It has been nearly a year since Marietta’s Richard Morgan challenged a fumble call, and instant replay made its debut in a GHSA football game at the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in August.
Morgan lost that challenge; the ruling was that his player fumbled. The GHSA, and the replay officials that day, got it right.
But sometimes they haven’t, and it took several brutal missed calls to usher in the new age of instant replay in championship football games at the high school level. But what happens now about missed calls in semifinals games, where four/five seeds are battling to extend their seasons. Why are those calls not as important?
Through the four-game Corky Kell schedule last year, instant replay was used on an experimental basis in preparation for the state championship games in December, where instant replay was allowed for the first time in title games.
The decision to allow replay was born – when all boiled down – from a call in the Class 3A championship game the previous season after Sandy Creek beat Cedar Grove 21-17 on a controversial play. Replays clearly showed that Sandy Creek’s running back was tackled yards before the goal line, but the play was ruled a touchdown.
Instant replay would have changed that call, likely changing the game outcome in Cedar Grove’s favor.
As soon as the game ended that day, then-GHSA Executive Director Robin Hines made a phone call and said – for lack of better phrase – we need to fix this. And in the eyes of many who could have benefitted – or begrudged – having instant replay in previous years all seem to agree on one thing: The GHSA made the right decision.
That call could have been made in 2017.
The Class 3A championship game between Peach County and Calhoun that year featured several missed calls, but one incomplete pass ruling stands above all.
Peach County receiver Noah Whittington seemingly caught the ball with minutes left in the game, trailing 10-6, turned to the end zone, took multiple steps, dove to the goal line with an outstretched arm and broke the plane before the ball bounced loose.
It was ruled an incomplete pass.
Calhoun won 10-6.
The times and technologies have changed in the seven years since, and despite playing the title games in a $2 billion stadium and the home of an NFL team or at a college stadium at Georgia State, with an equally adequate replay system, the GHSA took its time.
Will it take several missed calls in the semifinals to prompt more change? Is it time to take another big step?
One can dream.
Three coaches were asked to give their thoughts on that dream.
Chad Campbell was Peach County’s head coach from 2007-22, when he retired to take the Westfield (GISA) head coaching job. He led Peach County to a state championship in 2009 and lost in the title game in 2011 and back-to-back championship games in 2017 to Calhoun and 2018 to Cedar Grove. Campbell believes he would have another state championship if replay was available in 2017.
Hal Lamb coached at Calhoun from 1999 to 2018 and led the Yellow Jackets to three state titles – 2011, 2014 and 2017. He believes a changing game creates changing expectations to get things right. Current Calhoun coach Clay Stephenson took over after Lamb’s retirement two seasons after “the play,” and he wonders if the human element is being lost to technology.
Their thoughts …
Hal Lamb, former Calhoun head coach
“I’m not opposed to instant replay, but we must be careful at the high school level. Fans may be thinking of the different levels and angles that college football and pro football have when it comes to replays. What is going to be included? Turnovers, poor spots, penalties overturned, stepping out of bounds? Was the quarterback’s arm going forward or not? I’m more old-school, but I do see how the entire realm of high school football is changing. I’d rather not comment much on (2017), but if you look back at that game, there would have been two fumbles overturned in our favor and one of which might have been a scoop and score. I just don’t want to revisit that mess again.”
Clay Stephenson, current Calhoun head coach
“It’s a tough situation, because from a GHSA standpoint, you want to get it right. But there’s also a human element to sports, and that’s what I think makes the great thing is about sports. When you start using technology, you kind of lose that human element to the calls in the moment. I think officials have an extremely tough job already, and with big games and big crowds and a lot written online, it magnifies every decision they make. Tenfold. But the issue I have is that you have it in the championship game, but what about the semifinals? What about when all evidence and video reviews, which a lot of schools have replay boards already, shows that it’s a wrong call and you can’t change it because it’s not a championship game. So it’s a tough situation for the GHSA to be in – to add replay or not – in other rounds. But I feel good with it moving forward. I was talking to a couple of officials being trained on it to make sure they are doing it the right way because you don’t want to put people on the systems and have them complicate things by not understanding them.”
Chad Campbell, former Peach County head coach
“I think it is great now that there’s the technology to add to it. If we had it in 2017, that would have been a different outcome. I am sure there have been some bad calls in all classifications, but none to the extent of (the two 3A missed calls). I mean that’s something that can turn a ballgame around if it’s called a different way. I think the times we are in now, it was bound to happen. I wish it had happened a long time ago. It needed to be done, and when you’ve got that kind of technology in a place like (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) or even when they were at Georgia State, when the venue has the capabilities, use it. I mean with as many iPads as there are now, most programs have capabilities during the regular season. There’s iPads all over the place, man. The semifinals should have it. … I think they should have it there, too. Eventually, if they want to get it right, teams will be required to have a system in place for regular-season games, too.”
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