Odd history with Saturday's officials worth a look from ACC

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Before I throw this out there, I need to make a few disclaimers:

Disclaimer No. 1 – I hate writing about officiating. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. I think it’s bad enough when fans obsess about it, but it's 10 times worse when media types write about it, because it just pours gasoline on the conspiracy fires. And at the end of the day, we all know that everyone thinks their team is the one getting hosed. Sometimes, they’re right. Most of the time, they’re not. Unfortunately, when you cover ACC football, the officiating has been so bad at times that it’s unavoidable.

Disclaimer No. 2 – I do not think the officiating was the main reason FSU lost Saturday's game against Clemson. If I was listing the biggest reasons, I’d point to another slow start, the defensive breakdowns early and late, the incredibly poor pass protection and the costly penalties that doomed drives. What those problems did was put FSU in the position where a few blown calls could help deliver the knockout blow.

Disclaimer No. 3 – No one at FSU (or anywhere) asked me to research or write what I’m about to present to you. I’m not sure anyone at FSU knows this information … although I’m willing to guess Jimbo Fisher has an inkling. (Which might explain why he appeared to lose his mind when that Dalvin Cook 45-yard run was called back in the fourth quarter).

Disclaimer No. 4 – I don’t think the ACC has a conspiracy against FSU football … I didn’t even think that when you had a referee moving the football during a first-down measurement (this really happened), when the holding calls were disproportionately called against FSU for years (this is documented), or when defensive players seemed to be getting ejected for questionable penalties on the regular.

Having said all that, I did see something intriguing on social media this weekend after Jimbo Fisher’s rant about the officials in the Clemson game. Someone mentioned that the field judge who made the poor call to bring back Dalvin Cook’s long run (among other questionable calls) was also the official who ejected Nigel Bradham from the Miami game in 2011.

Well, it doesn’t take much to pique my interest … especially when it comes to conspiracy theories. So I looked back at that game, and sure enough Field Judge Mike Cullin was indeed on the crew who handled the 2011 Miami game. As you likely remember, Bradham was ejected for launching his body into a defenseless receiver … although replays showed clearly that he didn’t launch his body at all. It was a perfectly legal hit, which the ACC later confirmed in a press release that week.

Now, I don’t know if Cullin was the official who threw the flag on Bradham -- it’s hard to tell on old YouTube television replays. But the fact that he was at least on that crew made me go a little further down the rabbit hole, and I think I found some interesting tidbits.

By checking through every box score since Jimbo Fisher became head coach, I looked for any game in which Jeff Heaser was the head referee -- as he was on Saturday -- and any game in which Cullin was on the officiating crew. Sometimes they were together, sometimes they were not. I honestly had no idea what I was looking for, I just figured it was worth examining.

Here is what I found:

I’ll start with Heaser. As far as I can tell, he’s only been a head referee with the ACC for a few years. He has called four Florida State games since 2014. In those four games, FSU has a 1-3 record.

With Heaser’s crew in charge, FSU lost to Clemson and North Carolina this year and the Seminoles lost to Georgia Tech last season. Their one win in those four games was a 20-17 victory over Boston College in 2014 -- Jameis Winston’s last season.

When you look at the penalty breakdown for those games, Florida State was the more penalized team in all four games -- but I don’t know if you can conclude anything from that. FSU is the third-most penalized team in the country right now, and it doesn’t seem to matter which crew is working the game. But since you’re probably curious, here is the breakdown for those games.

Again, I don’t know what that means. It’s a super small sample size. But given what transpired on Saturday -- we heard from a source that FSU sent in more than 10 calls for review at the ACC office -- it’s at least worth noting. Especially when you consider FSU’s overall record during this time period.

At the same time that the Seminoles are 1-3 in games Heaser’s crew officiates, they are 27-4 when anyone else is enforcing the rules. And when you look back before that, before Heaser was a head referee, he worked one other FSU game as a field judge. That was the Seminoles’ 2010 ACC championship game against Virginia Tech -- a 44-33 win for the Hokies.

So, all in all, Jeff Heaser has been on the field for five of Jimbo Fisher’s games as head coach. FSU is 1-4 in those games. In all other games, Fisher is 72-13. Again, I’m not suggesting that this guy is doing anything nefarious -- Virginia Tech actually was called for more penalties than FSU in that 2010 game. Just saying it’s an odd phenomenon.

Now back to Cullin, the official who threw the flag on Cook’s run. Cullin was the field judge on Heaser’s crew for three of those aforementioned games -- the Clemson loss this year, the Georgia Tech loss last year and the 20-17 BC game in 2014.

Before he joined Heaser’s crew, Cullin worked five other games in which Fisher was the head coach at Florida State. The Seminoles went 2-3 in those games.

In 2012, Cullin actually worked both of FSU’s defeats -- a 37-26 home loss to Florida and a 17-16 loss to N.C. State. He also was on the crew for the Seminoles’ 21-15 win against Georgia Tech. So that season, FSU went 1-2 when Cullin was on the field, and 11-0 when he wasn’t.

The other two games he worked previously were the 2011 Miami game, which FSU won, 23-19, despite Bradham’s incorrect ejection. And he also worked the Seminoles’ 47-17 loss at Oklahoma in 2010. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered who was reffing that game; it was a blowout early.

So, what does all this mean? I honestly can’t tell you that.

I haven’t gone back to look at each of these games to see if the games were called fairly. It could all be one big strange coincidence. But it certainly is odd that those two officials -- either working together or separately -- have been on the field for the bulk of FSU’s most surprising losses in recent years.

This year’s UNC game. Last year’s Georgia Tech game. The N.C. State and Florida games in 2012. And then you had the crucial botched calls this past Saturday.

At the very least, it seems like it’s worth a look from the ACC’s home office. I’m not suggesting that these officials be suspended or disciplined in the time being (although keeping them away from FSU games for now would be a good idea.) But assign a couple of independent referees to go back and watch those games. See what was or wasn’t called. Maybe even go back and see if FSU sent in any complaints from those games and whether the disputes were legitimate.

Maybe they’ll find a pattern. Maybe they’ll find nothing. But after what we saw on Saturday -- and what these small sample sizes tell us -- it feels like the least the conference could do.

* Also Read: Recruiting Rumor Mill -- Seminoles pick up steam with big weekend

Personally, I’d start with Cullin. The call on Cook’s run was bad enough. But I thought it was poor form for him to then call the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the FSU bench. If another official wanted to call it, that’s fine. But it’s a bad look for the same official to tack on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when a team is arguing his questionable call in the first place.

Then right after FSU had been backed up by those two penalties, on a second-and-28, quarterback Deondre Francois lofted a pass down the right sideline for 6-5 receiver Auden Tate. A Clemson defensive back had one arm wrapped around Tate’s waist before they went up for the ball, which should have been a clear pass interference penalty, but there was no flag thrown. The official who was there to make the call -- or not make the call -- was Cullin.

And although I can’t say with 100 percent certainty because of limited TV replays, I am about 99 percent sure Cullin also was the official who called the targeting penalty on safety Trey Marshall (which later was upheld by instant replay officials). It was definitely in his area of the field, and he was the official explaining the call to Heaser. I just didn’t actually see him throw the flag.

So again, maybe he just had a bad day at the office. And maybe he and Heaser have coincidentally been in the stadium when FSU has played some of its worst games under Jimbo Fisher … and for some reason none of their best ones.

Who knows? It is a very small sample size.

But it’s certainly worth taking another look.

Contact Warchant managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com and follow @IraSchoffel on Twitter.

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