Stories of poor officiating this year

Horrible.

Got a pre-snap flag for "staring at another player to intimidate him" on Friday.

I honestly have no idea why this year has been a total zoo with officials.

Nothing specific comes to mind in terms of a mind-blowing bad call. But I will say between JV and varsity there has been a mass influx of “I’m not doing my job if I’m not calling every little possible thing” type refereeing. Ticky-tack things both ways, even against very well coached offensive lines and defensive backs. Very frustrating series after series.

I've got three from this season.

We're returning a punt and commit a block in the back and a hold, and I couldn't argue with either one of the flags, however, the crew really messed up the enforcement. Guy on our sideline told our HC that the fouls were on both teams, and that they would offset. The guy on the opposing team's sideline tells their HC that they are both on us. He declines the hold and accepts the block in the back because it should work out to better field position for them. This whole process took 5 minutes! But when they assessed the penalty yardage, they walked it off the wrong way! We actually gained 15 yards in the exchange.

Same game. Trailing 21-13 under two minutes. QB spikes the ball on 2nd Down. Crew in such a hurry to respot the ball that they forget to tell the box guy on the sideline to change the down. We ended up with a 5th down play that ended up getting intercepted. Opposing head coach feeling like he's getting homered, tosses the ball hand grenade style halfway across the field towards our sideline. Refs flag him and run him. He tells the ref to go ahead and run him because he can't wait for the appeal. White hat realizes his mistake and decides better of the ejection.

Two weeks later, different crew. Down 21-14 our QB gets ROCKED trying to run the 2 minute drill. Serious concussion, so obviously not a fake injury. We are out of timeouts. White hat apparently forgot that it was a high school game and called for a 10 second run off which took the game clock to :03. He then signaled the clock to start without blowing the ball ready for play, ending the game without another snap. I'll grant him blowing it ready with the new clock rules, but there is NO allowance for a 10 second run off.

Favorite conversation with an official this year:
Opposing team runs a play before the official blows it ready for play (ironic). White hat blows the play dead and reminds the QB that he has warned him not to snap the ball before it's ready for play.
Me to wing official: "Isn't that a delay of game?"
Wing: "Yes"
Me: "Are you going to throw it?"
Wing: "It's the white hat's call."
Me: "Can you ask him to throw it?"
Wing: "He knows the rule."

No flag thrown.

I've had teams gain yardage on incomplete passes and penalties several times this year. Blew my mind several times. Last week we changed quarters after an incomplete pass on first and 10.....when they set up shop to start the next quarter it was 2nd and 7.....had another one where play had to be redone after off-setting penalties on 1st and 10.....well when we went to start again it was 1st and 7.....I argued the whole time and my sideline official told me it was supposed to be 1st and 7 without explaining it to me, and then when I FINALLY was allowed to speak to the white hat a couple plays later the white hat said it had been first and ten and my sideline official agreed with him....contradicting what he had told me 10 mins before. Same white cap before the game told me "I hope you weren't the coach two years ago when these two teams played (I was) because sportsmanship was horrible". Well that game was infamous for the ref flagging our kid for getting run out of bounds an additional 15 yards while being tackled and on to the track where he got hurt....

As an offensive guy, I have never had that crew.

What also irritates me is that they won't call illegal man downfield on an RPO but I'll get it on my middle screen.

They're right when they call it on that, but I wish they were consistent.

Had a game stopped this year for probably close to 15 minutes to get the rule book out on how to enforce pass interference. Basically the other teams wr caught a ball and we committed PI. Nothing crazy about the play. Our kid was a little early, their kid made a good play. They tried to give the other team 15 yards from the spot of the catch. Which I do know can be added on if it is intentional but this was not.

Opposing team is ready to take a knee to run the clock out. They are in the pistol. The white hat stops the QBs cadence and tells him he must go under center to take a knee. They argue back and forth about it and the play clock runs out and they give them a delay of game. They go under center the next play and run the clock out.

Didn't really have an effect on the game but my lord.

This was a state semi-final game.

That's bad.  Confusing how you can legally spike the ball with taking a knee...  SMDH.

I think it's easier to accept poor judgement calls as long as they understand the difference between NFHS, NCAA and NFL rules but it's a whole other pill to have to swallow when they don't.

Have seen numerous illegal grounding fouls not called this year due to the passer being "outside the tackles and the ball was thrown past the LOS."

More than frustrating.  

There still is judgement in the intentional grounding foul if there is a WR in the area but not so much pass interference as if there is any contact (incidental or not) while the ball is in the air no matter where the ball is it is PI.

And I think there is nothing wrong with being critical of officials that do not now the basic rules or game management procedures. It has to be uniform otherwise each game you would be playing by a different set of rules unbeknownst to either team until you started playing. Makes it difficult to play or coach in that setting.

Mistakes happen, and they're frustrating but tolerable. Having officials be unqualified, either due to incompetence, age, or physical condition...that's unacceptable. We have a "shortage" in Iowa bc we have a bunch of 80 year olds using his sports reffing as a retirement program, and young refs don't wanna wait 40 years to get seniority so they can receive a gas stipend to drive an hour for a game.

But, hey, I'm sure our iahss commissioners are earning those 6 figure paychecks, just not sure how.

I think we should play by college rules. The NFL can do their own thing, because they can't even figure out what is and is not a catch.

The worse I saw this year was when we fumbled and one of the officials blew his whistle, so my players stopped, as did the other team for half a second, except for the kid that scooped up the ball and return it for a TD. I let be known, as did our crowd that a whistle had blown. All of the refs denied it. On film, you can clearly hear the whistle being blown. I would've been more upset, but it didn't decide the outcome of the game as the other team was clearly better! What upset me the most was the official who did blow his whistle lied about it.