As close as I can guess, there were about 170 high school football games played in Mississippi Friday night.

When you consider that probably half of those games had an extra official assigned as the clock operator, close to 900 high school football officials were in action Friday night.

Louisiana has about 40 more high schools than Mississippi participating in interscholastic football games, and that translates to at least 1,000 officials working high school games in Louisiana on a given Friday.

It is safe to assume the outcomes of a few of those games were determined by official’s calls.

That is, the losing team made no mistakes. No fumbles, dropped passes, missed blocks or tackles or no wrong plays called by the coaches.

Even in that case, most losing coaches went back to their locker rooms or got on the bus home already thinking about next week’s game.

Two of Louisiana’s large schools played in Lake Charles. At the end of the game, the losing coaches from a New Orleans school charged the officials.

The principal of the home team attempted to step in front of one of those coaches and was only protected from perhaps serious injury by the action of one of his assistant coaches who took a blow to his own head when he stepped between the two.

Police had to escort the losing players and coaches to their bus, and they were sent on to New Orleans without showers or food. Only then were fans allowed to leave the stands.

Even if officials’ calls were an indirect or actually direct cause of the incident, the head coach is totally responsible for the actions of his staff and players.

If the officials were bad, they should be disciplined with suspension or some other punishment, but the ultimate responsibility of such an action as that in Lake Charles rests with the coach. It is sad kids on his team will suffer as well.

SEC&160;football fans are aware of the action taken last week by Vanderbilt’s chancellor.

He eliminated Vanderbilt’s intercollegiate athletic department and moved all competitive team sports under the control of the department which oversees intermural sports.

The athletic director was offered a position in that department, and I haven’t heard if he has accepted that position.

Most college presidents around the country would like to follow Vanderbilt’s lead, but only time will tell if any do so.

Vanderbilt is one of the very few Division I football schools which could lead the way toward such a drastic reform without seeing a major alumni revolt.

Can you imagine what would happen if Tennessee or Alabama had been the first to make such a move? Their presidents would be lucky to have jobs as assistant principals at Podunk High.

Sorry that Coach Daryl Daye’s Nicholls State Colonels lost another close game Saturday night.

Hopefully they will get their starting quarterback back in action before league play starts next month.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. You can reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com.