Being Kinda Right in High School Game
Last week I worked four games; two High School and two College. Working two High School games in a row is easy. But that extra twelve minutes in a College game really adds-up. By Saturday night, I was beat.
Before the JV game (I was the White Hat) the visiting coach asks me about a defensive play they want to run. He tells me the home team runs an option offense and they want to 'take out' the option man. By 'take out' he means tackle or drive the guy out of the play. Essentially, take the option out of the option.
My first response was 'no' that would be holding. The coach says, 'but it's behind the line'. Well, ya, that means there is no 'interference'. I told him if a runner is simulating being the ball carrier then he can be tackled, but in the case of an option, he is only a 'potential' runner. I said, let me talk to the other guys and see what the consensus is. Nothing like running a game by committee.
We decided that if the ball was being passed to the option man, then we would allow contact, but if there was contact prior to the ball being released, then this would be a foul. We decided it would be a person foul for unnecessary contact.
Luckily, they never succeeded when they attempted this play because we would have ruled it improperly. In 2-3-5-b it says "when a player simulates possession of the ball, reasonable allowances may be made for failure of the defense to discover the deception. This does not cancel the responsibility of any defensive player to exercise reasonable caution in avoiding any unnecessary contact."
Taking out the option-man is not avoiding unnecessary contact so we were 'kinda' right. OK, this play is clearly wrong. But what is the call?
In 9-2-3-c is says the defensive player shall not; use his hands to hook, clamp, grasp, encircle or hold in an effort to restrain an opponent other than the runner." In my opinion, this list a series of examples and not an exhaustive list of acts. The key word is 'restrain'. So, the foul would be holding, enforced from the end of the run.
The Varsity games was a one-sided contest and a fairly routine game. I had one exciting call at the pylon. The snap was at the eight, so we were in goal-line mechanics. The ball carrier came to my side on the sweep and sprinted to the pylon. I backed-off the goal-line and the ball carrier leaped for the goal. Alas, he stepped on the sideline as he fumbled the ball forward at the two. The other coach was screaming he fumbled into, and then out-of, then end zone. He wanted a Touchback. The ball never went into the end zone.
Some major mistakes and a 'what was I thinking' call made during the college games in the next post.
