The Pigskin
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2014 Season Clips (8)
TECHNICAL NOTE: For those not aware, when viewing these videos in the You Tube window, you can adjust the resolution for a sharper view. Notice in the lower right hand corner of the video player window a setting icon that looks like a gear. Click on that and you can adjust the setting up to 360p, 480p or even 720p in some cases. This will give you a sharper image.
Send your clip or play suggestions to videos@romgilbert.us.
The video page will continue bringing you clips which are good learning material as we all work together to understand and enforce the sometimes complicated NCAA football rules. The videos are not meant to demean or belittle any official. They are used so that ALL officials can learn from the situations and issues other officials encounter in their games. No official has ever completed a career error-free. But by sharing our errors with others we help them avoid the same pitfalls. NCAA football officials at all levels exhibit incredible rule knowledge week in and week out. We can always get better and this page hopes to serve in that effort.
The last poll play was a passing play that may or may not have qualified for an intentional grounding flag. In one of the very few one-sided results we have ever seen, 85% of the crew said no foul. Unfortunately there were no comments from those who ruled foul so we can attempt to understand why they would rule that. Most saying no foul pointed out the QB was not under duress and there was an obvious miscommunication between receiver and QB.
Roughing The Passer (Low Hits)
This year's rule change giving passers and potential passers additional protection is still a work in progress as officials work to understand the intent of the rulemakers. As a reminder, the rule (9-2-9-b) says: " When an offensive player is in a passing posture with one or both feet on the ground, no defensive player rushing unabated shall hit him forcibly at the knee area or below. " Exception 3 says: "It is not a foul if the defender is not rushing unabated or is blocked or fouled into this opponent." One concept that is totally foreign to our thinking is that this new variety of roughing the passer has nothing to do with how soon after the pass is released. It is a foul even BEFORE the pass is released. In addition to the college play we discovered to demonstrate this new rule, a video from Texas high school football (they use NCAA rules) was submitted. Please look at the 2 clips and then vote in our poll. While there are similarities in the 2 plays, there are also some significant differences. College Play Texas HS Play (Please remember to scroll down and click on the DONE button after making your choice.)
Once again we have an example of an entire crew missing a relatively easy penalty enforcement. We do not see all that transpired during the penalty enforcement but somehow the crew must have lost track of where the previous spot was since it appears they tried to enforce from there (even though they should have been enforcing from the dead ball spot.) Whatever happened, Team A ended up gaining an extra 5 yards in penalty yardage.
This is an example of the rule change for this year which requires a player who has been out of bounds to reestablish himself as in bounds by getting a body part in bounds and no body part touching out of bounds. It is a difficult play that happens very quickly which may explain why the covering officials did not appear to immediately shut down play. Until this year, this interception would have stood.
Not A Chop Block, but....is it something else?
Good work by the crew here not to be fooled into flagging a block that for years would have been a chop block. Watch the inside slot (A86?). He is moving to block a linebacker when defender B97 puts his hands on him as he releases. This is followed by a low block by A62. The block by A62 may be seen by some as clipping. The blocking zone stretches 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage and clipping in the blocking zone is permitted. But the blocking zone disintegrates as soon as the ball leaves it (2-3-6) which it does very quickly in this play as the ball is shotgun snapped out of it. The issue is did the blockee (B97) turn his back on the blocker? If you judge he did, then no foul. If you judge he did not, but that the blocker was just late getting to him, then it should be flagged as clipping. (2-5, 9-1-5 Exception 2) In this video, VIDEO 2 there IS a chop block. It is correctly called and properly announced by giving the numbers of BOTH players involved in the block.
The rules require (in most situations) we give Team B a chance to match up if Team A subs. That means we wait for Team B to COMPLETE their substitution. Sometimes we get caught up in the offense's rhythm and think we need to move faster. We have to be careful not to move so fast that we miss our responsibilities. It appears we did not let the defense finish its subbing here and ended up costing Team B a penalty.