Surprise surprise, the Pac-12 is involved in another story with its officiating crews, but this time, it isn’t the officials that are directly involved.
Deon Hollins, a linebacker at UCLA, was reprimanded for comments he made about the conference’s officials after the Bruins’ game against the Washington State Cougars. Hollins felt that he was held on a last-second touchdown pass that gave the Cougars the win.
Hollins said after the game:
“Beating the referees and beating the other team is rough sometimes,” Hollins said. “I’m never one to start blaming it on penalties, but there are so many times when they call ticky-tack things on us and not them. It is really hard to overcome that when you need a big play at the end of the game. It’s really tough sometimes. We’re just looking on the film and there’s so many missed things. It was just appalling; I was appalled.”
After being alerted of the comments, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement that, “Mr. Hollins remarks were a clear violation of the Pac-12 comprehensive restrictions on public comments on officiating and he is being appropriately reprimanded.”
Hollins released a statement in the same release from Commissioner Scott, and said that his comments were inappropriate, however, Hollins did not apologize for the comments.
Washington State had been involved in another officiating gaffe from the conference’s officials just a week before in their game against Arizona State. The officials claimed there was an inadvertent whistle, giving Wazzu another down, which resulted in a touchdown.
The Pac-12 acknowledged that the crew should have awarded the Sun Devils with a turnover on downs after a play was whistled dead. Washington State won the game 38-24.
This is far from the first instance where we have seen Pac-12 officiating crews involved in some sort of controversy this season. It just happens to be the latest in a string of mistakes for the conference this year.
