that game perfectly. Mississippi State's defense was never the same after that night. We came back the next week and let Middle Tennesee State move it up and down the field on us. It was the beginning of the end for Joe Lee Dunn and Sherrill too.
LSU came back from 14 down in the 4th quarter and I don't think they ever threw a pass. They lined up in a Power I and ran it down our throats. Five blocking 3 on the line and the fullback taking out the first linebacker that showed. We weren't making first contact until about 8 yards downfield and it was frustrating as hell that it seemed like JLD was the only person in the stadium that didn't see what they were doing because we never walked our backers or anybody else closer to the line of scrimmage.
 

Mjoelner

All-Conference
Sep 2, 2006
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It was Moorhead's first year, 2018 and we were playing Alabama in Tuscaloosa. We threw a screen pass to the RB, which went for a touchdown except we were called for a block in the back at the goal line. Replays showed our player didn't even touch the Alabama defender. The defender just dove trying to make the tackle. That touchdown would've tied the game or at least put us within a couple of points. Instead, the penalty pushed us back and we wound up missing a field goal, lost the game 24-0. That call was so egregious that I thought it was intentional.
Wasn't that one called by a guy who graduated from Jacksonville State but who's father was a back-up QB for the Bear?
 

Ranchdawg

All-Conference
Dec 13, 2012
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There is no question that was the worst officiated game in Mississippi State history. There isn't a close second.

For you youngins, we were scheduled to host BYU Week 2 of the 2001 season. We had curbstomped them in Provo the year before. 9/11 happened and that game was pushed back to the first week in December, after the Egg Bowl. We had a disappointing season, but BYU was undefeated. The game was officiated by Mountain West refs. BYU won 41-38 after a 17 point comeback in the 4th quarter.

Every play in that fourth quarter seemed like it was aided by the refs. We get a first down? Holding. BYU gets stopped on 3rd and 30? Pass Interference.

I'm not proud to admit this, but their star RB broke his leg in that game and I was happy about it in the moment and a hatred for BYU was ignited in my heart.

Without their RB, they got blown out by Hawaii the next week and then they lost 28-10 to Louisville in the Liberty Bowl (which was C-USA champion vs. MWC champion at the time).

Just went back and checked. The RB was Luke Staley who won the Doak Walker Award that season. He finished the season with 1582 yards and 24 TDs in 10 games and 3 quarters. Got drafted late by the Lions but a broken leg was too much. Never had meaningful time in the NFL.
The only time I've gotten that mad at officials in a football game. For basketball it was the Kentucky game where officials gave them a game we were winning. Foul after foul until they were ahead.