Last Night ESPN Gave Us The Biggest Shit Show Of A College Football Broadcast You Will Ever See

Last night I settled in for an evening of football. There were 2 games on TV that I was excited about. Jets-Patriots on Thursday Night Football & South Alabama-Appalachian State. I thought I might get two good games. I was wrong. Turns out Aaron Rodgers is still good, and the Patriots are in fact who we thought they were. And South Alabama-Appalachian State, which I expected to be a close high scoring game, was over by the 2nd quarter. South Alabama might have well been regular Alabama last night the way they shit down App States' throat.

But after those games ended, for some ungodly reason, ESPN2 was airing what was has to be the worst matchup of football teams to ever play on ESPN primetime television. The 1-2 Edward Waters Tigers (not to be confused with the man Edward Waters who passed away in 2018, who's obituary is the first result on Google when you search 'Edward Waters'), took on the 0-2 Benedict College Tigers. It was a Tigers off.

I turned the game on in the 4th quarter. The score was Edward Waters 28, Benedict College 25. I figured I might catch a fun finish before bed. And boy did I.

It took a few plays before I realized this game was in fact Division II football, and not a high school game. But you wouldn't have known than based on everything that was happening. I'll set the stage for the finish quick.

Benedict College missed a 40-yard field goal (about 60 yards wide left) that would have tied the game with a couple minutes remaining. Edward Waters got the ball back, and only had to pick up 1 first down to run the clock down to almost zero. 

One more important note. The play clock at Charlie W. Johnson stadium was completely broken. I'm pretty sure the refs were just counting on their fingers. I assume the refs were yelling out 10 second, and 5 second warnings. But nobody really seemed to know how much time was ever actually on the play clock, which only added to the confusion.

Edward Waters busts a big run and gets the ball to midfield. They end up at 3rd & 2 with 1 minute on the clock. Clock is running. No timeouts left for Benedict. They can snap the ball with just over 50 seconds left. That should essentially end the game. Now please watch the play and enjoy the chaos that ensues.

P.S. I apologize for my commentary over the video. I wish I would have shut up as well. And I had to film the whole thing with my phone, so the quality is shit. But you can still see what happens. 

At no point did the announcers give any sort of explanation as to what was going on. In the first clip, it sounds like the ref might have given a partial explanation over the loudspeaker, but naturally, because they're playing this game in Charlie W. Johnson's backyard, the mic cuts out. 

Even after the game was over, I went to bed last night having zero clue what happened. I'm not positive the coaches did either. Anybody watching was left completely hung out to dry. All I knew is that an Edward Waters player's helmet came off, which resulted in some sort of 10 second runoff being declined. 

But this I figured it out. I learned a new college football rule. I don't understand why this rule was ever put in place, or what the logic behind it is, but this morning I learned that when there's less than 1 minute left in a game, according to this NCAA Football Rules Addendum from 2011-2012, when player's helmet comes off the opposing team is presented with two options.

1. With one minute or more remaining in either half the play clock will be set at 25 seconds if the player is on offense and at 40 seconds if the player is on defense. The game clock will start on the referee’s signal.

2. If there is less than one minute in the half the opponent has the option of a 10-second subtraction. The play clock will be set at 25 seconds. If there is a 10-second subtraction the game clock will start on the referee’s signal. If there is no 10-second subtraction the game clock will start on the snap. The 10-second subtraction may be avoided by the use of a team timeout, if available. There is no option for a 10-second subtraction if helmets come off opposing players."

Why would a player's helmet coming off in the last minute of the game come with a whole new set of rules than if it had happened in the first 59 minutes? No idea. But since Edward Waters' player lost his helmet, Benedict was given the option of a 10-second run off + a running clock, or to stop the clock entirely. 

So the refs got the rule right. It's really not complicated. I'm sure a lot of people reading this knew this rule from the jump. I'm not sure why it would have taken them 10 minutes to sort that out. And you'd think that during that time, someone could have relayed that rule to the announcers. But nope. Instead it was total chaos. On the field and off. 

Edward Waters is now forced to punt away the football. Benedict gets the ball back to the 20. They have 80 yards to go with 35 seconds left and no timeouts.

There was a never a world, not even in an alternate universe, where after all that chaos, Benedict wasn't going to march down the length of the field in 30 seconds flat. That's just how football works. The second they got the ball back, you knew they were at least going to end up with a shot at kicking the game tying field goal.

Except Benedict's field goal kicker was 0-2, and based on the miss I saw earlier in the game, I'm sure there was a 0% chance that Benedict's coach was going to put the game on his shoulders. Of course they're going to go for it. 

But the cherry on top of this entire shit show of a broadcast… after completely failing to explain to the viewer what the fuck was going on in the most important moment of the game… causing mass confusion for all 13 people at home who were tuned in… here's the final play of the game…

Unbelievable. What an incredible choke job by the camera man. There was no fake hand off. No pump fake. The quarterback didn't even look the other way. Nothing whatsoever that should have been difficult for the camera man to follw. Everybody watching knew exactly where the Benedict QB was throwing that football, except for the guy operating Camera #1. His hand must have slipped. He must have accidently turned the zoom knob. Maybe he was so electrified by Edward Waters-Benedict College that he lost control of his arms. 

Regardless, it was the perfect ending to what was the worst produced football broadcast between the worst two college football teams these eyes have ever seen.

Thankfully, ESPN2 brought a second camera man.