Let all the Bulldog faithful rally behind the men who now wear the red and black with two words, two simple words which express the sentiments of the entire Bulldog Nation: Auburn Sucks.
Sad to report that after a long battle, my friend Penn Wagers has passed away. He will surely be missed. Prayers to Marcie and his family. pic.twitter.com/c1zarPHH7Z
From The Senator himself, Penn Wagers is Real and He’s Ridiculous:
I’m not about to stoop to blaming yesterday’s loss on the officiating – you don’t play sixty minutes of consistent football against a team on a roll like Auburn is, you generally don’t win – but as far as I’m concerned this is beyond the pale when you’re talking about how a SEC official should behave during a game:
Wagers steps into an argument with Richt, which is bad, but then steps back into it after Richt turns away to continue complaining, admittedly in a heated way, to another official. The sense of satisfaction when Wagers throws the flag is almost palpable. It’s also inexcusable. It’s supposed to be the official’s responsibility to calm the waters, not to stir them even more. Well, at least if you’re referring to competent officials, it is.
Now I’ll be the first to say I’m not reveling in another’s passing. I’m also admitting since I can’t see any news reports about this outside of Twix, so this could be parody or a hoax.
But I haven’t thought about Penn Wagers’ name in quite some time.
Many of you probably know I’m a fan of defensive football and believe the game is too tilted toward offense. A game this past Saturday resulted in a win as a result of a rule change that needs to be made …
It’s time to make college receivers get both feet in bounds with control of the ball for a completed catch.
These guys are professionals now at QB and receiver. Passers need to learn ball placement that allows receivers to get both feet down. Receivers make catches on Saturday that are no good on Sunday.
This rule leads to more replays than necessary to either uphold or reverse a call that would be easy for an official to make with both feet in. Fewer stoppages are a good thing.
What do you think? 1 foot or 2 and defend your choice in the comments.
I don’t know how to embed a poll and too lazy to figure it out. So sue me. 🙂
Well, looks like Barners got their wish, although the outcome isn’t going to change.
Veteran SEC official Ken Williamson has been permanently suspended from officiating conference games, sources tell Yellowhammer News.
The decision to remove the longtime referee comes in the immediate wake of an SEC review of eleven complaints against Williamson and his crew… pic.twitter.com/aKx91Ml2rg
The decision to remove the longtime referee comes in the immediate wake of an SEC review of eleven complaints against Williamson and his crew during the Auburn-Georgia game earlier this month. According to sources, nine of those complaints were validated by conference officials.
Yellowhammer News’ requests for comment from the Southeastern Conference went unreturned on Wednesday.
Auburn’s matchup with Georgia included unusually high-profile penalty calls.
Two sequences drew national attention: a late-second-quarter goal-line review that left both fan bases bereft, and a third-quarter sideline exchange in which Georgia coach Kirby Smart appeared to take a timeout before the play was ultimately reset without one being charged.
Where’s this accountability anytime Alabama plays?
In case you missed it, there was yet another controversy involving officiating in a national championship contest. The head coach of Coastal Carolina, Kevin Schnall, got tossed in the first inning of game 2 of the College World Series for making a comment about balls and strikes. The rest is, well, borderline embarrassing.
Coastal Carolina’s Head Coach gets ejected in the 1st inning of the CWS Finals.
1B Coach Matt Schilling was also ejected
This is embarrassing for the sport. Need umpires with thicker skin. Emotional game with a lot on the line. pic.twitter.com/lGGR5dFzy7
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) June 22, 2025
An interesting footnote here, for what it’s worth:
Same umpire that threw out Cannarella in the NCAA tourney last year. He was fired from MLB for being rabbit-eared and quick-triggered. And the NCAA puts him on their national championship game. An embarrassment to the sport. https://t.co/WnSv1cVDT0
The question at this point has to be “why”? If you know you’re about to have the biggest games on the biggest stage, why aren’t you selecting the best of the best for the best and biggest games?
For football, it’s always interesting that they select a conference crew, rather than a mix of the highest graded officials across all leagues and crews? Or is there a bigger reason for it…is this deliberate and wisely chosen, or is it just a simple toss up and an “oh, well” without considering history of controversial decisions?
I guess if it was with discretion to avoid controversy, we wouldn’t know who Penn Wagers was, would we?
There’s so much that can be said from such a succinct statement. I believe the 2024 SEC season was complete with stuff like this, but apparently the officials are officially offended.
Having to release a statement in and of itself is almost an admission of some semblance of guilt. This is the part where your attorney leans in and says “my client declines comment at this time…and forever, for that matter”. Sometimes, silence really is golden.
Somewhere out there, I’d imagine, Penn Wagers is saying “hold my beer”.
So the elites from the North Avenue Trade School are certain that Georgia got some home cooking officiating last night on Dan Jackson’s hit that caused the fumble. Apparently they haven’t watched much Georgia football this year, as we are never the benefactor of officiating calls.
Largely, I think the refs stepped back and let the guys play. But if we are arguing it was one sided, allow me to show you two other plays where targeting wasn’t called.
Seems textbook, yes? Also:
If we really want to play this game, though…Hamilton fumbled in 1998 and wasn’t down, and Jasper Sanks didn’t fucking fumble, either.
I’ll give it to them. Tech should’ve won. We played a typical Georgia game, at least typical for 2024, where we did a damn fine job of beating ourselves. We called a lousy game for 90% of the game, looked largely unprepared, didn’t tackle, didn’t catch, didn’t block, and didn’t execute well on special teams. Brett Thorson looked like the only guy who came to play last night for most of the game.
But that game wasn’t lost by Tech because of officiating. If there is ever a bigger gut laugh that could be had at the Nerds’ expense, it comes because Tech gained over 600 yards of offense, dominated the game up until about five minutes left in the fourth, and lost. They should’ve scored 50 plus points, but didn’t.
That, in a nutshell, is the 2024 Georgia football team. Rancid to a point, elite when they want to be, and 10-2 at season’s end. Most of us saw at least one loss on the schedule, possibly two, and that’s exactly what happened.
And none of those losses came at the hands of a traditional rival. That’s gotta count for something.
We’ve seen three games – Clemson, Texas, and Tennessee – where the defense was on a 2021 level. In two of those games, the offense wasn’t. We’ve seen a few games where the offense was on point when the defense wasn’t. We’ve seen several where neither were playing up to their potential, and last night was one of those nights. Unlike the previous two egregiously bad games where this was the case – Ole Miss and Alabama – Georgia found a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Honestly, when a Georgia team goes 10-2, makes the SECG and looks like an in to the CFP, most would call that success. The fact that we can look at 2024 and see it as a regression, a disappointment, means we’ve reached rarified air as Dawg fans. Let’s not forget that the man who got us here is Kirby Smart. I’m sure he’s seeing the same things and issues that need to be addressed, and he’s in it. We’ve got a projected #1 recruiting class and a bunch of freshmen who can step in and play instantly that will address many of our current ailments. The ceiling is getting higher, and the warts will be addressed.
We’ve been beaten up, played the hardest schedule possibly in SEC history, and we’re 10-2. Honestly, as much as many of you may disagree, Kirby deserves some credit as possibly coach of the year. No one else has navigated this schedule and these issues and persevered like the 2024 ‘Dawgs. Weird officiating, stupid decision making from the CFP, and a obviously biased scheduling from the SEC have been the narrative for the year.
Yet here are our Georgia Bulldogs. Battle tested, beaten, and still fighting. Beck has improved over the month even when his surrounding cast has not. We executed some two point conversions when I thought we wouldn’t (would’ve had a few more if people could catch). The tight ends have developed into a combination effort to do what Bowers could do. Dan Jackson has turned into the defensive equivalent of Stetson Bennett. In other words, things didn’t freeze in a vacuum, adjustments and improvements can be noted in season, and that is rarely the case with a football team.
Agree or disagree, at the end of twelve games with this schedule, Georgia is 10-2, and the team and staff deserve credit for that. Shoulda coulda woulda isn’t necessary here.
These ‘Dawgs are hell. Hell to watch, hell to coach, and hell to play against. But they’ve accomplished a hell of a lot, and they never quit chopping.
Launch — a player leaving his feet to attack an opponent by an upward and forward thrust of the body to make forcible contact in the head or neck area
A crouch followed by an upward and forward thrust to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area, even though one or both feet are still on the ground
Leading with helmet, shoulder, forearm, fist, hand or elbow to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area
Lowering the head before attacking by initiating forcible contact with the crown of the helmet
And when dealing with a defenseless player — and when in question, the player is defenseless — there still needs to be at least one indicator of targeting. Some of the NCAA’s examples of a defenseless player include:
A player in the act of or just after throwing a pass, and that includes “an offensive player in a passing posture with a focus downfield”
A player attempted to catch a forward or backward pass, or a player who has completed the catch but hasn’t had time to protect himself or hasn’t clearly become the ball-carrier yet
A kicker in the act of kicking or just after kicking the ball
A player on the ground
A player who receives a blind-side block
A player with the ball who is already in the grasp of an opponent and whose forward progress has been stopped
A quarterback any time after a change of possession
A ball-carrier purposely sliding feet first
Bold, italicized emphasis added. If the call on Jackson was worth a flag for review, and the player wasn’t defenseless and actually lowered his own head to make contact with Jackson, why wasn’t this at least reviewed?
I’m beginning to get the impression that the “feeling” we had during the game that the officials were attempting to affect the game was, well:
Revisionist history at its best. It never happened if we don’t ever talk about it again, right? Right?
Also, this:
My favorite part of Saturday night was when Georgia’s communications went down and by rule both teams have to give up communications in that circumstance. As soon as they announced this rule, Georgia’s headsets immediately started working again.
There’s nothing fishy about what happened in Austin at all. The way the ESPN crew was in on it, calling Kirby salty and all, and not pointing out at all – including their officiating rules expert not noting – that a non-reviewable play was influenced by over a hundred thousand whining, violent brats throwing stuff on the field.
I hope when they come Athens next year that we schedule the Twilight Criterium, a Widespread Panic street concert, and a WNBA exhibition game featuring Caitlin Clark at the Coliseum all on the same weekend, and we allow a thousand visitors tickets all along the top rows around Sanford. Bevo will be allowed to participate in the game from a corner of Cedar Shoals High School. Of course, that’s assuming the SEC doesn’t reverse their scheduling decision and have us go back to Austin next year, instead.
