New replay rule will be challenging.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

What appears to be the biggest rule change in college football this season, the coach's right to demand a replay review of an official's decision, might never even come into play for Oregon.

`I may do it, but it will be once in a blue moon,' UO coach Mike Bellotti said. `The whole idea is ludicrous. I don't know why I would ever use a challenge.'

The risk is the loss of a timeout, which Bellotti said is too big of a price to pay, particularly this season when the other notable rule change is expected to cut time and plays out of college games.

Bellotti's view is that every play is already looked at by the instant replay officials in the press box, before the snap for the next play. Those officials can quickly get a replay, while a coach has only his view of the play while it is happening, or a look on the video screen if a stadium has one, as there is at Autzen Stadium.

Unlike the National Football League, television sets are still banned from the booth where assistant coaches work in the press box, so they don't have the opportunity for that second look at a play.

`We have no more technology than the people in the stands,' Bellotti said. `We may have a better vantage point because of the (coaches) upstairs, but they don't have replays to look at it.'

It will be, Bellotti said, him simply asking his assistant coaches `what do you think? I'm going to have to have really strong evidence from my perspective or the perspective of the people upstairs' to ask the officials for a timeout to have the play looked at again.

If the ruling is upheld, the coach's team is charged a timeout. If the coach is proven correct, he gets the timeout restored, but can use the challenge only once per game.

`Will I want to waste a timeout?' Bellotti said. `I'll have to be very, very certain' a decision made on the field will be reversed before asking for the challenge.

The basics of instant replay reviews will remain the same. The official in the press box will look at things such as whether a fumble came after the whistle, whether a receiver was out of bounds on a catch and whether a player got over the goal line. Or where the football should be spotted, either out of bounds or where a player's knee touched down.

Not up for review are penalties. If a clip is missed, so be it. The ruling on pass interference made on the field is final.

`Those are typically the (officials' calls) I get most excited about, but they're not even up for a challenge,' Bellotti said.

The other thing he's learned is that much as coaches, including himself and his assistants, can feel sure there's been a mistake on the field, when they go back to watch the video later they find `we're wrong and the officials are right more often than not,' Bellotti said.

Even in the one college league where the coach's right to challenge a ruling was used last season, the Mountain West Conference, the results came out largely in favor of the officials. According to Verle Sorgen, the Pac-10 supervisor of officials, there were 35 challenges by coaches last season in the Mountain West, and only five times did the replay in the press box go along with the coach and overturn the ruling of the officials on the field.

That number wouldn't surprise Bellotti, who said he is hopeful that officials on the field will `work with' coaches and warn them before they make a challenge that the evidence seen by the replay official in the press box is fairly conclusive.

Sorgen said the officials on the field have been told to advise coaches whether the ruling they might want to protest can even be challenged, but they won't be attempting to talk a coach out of risking a timeout for another look at a play.

What officials will do, Sorgen said, is sometimes slow down their spotting of the football on the field to make sure the replay official in the press box has had ample opportunity to review a play. This could come, for instance, after a disputed touchdown, where officials will signal to each other to delay the attempt at an extra point.

`There may be a point where they just can't delay it any longer,' Sorgen said. At that time, the replay official may buzz the officials on the field and force them to stop play and allow more time for a review.

But to overturn a ruling on the field, Sorgen advised, `you've got to have indisputable evidence' that the original call was incorrect. Getting it right, Sorgen said, is the ultimate goal no matter how long it takes.

`The whole purpose of instant replay is to bring an aura of calm to the people in the stands,' Sorgen said, `and the people at home (watching a telecast) who write those nasty e-mails and letters.'

There has also been a move to shorten games this season. Instead of the clock starting when a receiver touches a kickoff, the clock will now be triggered when the kicker's foot touches the football.

And on change of possessions, such as after a punt or a turnover, the game clock will now start as soon as the referee signals the football is spotted rather than when the football is snapped to start the subsequent play.

The estimate on how much time will be cut from games ranges from five to 15 minutes.

`I don't know and I don't know who does,' Sorgen said. `We haven't gone through it.'

Who knows how often the new rule will come into play anyway? Typically, a change of possession signals a timeout for television commercials, so an offense will have up to two minutes to call a play and line up on the football, and might be waiting to be allowed to snap the football.

But in those instances where TV doesn't stop the clock, it will begin running as soon as the officials spot the football, and the seconds will be ticking away regardless of whether the offense is on the field and ready to go.

`You can't wait on the sidelines, you can't wait in the huddle (on the field),' Bellotti said. `You've got to be lined up on the ball. As soon as (the referee) is ready, boom, go.'

Will it really matter that much? Obviously, it could at the end of a close game if an offense squanders precious seconds.

`Coaches will lose jobs over this,' Bellotti predicted. `There will be coaches who mismanage it or players who forget and it's going to cost people jobs.'

When Bellotti first threw the situation at his team in a scrimmage situation during a practice, he said the Ducks bungled it and wasted time getting the play signaled into a huddle, and then used more time while the quarterback was calling the play. That was, the coach said, a learning moment for the Ducks that he hopes isn't repeated during the season

On the other hand, the offense of a team leading on the scoreboard will be able to use up time prior to the snap.

Based on games being up to 15 minutes shorter, Bellotti estimated that there will a dozen or so fewer plays in a game, and possibly more.

What will happen, he said, will either be lower total numbers for offenses, or a move to no-huddle attacks for more teams, to run more plays.

Bellotti isn't alone in his opposition to the changes with the clock.

`I think it's unnecessary,' OSU coach Mike Riley said. `I tried to ask why we are doing this? Does TV want a shorter game? I was assured this is not TV driven.

`My bet is that we'll do it for a year and then it will be gone.'

Register-Guard reporter Bob Rodman contributed to this story.