Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

When it comes to coaching hot seats, Georgia’s Mark Richt has been regarded among the Southeastern Conference media as sitting on the hottest.

But the seat with the most fire might be the one now occupied by Steve Shaw.

Not that friendly, easy-going Shaw will lose his job or anything; he just took his new gig as the SEC’s coordinator of officials. But let’s just say that if everything goes smoothly with SEC football officiating this year – fat chance, right? – Shaw’s phone will likely never ring.

When the calls invariably come in, late Saturday night, Sunday after a controversial game, or first thing Monday morning from an athletic director stepping is an intermediary between his irate coach and the head of officials, they can’t be pretty.

Shaw quit his day job and gave up his weekend stripes to take a full-time position with the SEC during the off-season, and he addressed the league’s media last week in Hoover, Ala., with rules changes and the way he plans to approach the job with the various teams of officials this fall. Shaw replaced Rogers Redding, who was a longtime official in the long-gone Southwest Conference before moving over to the SEC and moving into the desk job as the SEC’s sixth coordinator of football officials.

Arkansas Razorback fans might have forgotten, but Shaw was the referee in last year’s game in Little Rock with LSU, its last minute marred by a strange on-field decision that let the Tigers get one last opportunity to get the ball back. How Shaw didn’t flag Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino or the Hog sideline for the ensuing tirade is anyone’s guess. Petrino said in his post-game press conference that he never got an answer from Shaw as to why he stopped the clock with 54 seconds left and didn’t restart it after putting the ball into play.

LSU was out of timeouts. Arkansas running back Knile Davis was slow to get up after a second-down carry on the LSU end of the field. So, with Davis not getting up quickly, Shaw signaled timeout. It never restarted until the next snap of the ball, and Arkansas ended up having to punt when there appeared no way the clock would have allowed enough time for that.

And, of course, LSU could have blocked that punt and maybe, miraculously sent the game into overtime, not that anyone should think the officials would have been considering such a scenario. The Hogs downed the punt on the LSU 3 and Jordan Jefferson fumbled on the next play, and this time the clock did run out for a 31-23 win that sent the Hogs, instead of LSU, to the Sugar Bowl.

Aside from that strange moment, one that wouldn’t have happened if Davis had been able to get up off the ball and off the field quickly, everyone should realize that Steve Shaw has been considered the best referee in the conference for several years.

By moving him into the office to oversee the entire roster of officials, the SEC is taking their best ref off the field. No pressure on the other guys.

“I thought I had a few good years left on the field,” he said in Hoover. “When this job came open, this is what I had always wanted to do.

“I think my desire is really to take my on-field experiences and the talent within our officiating staff and really make these guys the best they can be. I'm not interested in us just being good; I want us to be absolutely the best we can be on every play, and that's our goal. “