Reviews can be nerve-wracking and game-changing

AMES - To review, or not to review.

That can be a nettlesome question.

Last season, the Big 12 Conference set an all-time high for both official reviews (169) and overturned calls (47).

Win-win?

“I think it is because the game happens so fast,” said Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads, whose 3-0 team plays No. 17 Texas in a FX-televised 6 p.m. showcase game on Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium. “To have the ability to make the naked eye right, where so much is on the line, I think is good.”

Human error among officials almost is celebrated in the sport of baseball. Replays are making relatively quaint inroads there, but have become a game-lengthening fixture in football.

“I think it's good,” said Cyclone linebacker A.J. Klein. “It can overturn bad (calls) and confirm ones that weren't made, obviously. And the little extra break you get in between on a long drive when we get a play reviewed, it gives you a little extra breather, too.”

Since replay hit the Big 12 in 2005, the number of plays reviewed has steadily climbed. What's most interesting is the jump in overturned calls - from 28 in 2009 to 47 last season.

And the numbers are on pace to spike higher in 2011. Through about a quarter of the regular season, there have been 44 reviews with 16 overturns.

“(It) does slow the game down a lot, but the difference between having a game slowed down for a correct call versus having a game slowed down for an incorrect call is large,” Cyclone running back Jeff Woody said. “If there's a guaranteed play - and we know. Something like at the end of the half against UNI, Steele's quarterback sneak, he's in the end zone by a yard and a half. Something like that and you review that. Those are the ones that get you, ‘OK lets keep going. You're killing what momentum we've got.'”

Klein reiterated that sometimes a slower pace is welcomed.

“We gather up on the sideline and the defense will huddle,” Klein said. “We just keep our minds off it - whatever the outcome of the play is. We have to live with it and play another down of football. ... It gives us that extra time which is sometimes good in situations. It gives us time to make adjustments.”

Rhoads uses his challenges judiciously.

“My approach to it is this: in the first half, I will burn a timeout to give replay more time to look at it,” he said. “They're replaying every single play; they're looking at every single play. If I think it's close and say we're on defense and their offense is going to the line right now to snap the ball fast and they're not getting buzzed, then I'm going to burn a timeout in the first half. I'm not going to burn a timeout in the second half. I'm going to trust those people to do their job well, like they're getting paid to do and have the confidence that what they see they'll rule on and it will be accurate.”

So officials and coaches both feel review-related pressure. And though it's not a perfect balance, it sure beats the alternative.

“A lot of it just depends on if a call is correct or incorrect,” Woody said. “If it's obvious, or not.”