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2014 Season Clips (1)
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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.
Our last poll covered a kick play with a foul. We wanted to see how our crew would judge the possible illegal kicking of a loose ball and how they would enforce a penalty for that type of foul on a scrimmage kick play. 61% said there was foul for illegally kicking the loose ball and the play remained alive. Another 15% agreed it was a foul but thought ball would become dead immediately. The general consensus ended there though as there were significant numbers of folks who would penalize from the B-20, from the previous spot, and from the end of the kick. ( What did we say about consistency? )
Plays are sent into "command central" from all over the world, even from Texas where rumor has it they play some half decent high school football under NCAA rules. This week's poll play comes from there. When a running back moves before the snap, it can be legal or illegal depending on how he moves. By rule, any movement that simulates the start of the play should be called a false start. A running back who starts moving because he believes the ball is being snapped has committed a false start hasn't he? How would you rule on this play? Please view this play video and take the poll. (Please remember to scroll down and click on the DONE button after making your choice.)
This play involved one of the longest instant
replay review periods seen in quite some time. We have no inside
information explaining the lengthy delay but there was key part of the play
which seemed to escape the notice of the announcing crew and which may have been
the reason for the delay. In the play, a FG attempt is blocked but the
ball is then taken into possession by Team B who advances a short distance
before losing the ball. Team A then regains possession and advances a
short distance before being downed. The ball carrier apparently flipped
the ball forward after he was down and that act drew a flag from an official who
reported it as an illegal forward pass. Of course, the ball carrier was
already clearly down when he moved the ball forward so it could not be an
illegal forward pass. If he had lost possession before going down and then
batted the ball forward while down, we could have had an illegal batting. The
point that was missed by the announcers (until Mike Pereira stepped in) was
whether or not the Team B ball carrier might have been down before he lost
possession. In the pile of bodies it was hard to determine so it is
very possible that was the cause of the lengthy delay. Had they determined
the B ball carrier was down, then the ball would have belonged to B instead of A
as it ended up.
Driven Backwards into Field of Play
This is a great example of a play we have often discussed but rarely seen. The airborne receiver receives the ball and controls it while in the air over the end zone and then is driven back into the field of play and downed. (5-1-3-a-Exception) As the crew ruled here, it is a TD.
Initially it appeared one player may have committed the rarely seen feat of fouling twice in the same play. Upon further review, we were able to determine what actually happened and you will have to watch the video to the end to find out, unless you figure it out yourself while watching. "Coach, we have bad news, your #12 fouled twice on the play so we will have to penalize one of those. But, we also have good news because you got away with something we did not catch."
Team A is prohibited from blocking Team B until it (Team A ) is eligible to touch the ball on a kickoff. Normally that means the ball must have gone 10 yards, or Team A must have touched it. In this play, Team A is clearly blocking in advance of the kick which they expected would be traveling behind them. However, it failed to go 10 yards and someone on the crew correctly flagged. This is a play that is frequently missed by officials who focus on the ball and ignore the blocking that is going on in advance of the ball. Good job to get this.
Out of Bounds Receiver Touching a Pass
We wondered when we would first see an example of the rule change this year regarding definition of an out of bounds player and the requirement that he "re-establish" before becoming eligible again. This R may have been anticipating that as well as his initial announcement indicated the ball was dead because it was caught by a player who had gone out of bounds and then come back in to catch it. It is likely he merely got tongue tied in his announcement since his initial announcement is incorrect. A receiver who goes out of bounds and then comes back in and re-establishes can touch or catch the ball without causing it to become dead. Obviously there will be a foul for the illegal touching but the ball would stay live. Had the receiver NOT re-establishd before touching the pass, then it would have been dead immediately. There were further announcements by the R but the comments were not audible as the announcers were talking at the same time.