I still need to know if those rodeo-style holds will be the expected norm in the SEC, or if that's only for Alabama's benefit?
That has been......not uncommon.....when it comes to the Gumps. Many, many times during our epic battles Alabama has blatantly, comically even, held our guys in clutch moments with no calls. In 2012 one of our DEs was giving their RT hell all day and at one point the OL form-tackled the end. Not a hold. Looked like a LB demonstrating a textbook wrap-up on a RB. I remember the DE sitting on the ground right in front of the ref waiting for the flag, and then continuing to sit there laughing when he realized it wasn't coming. That was in Baton Rouge. In 2013 in Tuscaloosa, things got so bad at one point their center put our NT in a headlock. There were memes made....gifs, still-shots, you name it, video evidence for anybody who missed it on live tv.....no call for, or many others. There have been many, many, such plays, but those two are kind of the poster-plays for LSU fans who think the refs are out to get them when playing Bama.
I tend to hold to the opinion "Never ascribe to malice what can be attributed to incompetence." I think the refs are human and have a lot of human biases, and like many of us, they don't always successfully get past those biases. Alabama is known to have outstanding OLs and fill up the NFL at those positions. The refs know this and it likely affects their thinking whether they realize it or not. Because they're supposed to be good, I think it's harder for refs to "see" when penalties are happening. As proof, I've frequently offered the similar example of LSU dbs, during a decade+ when LSU has a crazy string of great dbs. I think any objective person would say that sure, those players were great,
and also they got away with more mild PI than average. The poster play for that--well, not even that, this would be an example of something blatantly flagrantly wrong that went uncalled--is probably the playoff game vs. Oklahoma when the DB grabbed, tugged, and then started tackling the Sooner WR (I think Ceedee Lamb, but I'm not sure)
way before the ball got there....with no call. Those weren't SEC refs, but the same principle applies....LSU was known to have great DBs, and I think that affects the zebras' thinking.
Another thing it seems I see a lot of is sort of a sympathy-balance type of thing. i.e., when something gets real lopsided and a team starts "cheating" to compensate, refs basically cave and refuse to call something every play. In the FSU opener this year, our DL was breaking through their OL frighteningly well, at times. They held us like some mofos when that happened. No calls. I think the refs kind of decide "we can't flag them every play or it will look like we're interfering by killing their down and distance, and besides, we might get their QB hurt." Mind you, that wasn't every play and I doubt we'd have won even if it had been called, but it happened repetitively in spurts.
So I think that's not so much an Alabama thing as it is a state-of-the-game thing.
