CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The ACC is implementing several changes to its football instant replay system heading into this season, a year too late for Duke to earn a victory against Miami last Halloween.
ACC Coordinator of Officials Dennis Hennigan summarized the changes at the conference’s media day Thursday, explaining that the league appointed longtime official Ted Jackson as its first ever assistant coordinator for football replay in January and will now have replay officials travel with the same offiiciating crew all year to improve communication between the field and the replay booth.
"In the past, our replay official was essentially a lone ranger. He would go from stadium to stadium each week. He was not connected with a specific crew, and the second person in the booth—the replay communicator—operated the same way," Hennigan said. "We’re making essentially a 10-person crew—the eight on-field officials, the replay official and the replay communicator."
Hennigan did not specify what provoked the changes, but they are being put into place the summer after the Hurricanes’ controversial game-winning kickoff return against the Blue Devils.
The ACC suspended that game’s entire officiating crew for two weeks, noting that the replay official should have ruled that a Hurricane player’s knee was down prior to one of Miami’s eight laterals on the play and that the referees on the field missed a block in the back penalty committed by the Hurricanes, among other errors.
Much to the dismay of North Carolina fans, there will be no changes in which plays are reviewable. The Tar Heels were whistled for a questionable offsides penalty on an onside kick they recovered in the closing minutes of last year’s ACC championship against Clemson, killing their hopes of a comeback victory.
The conference will also experiment with having officials at its headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., to help with replay decisions. The replay officials at the stadium will still be responsible for the final decision on replay reviews, but Hennigan noted that they would be more likely to be held accountable if they incorrectly overrule the official in Greensboro.
"The expected benefits of this are more consistency in replay officials, because we will have a regular group in Greensboro who will be involved in every replay decision," Hennigan said. "Certainly, if an in-stadium official decides that he disagrees with the replay official in Greensboro and he’s going to call it differently, it’s a bit of a risk. Hopefully for him, he’s right."
In-game replay officials may be losing some of their autonomy in video reviews with the inclusion of a satellite official in the process, but they will now have more authority in identifying and reviewing targeting penalties during the game. Even if a referee does not throw a flag for targeting during a play this year, the replay official will be able to contact the officials on the field to stop play for a review if he thinks "egregious" targeting may have occurred, with egregious meaning targeting that is clear, obvious and easily confirmed.
"The focus is player safety, as always," Hennigan said. "In the ACC, I went back and looked at all the plays from last season and I think there were two instances where we missed it on the field where I would have wanted replay to jump in and call it, so I don’t think you’re going to see it very often, but it is in there."
Targeting results in a 15-yard penalty and automatic ejection of the player that committed the foul, a punishment aiming to limit the amount of helmet-to-helmet contact and hits to the head on defenseless players.
Hennigan said 19 targeting penalties were called in ACC games last year and 14 were upheld by video review.
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