The ACC officiating crew for the Pitt vs.Virginia football game on Saturday night has received heavy criticism and rightly so.
On the night, Pitt was flagged 11 times for 75 yards, but two calls made by that officiating crew have received the most attention.
Pitt appeared to have stuffed Virginia backup quarterback Grady Brosterhous on a fourth-and-1 midway through the fourth quarter.
The Pitt defense celebrated the turnover, bouncing off the field with a crucial stop in hand.
Until the officials stepped in and said the play had to be replayed since “the officials weren’t in position.” Virginia got a second chance and converted, moving the chains.
According to NCAA rules, Virginia should have been penalized five yards for snapping the ball before ready for play.
An official error took away the turnover and gave the Cavaliers another chance to put the game away. It was a horrible error from the officiating crew, one that resulted in a 33-yard field goal.
The other controversial call was an actual penalty that took two points off the board for Pitt.
Following a 4-yard touchdown pass from Nate Yarnell to Gavin Bartholomew to make the score 21-19, Pitt appeared to have tied the game on a successful 2-point conversion. However, left tackle Ryan Bauer was flagged for a holding penalty, which was a phantom call and another mistake by this officiating crew.
Now we’re finding out something else that will make these calls even more controversial.
The head official for this crew was Nathan Black, who was born, raised and still lives in Virginia.
Black was a starting linebacker and team captain for a Virginia state champion football team in 2001.
From there, he went on to attend Bridgewater College, a private school in Bridgewater, Va. Following college, Black continued to referee high school games on the weekend, then at the Division III level and then in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Black still lives in Virginia and is a project manager with Leidos and also owns a small business in the state.
Black obviously has and continues to have deep, life-long ties to the state of Virginia.
The bottom line is even if he’s the fairest guy ever, the optics alone in this situation are atrocious.
A bad look for Black, a bad lock for the ACC conference and a tough break for Pitt.
Easy solution – Fire his ass and NEVER let him officiate another game (even middle school) ever again!
Send a clear message to prevent this from ever ocuring again.
H2P!!!
Again this is not worthy of comment, Officials are human with that being said, errors or missed calls may happen. I was always taught to take the officials out the game. If either quarterback, the offensive line or the defense tackle better Pitt wins. Quit whining and place the blame on the team and Coaches.
Sorry, all of the ref’s not knowing that Virginia should receive a 5-yard penalty for snapping the ball too early points to beyond incompetence. Yes, Pitt was struggling but this does not justify such a blatant, game-effecting, call. They should absolutely be fired plus a new rule should be put into place disallowing any officials from being assigned to games whereas they reside in, or have strong ties to, the State(s) of the participating teams. This was the worst call/non-call I have ever observed during my 55-years of watching football games. Reeks of trying to dictate the outcome of a… Read more »
I can’t believe you’ve stooped to this level. Sure, it was an outrageous call. But, COME ON.
Exactly why don’t they call out the crappy recruiting of offensive line talent or legit power 4 WRs??? It’s clear as day we have the village people playing offensive line and all we hear from the journalist is there was a ref from VA who played high school football in the state lol it’s garbage.
Honestly, there have already been multiple stories written about the poor performance of this team. Sure, they only have themselves to blame for this loss, but that doesn’t excuse a possible game changing screwup from the refs. Either they’re incompetent or blatantly biased, which should bring immediate disciplinary action from the league…which we all know will never happen.
I’m not an offensive line coach but those lineman were brought in for a completely different system. Cignetti ball. Just a thought in defense of hard working young men.
Really? The calls were egregious but this is an absolute rubbish thing to comment on, let alone write an article about. Stuff like this ruins the credibility of PSN but penning these nothing burger articles
Officiating was bad but if Pitt was really a championship caliber team they win that game by three tds or more. The fact is that’s the worse team left on the schedule we’ll likely lose out maybe get lucky against BC. If a head coach starts 7-0 and he loses out he should be fired end of story. He’s completely incompetent even more so than that ref who lives in VA.
I agree that the depth of analysis to this column is a little extreme. Regardless of where the official is from, the 4th down call is a lack of knowledge of the rules. Perhaps all the commenters were at the game and did not see a third call that was not made when a Pitt player was clearly out of bounds, hit late and no penalty was called by the referee that was no more than 5 yards away with an unimpeded view. I have to question any exit fee charge with this type of lack of administration of the… Read more »
He shouldn’t have been assigned to this game, period. At the same time, he wasn’t false starting left and right to start the game which put the offense behind the eight ball on the first three possessions. It’s kinda hard to get into rhythm when you’re constantly 1st and 15, 2nd and 15. Those lineman should be running the hill and bleachers this week.
Typically the ref stands over the ball until he’s ready for play to begin. Why was he 5 yds behind the center if he wasn’t ready???
The referee stands over the ball, and then moves back into position. After he is in position, the whistle is blown to signal to the teams that play is ready to begin. Basically, the referees were saying Virginia snapped the ball in the time between the referee moving and the whistle blowing, likely to attempt to catch the defense off-guard.
Obviously Pitt had other issues that cost them, but this clearly is a conflict of interest, and this official definitely should be reprimanded
If he’s neither a UVA graduate nor an employee there’s no conflict of interest. Former NCAA basketball official. We had to disclose residence and any possible affiliation with ANY school in the conference where we were assigned. It’s up to the conference on assignments. You’d be surprised that a Pittsburgh based official COULD work a Pitt game without conflict.
The overwhelming majority of college football fans in Virginia are Va Tech fans. It’s very unlikely that a Bridgewater College fan has any affinity for UVa. That like saying a person from PA who graduated from Shippensburg is a U Pen fan. I have no sympathy for Pitt fans acting like crybabies about officials calls. Pitt has been the luckiest team in the ACC.along with Miami. Both saw their luck run out this past weekend. Pitt has been an arrogant obnoxious winner this season. Conference games have history. Players remember a team that taunts and rubs their opponent in the… Read more »