Glass still has hand in college football

February 12, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

BOARDMAN

The 2013 football season will mark the 63rd consecutive year that area dentist Dr. Larry Glass will be involved in the game either as an on-field, conference supervisor, evaluator or replay official.

He sees no reason to quit either, since his love for the game remains at fever pitch.

Replacing the adrenalin rush a Saturday afternoon generates just wouldn’t be an acceptable alternative.

Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches at their weekly Monday meeting, Glass said that fans can expect some rule changes for the upcoming season, but anything earthshattering just isn’t anticipated.

“Rules changes for this season won’t be brought up until late spring and while some proposals have already been made, nothing has been acted upon just yet,” Glass said. “Safety will always be paramount in college football and that always remains a hot topic at the rules meetings. You can also expect blocking below the waist to be addressed with north-south blocking and side blocking the key topics.”

Of Glass’ 62 years as an official, 47 have been spent on the field with the last 15 seasons divided between his time as supervisor of officials for the Ohio Athletic Conference and serving as replay official at all Ohio State Buckeyes home games; a position that he has held since Jim Tressel’s arrival in Columbus back in 2001.

What exactly is a reviewable play?

Glass noted there are three categories for which a play can be reviewed.

“All scoring plays are automatically reviewed,” Glass said. “Pass plays, balls that are touched by a defensive player, whether a passer is beyond the neutral zone when the ball is released and dead ball situations are all up for scrutiny. Any corrections that need to be made to the clock are also reviewable as well.”

Glass said a ball on either a field goal or extra-point attempt can be reviewed, only if it is below the uprights and not above the posts.

“Kicked balls within the confines of the uprights are reviewable with officials looking to see if the ball cleared or failed to clear the cross bar,” he said. “A ball that goes above the uprights is not reviewable with the call remaining in the hands of the field officials.”

Glass said the replay official reviewing pass plays wants to make sure a receiver has one foot in bounds when making the catch while also looking to verify the ball wasn’t trapped or incomplete on a low throw.

They also want to make sure that a tipped ball by a defensive player was, in fact tipped, which would negate any interference by a player on an offensive receiver beyond the line of scrimmage.

“While quarterbacks remain the game’s protected commodity, replay officials will always be asked to verify if the ball comes out of their hand when hit by a defensive player, making sure their arm was making a forward attempt before ruling it a fumble,” Glass added.

One of the biggest changes since Glass began officiating has occurred in the post-season.

“There were just four bowl games when I started and all were played on either New Year’s Day or that evening,” he said. “The Rose, Sugar, Orange and Cotton Bowls were the main entertainment on New Year’s Day.

“Now there are 37 bowls games that start as early as December 15. Last year, 11 teams participating were just .500 clubs. The Fiesta Bowl has replaced the Cotton Bowl as an elite bowl and as long as cities, schools, and leagues are the beneficiaries of the monies generated by those bowls, one can only expect that lineup to grow in the future.”

Glass hailed four area Division I officials, Tom Krispinsky, Rob Luklan, Julius Livas and Jim Visingardi, all of whom had bowl assignments last year.

Next week, local basketball official Diane Martino will serve as guest speaker.