Bobby Gaston, the SEC's supervisor of officials, sounded happy and relieved about the first weekend of instant replay in the league.

"All things considered, I thought it went fabulous," Gaston said. "I'd like to say the same thing 13 weeks from now."

In week one, there were three play stoppages by the replay official to make rulings:

* Vanderbilt at Wake Forest: With Vandy clinging to a 24-20 lead in the closing seconds, Wake Forest quarterback Benjamin Mauk zipped a pass into the end zone. Receiver Cory Randolph had the ball in his grasp. The ball was knocked loose, and the pass was ruled incomplete.

The replay official in the press box stopped play, and took 55 seconds to say that the call on the field stood.

Gaston said the replay official knew right away that the pass was incomplete, but for "public relations purposes," decided to stop play and make sure fans knew it was being reviewed.

* At the Arkansas-Missouri State game, a 20-yard pass from Alex Mortensen to Marcus Monk was ruled a fumble. Play was stopped for 1:27 to determine if it was a fumble or an incompletion, and the ruling was the play stood as a fumble.

* At the Kentucky-Louisville game, which featured a Big Ten officiating crew (as per agreement by both teams) and an SEC replay official (the conference of the home team always provides the replay official), an on-the-field ruling was overturned.

When Louisville's Elvis Dumervil sacked Kentucky quarterback Andre' Woodson at the UK 33, Dumervil recovered a fumble and ran for a TD. The SEC replay official in the press box booth reviewed the play and nullified the TD, saying Dumervil's knee touched the ground on the fumble recoery.

Late in the game when Woodson had the ball ripped loose at the Louisville 2 with 6:21 left as he tried to score the game-tying touchdown, UK coach Rich Brooks exploded because the game wasn't stopped to review the play.

"I don't know if Andre' Woodson was down or not; from my perception, it looked like he was," Brooks said. "I just don't understand why we have instant replay if we don't look at a pivotal play in the game like that. All we have to do is look at it."

Gaston said the play was sufficiently reviewed without a stoppage.

"We had three different angles on the play, and it was a fumble from each angle," Gaston said. "There was no reason to stop play. What Rich Brooks saw was one replay on the stadium Jumbotron, and it wasn't a conclusive angle."

So what did Gaston learn in week one of instant replay?

"We confirmed that we could get a lot more looks at a play before the next down than we thought," Gaston said. "That's what we were worried about going in.

"We learned that there's about four or five plays per game that really bear looking at."

Gaston also said that the call that might be the most reviewed this season is whether a player fumbles or not.

"We teach our refs that 95 percent of the time, it's probably a fumble, so call it that way," Gaston said. "Also, a play originally ruled as a fumble can be reviewed by our replay official. If a player fumbles, but is originally ruled down, that play can't be reviewed. That happened in Alabama-Middle Tennessee game on Saturday."