Of course, Alabama football fans have known this narrative was, to keep it PG, baloney, for a long time. The Crimson Tide has been one of the most penalized teams in the country for quite some time. And somehow, despite elite edge rushers for the last five years, opposing offensive lines are rarely ever called for holding on Alabama.
But neutral and rival fans can bury the "Alabama gets all the calls" narrative once and for all after what I believe was the worst call I've ever seen. I haven't seen every football game ever played, but I have trouble believing there was ever a call worse than this one.
Trailing 24-3 in the fourth quarter on a 4th down play, Jalen Milroe escaped pressure and delivered a bomb toward the endzone where freshman phenom WR made an acrobatic touchdown catch to seemingly cut the lead to just two touchdowns and breath just a little bit of life into a dormant Crimson Tide team.
Instead, a flag was thrown for illegal touching on Williams as the ref stated he was covered up. Replay showed that not only was that not true, but it was not particularly close, either. Williams was not covered up by anybody, and the ref didn't even throw the flag until the ball was already in the air.
I’ve never seen anything like this. pic.twitter.com/8IgZnfFClB
— Chris Marler (@VernDumbquist) November 24, 2024
There has to be some sort of accountability here. You cannot botch a call this badly and just move on as business as usual. College football has an officiating problem that is damaging the sport. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has always tried to be a forward-thinking leader, and he needs to lead the charge of officiating overhaul. The on-field product is too good week-to-week to have incompetent officiating spoil it.
This call did not cost Alabama the game. They fully deserved the loss they took in Norman. But that doesn't mean that calls like that should be tolerated.
The usually mild-mannered Kalen DeBoer erupted on the sideline. It's obvious the refs quickly knew the call was horrendous because they gave him a lot more leeway than most coaches get in that kind of situation.
This was the same officiating crew that called the Georgia/Texas game earlier in the season. You might remember them for a horrible pass interference call against Texas that negated an interception. After Texas fans threw debris all over the field, that call was somehow overturned. Alabama had no such luck in a road environment as there wasn't enough Alabama fans in the stands to launch trash on the field to get the crew to change their mind.
I never thought I would see the day that there was a worse call than the pass interference in Knoxville two years ago that negated what should have been a game-sealing interception for Kool Aid McKinstry, but this takes the cake.
It'll be interesting if any of the power brokers in college football have the guts to hold these guys accountable. I'm not holding my breath.