When Ohio State linebacker Jack Sawyer completed his scoop-and-score after sacking Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers with a little more than two minutes remaining in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10, he did more than salt away a Buckeye berth in the College Football Playoff title game. He also triggered a nerve-wracking 24-hour countdown for two officiating crews from the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
The anticipation that built for those 20 onfield and replay officials between the evenings of Jan. 10 and 11 was akin to a kid awaiting midnight on Christmas. The notice they hoped to receive sometime that Saturday morning or afternoon had many of them watching a pot of water that finally boiled late that evening.
“For us to be one email away from getting that assignment had us on the edge of our seats all day that Saturday,” said field judge Phillip Davenport. “(Crew chief) Steve Marlowe and I were on the phone throughout the day. He talked me off the ledge a time or two, and I talked him off the ledge.”
“It was after 9 o’clock, and I was tired from the day, and I told Phillip, ‘I’m done. I’m going to bed,’” Marlowe said. “If it’s there when I wake up in the morning, then so be it. I barely had put my phone down when he texted me, ‘Check your email!’”
Marlowe’s inbox showed an email from John McDaid, the SEC coordinator of football officials, with “2024 National Championship Game” in the subject line. After the immediate euphoria of reading the full message confirming his crew’s selection, he shifted into preparation mode, activating a contingency plan that lay dormant since those 10 men worked the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, on New Year’s Eve.
“We had a pretty good sense an SEC crew would work the CFP championship if no SEC team played in it,” Marlowe said, citing the SEC officials’ 20-year drought from working the final game of the season. “I made sure our crew evaluated our Fiesta Bowl so in case we got the assignment, that scoresheet was already in the can.”
Marlowe and Davenport are regular-season crewmates, and they are among the 10 SEC staffers McDaid assembled to officiate postseason games. Before that group officiated the Fiesta Bowl, they took the field for the first time together inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the SEC Championship on Dec. 7. By the time they returned to the venue six weeks later for the CFP title tilt between Ohio State and Notre Dame, they felt as finely tuned as a unit that had been together for six games.
“We were very comfortable with each other after having those two high-profile games,” said line judge Jeremiah Harris.
“Most of us had not worked on the same crew during the regular season. Steve did a terrific job of getting us on the same page the week of the conference championship game, and we carried that preparation to our next two games.”
With a Monday night game on the docket, the crew was in Atlanta by the preceding Friday. To help pass time across three days, they visited popular tourist sites such as the College Football Hall of Fame, The Battery, Zoo Atlanta and Georgia Aquarium. They also took in the CFP’s fan experience inside the Georgia World Congress Center.
“The city was alive and the buzz was all around,” said back judge Keith Parham, who also worked the 2021 national championship when he was on the staff of the Atlantic Coast Conference. “Both sets of fans were walking around dressed in their team’s garb. Hearing people’s conversations in the hotel and the restaurants, everyone’s excited about the game. I feed off that energy.”
Marlowe tried to facilitate the usual routine to which SEC officials are accustomed for their autumn Saturday assignments. He believed the higher stakes of the game did not deserve a deviation from the crew’s typical habits. He composed a list of quiz questions for the crew to review and compiled video clips to generate discussion about each team.
“When we met for pregame before the SEC championship, we didn’t have film from our work as a crew, so I had each official bring two or three plays from his previous game for us to talk about,” Marlowe said. “Going into the national championship game, we had two games’ worth of video as a crew we could look at. Rules and video are what we do week to week throughout the season, so I wanted to maintain as much normalcy as possible.”
Normalcy may have been easy to maintain within the preparation cycle, but the increased visibility of college football’s grandest stage brought some novelties. From security dogs sniffing their bags before arrival at the stadium to body cameras embedded into uniforms, the game had ancillary components indicating the enormity of the event.
“This was the first time I wore a body camera,” center judge Jason McArthur said. “It sort of had an Ironman appearance with it being right in the middle of my chest. I don’t think it had any impact on what fouls I called, but it definitely was an added element that I had to prevent from becoming a distraction while I was working.”
McArthur and Parham wore two of the cameras ESPN furnished for the game. With shots from officials’ shirts, goalline pylons, first-down markers, overhead cameras, sideline lenses and handheld devices, replay official John Allmond had plenty of angles at his disposal when the need arose.
“For a regular-season game, we probably would have 12 to 15 cameras,” Allmond said. “For the title game, we had more than 70. I obviously cannot look at all 70 when I’m reviewing a play, but once I decide to stop the game, I have a better chance of getting the shot I need with more cameras available. The negative side to that is the amount of time it may take to get that main shot that determines how I’m going to rule on a play.”
During the CFP quarterfinals and semifinals, a few plays captured national attention for reviews that did or did not occur. The rhetoric that filled the media airwaves and social media posts in the aftermath of those games may have added another layer of scrutiny, but Allmond and replay communicator Bryan Greenwood paid it no mind.
“We talked about those plays and how we might have handled them,” Allmond said. “But if we go into a game thinking about a call or a no-call from a different game, we’re snakebitten from the get-go. Just like the officials on the field, we in the booth want to get all our calls right.”
When Greenwood arrived at the stadium on game day, the building was empty. As fans later streamed into the concourses, he remained focused on his routine.
“When I got to the booth, I started checking the equipment to make sure everything was ready to go,” Greenwood said. “I talked with the replay technician and medical observer, then with the broadcast talent to make sure we were on the same page.”
On the field, side judge Justin Larrew took a moment to absorb the scene.
“I could feel the electricity,” he said. “Having two teams I had never worked before with two fan bases and marching bands I had never seen added another level to the excitement. But once the game started, it’s regular football.”
Production requirements for the CFP broadcast added minor administrative wrinkles, including scripted remarks for the coin toss, but once the ball was kicked, the game unfolded smoothly. The officials administered nine penalties and stopped the game for one replay review.
As the confetti fell and officials exited the field, the magnitude of the moment finally set in.
“John and I ended up going down through the field as the confetti was falling,” Greenwood said. “That’s when the moment hit me.”
For McArthur, the night carried deeper meaning. More than a decade earlier, a sudden health crisis nearly ended his officiating career.
“I had open-heart surgery in 2013 and missed that whole season,” he said. “I didn’t think I would officiate ever again. Football saved my life. It led to my diagnosis and to my recovery. I made sure to take a moment after the game to appreciate how God watched out for me and gave me a little kiss in Atlanta.”
Marcel Kerr officiates high school and college football, basketball, volleyball and softball. He lives in Atlanta.
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