Just rewatched the the last 2 minutes of the game with my wife, she went out with some friends and missed the game. But I noticed that when JL spiked the ball to stop the clock 3 seconds ran off... yet when we kicked off to them after the score only one second ran off... I know it doesn't matter now, but had we ran into the same issue of clock management problems then it would be a reason to look into it.
I noticed the one second on the kick and it was legit. Guy fell on it, downing it. Didn't notice on the spike though.
The clock on the ESPN broadcast was a little bit screwy. I timed it by hand between the first and second whistles, and it's closer to 3 seconds. Which I don't have a problem with, better to take an extra second to make sure everyone's lined up properly than take a false start or procedure penalty that could kill the drive.
I thought it was only 2 seconds. We snapped it about a second after they signaled the clock to run, and then an extra seconds to clock it. Sounds about right.
It was about 2.4 seconds, but it's not a track meet where they measure hundredths of a second, so 3 seconds does make sense. Hell, the LSU clock operator ticked off about 3 extra seconds after the Byrd catch in the Auburn game in '07.
Anyone who's ever run a clock knows just how easy it is to get involved with the game and forget to stop it. I have for HS basketball- the fans usually bring you back immediately.
You haven't had fun until you've operated a basketball clock on a stopwatch in front of screaming fans, which I had to do back in HS when our clock malfunctioned. The officials had me announce time on the half-minute, so I had to do both while signaling the scoreboard operator when to ring the buzzer for timeouts, all while listening to my idiot buddies telling me how bad I was screwing it up.
