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 Thursday, December 2
Official understands suspensions
 
Associated Press

  CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- Ronnie Fuqua didn't work the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. But the suspension of the officials from that game is keeping him from the Southeastern Conference championship.

Fuqua is a part of the SEC's top officiating crew that handled the Georgia-Georgia Tech game, in which Jasper Sanks should have been ruled down at the Tech 1-yard line instead of fumbling the ball near the end of regulation. Georgia Tech won in overtime.

But Fuqua was in Knoxville, subbing for a Tennessee graduate as the back judge in the Vanderbilt-Tennessee game.

"I hate that it happened," Fuqua told The Leaf-Chronicle in a story Thursday. "Our goal is to be perfect and get better the next week. ... Unfortunately, a mistake was made. You really hope you don't have a bearing on the outcome of games."

Fuqua, who lives in Clarksville and is the golf coach at Clarksville High, has to wait until next week to see if he will be assigned to work a bowl game.

He understands why SEC commissioner Roy Kramer suspended the crew. He also has talked with three of his fellow officials on the crew.

"They're disappointed that a mistake was made," he said. "We do not want mistakes to be made. We want the kids to decide who wins. They just feel awful."
 


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