🏈 Are the officials sending Saban a message?

[OldPlayer]

The man Coach Bryant hired was still there just last spring. That more or less became his job!

That's Eddie Conyers. I don't know how much he refs at practice since he's in his 80s or late 70s.

 

[UAgrad93]

That's Eddie Conyers. I don't know how much he refs at practice since he's in his 80s or late 70s.

Mr. Conyers is in his early 80's, I believe. The man has seen a lot during his time with UA. He was interviewed on Finebaum last year and told the story of how it came about that he officiate at BAMA practices. Coach Bryant told him to get a crew and Mr. Conyers said he only knew of basketball refs. Coach Bryant said to get a crew and be at the field at 3 for practice. He then told him that he didn't want to hear any damn excuses, just get a crew. He said he called up some guys and told him to meet him there at the field and bring their striped shirt. Mr. Conyers told them that he would throw flags and no one else. He said that the very first play, the side judge threw a flag. Mr. Conyers ran to him and asked why in the hell he had thrown the flag. They stood there for 2-3 minutes, now Coach Bryant is pissed. He growls at them at what was the penalty. Mr. Conyers said there wasn't, it was a mistake. Coach Bryant, said that wasn't good enough and that he wanted an explanation now. Mr. Conyers sheepishly told him that the side judge had a blocking foul. Conyers said he knew he was fired! 30 something years later and he is still doing it!!

 

[We All Bleed Crimson]

I believe that something must be going on... I saw 3 holds that didn't get called - one was so blatant as the Tennessee player actually tackled the blitzer.
I even rewound the DVR and pointed it out to my wife (she is a big football fan). I told her then that we're going to have to beat ut and the zebras.

 

[bamafan9201]

Yea I'm definitely not one for conspiracy theories but the last 2 games in particular there were some questionable calls. Maybe the refs suck or maybe Saban ticked some off them off or maybe it's just a mixture of feeling disrespected by Bama and looking the other way on some calls. Either way you can't make excuses for overtly bad calls over and over again. I used to ref quite a bit and we only ever had 1 or 2 bad/missed calls per 2-3 games. Hard to say, these guys either need new glasses or they are just not cut out for the job

 

[Barnabus Stinson]

The only call that "was sending a message" to Saban IMO was the lineman downfield call during the ULM game. Everything after that is just the normal poor officiating associated with the SEC.