fumble in the Utah Oregon game - said that play would get highlighted when they do ref training to emphasize why you have to watch each play from beginning to end

For things like getting video wrong, I agree there's less of an excuse but I'm getting to be more sympathetic for college and pro football refs - they have a ton of stuff to watch out for and get treated like crap fairly or unfairly by fans and coaches and some of those coaches are downright abusive even when they probably know they're wrong (like that Wyoming coach on the targeting call last week).

You simply can't see everything that's going on all over the field - just bc a ref misses something it might be because they suck or were being lazy. Of course they have constantly be checking and looking out and watching every play but there's 22 guys on the field who could be breaking some sort of rule. You can be vigilant and be a really good ref but miss something because you were watching for a hold but miss something else that happened outside your line of sight. And all the things that happen pre-snap that they have to monitor (substitutions, how many men on the filed, how many guys are on the line, etc.) Determining whether something was a catch, or crossing the goal line, determine whether is it a pass or run play and calling out things like ineligible receivers, forward motion, etc.

They actually all get graded at least internally - that's how they determine who refs the playoff games.