The Sports Arsenal

Links of interest:

Game story, The Post and Courier

“Notes” section, The Post and Courier

Box score

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This isn’t going to be lengthy, because it doesn’t have to be…

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I do not understand why a team is not ready to play a football game. There aren’t that many of them in a season. Shouldn’t players have the required intensity for each and every game?

The lack of fire in the Bulldogs on Saturday was striking, and deeply disappointing. I’ve seen The Citadel lose many games over the years, but rarely have I been as disgusted in the team’s play.

This egg-laying type of performance happened occasionally in Kevin Higgins’ tenure, too, and it was just as infuriating when it happened then. I was hoping that with a new coaching staff, there would never be a question as to the Bulldogs’ effort, or desire.

When the game story in the local newspaper uses the words “sleep-walking” and “drowsy” to describe the home team (and the URL for the webpage includes “sluggish”), you know the team didn’t go about its business in an enthusiastic manner. Spirit and passion are mandatory for players when The Citadel plays a football game. Those qualities did not appear to be present on Saturday.

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The lack of sharpness was most evident in the number of missed tackles by The Citadel’s defense. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many missed tackles by the Bulldogs’ D in a game.

Chattanooga ran 67 offensive plays from scrimmage. Based on that, I would guesstimate the Bulldogs missed about 100 tackles, as they seemed to miss 1 or 2 tackles on every play.

The Mocs averaged 7.13 yards per play. There is no telling how many extra yards UTC running backs and receivers picked up after the initial hit.

The entire contest, from The Citadel’s perspective, was bad. Offense, defense, special teams — everything. The missed tackles, though, stood out.

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The best on-field performance by a member of the corps on Saturday didn’t come from one of the football players, but by a cadet who was invited to compete in a contest after the third quarter. Cadet Patton (I think that was his name) successfully threw a 25-yard pass through the goalposts, winning $100. Congratulations to him. (Nice toss, too. Good, tight spiral.)

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It’s been a tough year for Mike Houston and The Citadel when it comes to officiating, and Saturday’s game brought more of the same.

(Just to make myself clear: officiating had nothing to do with the outcome of the game in any way.)

Carson Smith was ejected from the contest against Chattanooga with a little over nine minutes remaining in the first quarter. He was dismissed for throwing a punch. It was not a good call.

I’ve watched the video numerous times. I have no idea why the umpire (who threw the flag) thought Smith was throwing a punch. It was rather obviously a “football play”, to use a trite (but true) phrase. I would hate to think how many players would be ejected from games for making similar plays during a typical contest.

I’m not even sure Smith could have been called for unnecessary roughness (or a late hit), because I don’t think the whistle had blown and ended the play while he was attempting to punch the ball out of the running back’s hands. Maybe you could argue that.

I doubt anyone is going to claim that an ejection was the correct course of action on that play, because it wasn’t.

Smith, a junior, was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Mocs’ second possession of the game. That resulted in an ejection, which means Smith will have to sit out all of next week’s game at Western Carolina.

Smith appeared to be trying to punch the ball away from Mocs running back Richardre Bagley when he was penalized.

“The deal with Carson really bothers me,” Houston said. “He was trying to strip the ball out, trying to punch it out and everybody in the stadium could see that. That’s deemed a punch at a player and an ejection? I don’t know … I don’t know.”

SoCon commissioner John Iamarino, on hand for the game, said there’s no review of the call unless the officials mistakenly ejected the wrong player.

Houston and SoCon coordinator of officials Jack Childress had a lengthy conversation after the Wofford game. I’m guessing any conversation the two men had on Monday would have been much shorter. There isn’t a whole lot Childress can say.

If you are an official, you have to be very, very sure of what you’ve seen to throw a player out of a game. It’s not the same as calling holding or a false start.

John Iamarino stated that there is no review of the play. I’m assuming he meant during the game itself, which is true. Targeting penalties can be reviewed at halftime in FCS football, and possibly overturned, but that’s a recent NCAA rule change and there is no provision for other kinds of ejections.

However, the additional one-game suspension is not an NCAA stipulation, from what I understand. That’s a league rule.

As such, I see no reason why the league can’t acknowledge an error by a game official and waive the additional one-game penalty. It strikes me as the fair thing to do. Otherwise, Carson Smith will miss almost two full games because an official made a mistake.

We’ll see what the conference does as the game against Western Carolina draws nearer.

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This week’s pictures, taken by a bad (and glum) photographer:

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Carson Smith, Chattanooga, Mike Houston, SoCon, The Citadel |