College Game
Saturday's game was a a good contest between two teams ranked in the top 10 for our region. These games tend to be difficult to officiate and this one was no different.
As a crew we called thirty fouls, disqualified a player, threw a sideline warning on the head coach, and easily had ten unsportsmanlike conduct fouls. On top of that we must have had three late hits out of bounds. This typically happens between two teams who are good. They play aggressive.
Nothing really strange happened in this game other than the losing coach wanted holding on every play. I did call a hold on a long touchdown run, but there is no way he can blame me for a 42-17 loss. The holding was a classic. Even though the offensive players hands were inside the frame of the defender, I clearly saw him twist the shoulders of the defensive player. When you see the player make an unnatural move like that you know something is up. And when the ball carrier runs right by the guy doing the holding then its pretty obvious what just happened.
What I found annoying as hell were the some of the players from the winning team. What ever happened to letting your actions speak for themselves? They are cocky, arrogant, and have no honor. Play hard, kick their ass, and punish them for even thinking they can score on you. I'm cool with that. That's Football. But have some class. I see brief glimpses of class on the field, but very little. When I begin to hear players say, "can't we just end this game?" I know the 'class' has left the field.
We had another observer at this game who said we all did a good job keeping a difficult game under control. But I know I made some mistakes. I was really tired from some reason. I'm sure I missed some cheap shots because I was looking in the wrong place.
This Friday night I have the big game between the #2 and #4 ranked teams in the county. The college game is one of my road trips. A 7PM game in Fresno. I won't get home until after 2AM.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Eight is Enough... and more Intentional Grounding
This week I worked two high school games and one college.
High School Game
This game was somewhat of a milestone. First, this was a Varsity White Hat, so kinda, sorta like a promotion. Second, it was an 8-man football game. Yes, you can play football with eight players.
There are several small schools in the area just starting football programs, most of which are Christian based schools. Although not as intense as 11-man the quality of the football is not lacking. It is a very different game, however.
For instance the field is smaller -- only 80 x 40 yards (verses 100 x 53 for 11-man). The field used during this contest was quite unique. Rather than painting or chalking the yard lines the grounds keeper simply killed the grass. As I'm walking towards the field I'm thinking, "holy shit, there are trenches for yard lines." The trenches were an illusion. The field was perfectly flat, but the three inch grass made the 'depression' look huge. The field also lacked goal posts and most of the western endzone overlapped the infield of the baseball diamond; somewhere between first and second base as I recall.
And adding to the ambiance was the portable lighting system. All night we had light shining horizontally into our eyes and the constant droning of six gas powered generators. If the QB threw the ball high enough the ball sorta vanished for a moment. Nice.
With the shorter field, kickoffs are from the thirty verses the forty. There were several Touchbacks during the Kickoffs which is rather unusual for high school. The only other major difference is you need five players (verses seven) on the line of scrimmage, but most of the other rules are the same.
The game does play very different than 11-man. Holes open up faster and once a runner gets past the line there seems to be only one linebacker or safety to stop him. The final score was 54-40, so this this gives you a clue of what I am talking about. With all the scoring the game time was longer than a typical 11-man game - 2:45.
One interesting play occurred late in the third quarter. The team which ultimately lost was at their own 15 yard line with 2nd down and fourteen. The QB rolls out for a pass and is immediately in trouble running for his life. The poor kid was all of 5'2'' and looked like a scared rabbit. He rolls out of the pocket, scrambles towards the sidelines, and feeling the breath of his 6'3'' pursuer, dumps the ball to out of bounds. I toss my flag for Intentional Grounding (IG).
The QB says, "...but I was outside the pocket", to which I retort, "yes you were, but we are playing with Friday night rules." His coach asked to speak with me about this, and of course, stated the same thing. He is obviously coaching the QB to do this. I politely informed the coach the IG rules are different between high school and other levels. I was all over this call and if you read last weeks post you recognize why I would be a bit hypersensitive about IG. The unfortunate thing for his team was IG is a five-yard, spot foul (meaning, enforced from where the pass was thrown), PLUS a loss of down. The QB threw the pass at the 3-yard line. Two plays later the QB was sacked for a Safety.
Otherwise, a pretty routine game. This was technically my second varsity White Hat game, but the first where I was not working with my regular crew or my crew chief was working another position. I was truly on my own from a leadership point of view.
The college game report will be in the next post. A wild game with two team ranked in the top ten in the state.
High School Game
This game was somewhat of a milestone. First, this was a Varsity White Hat, so kinda, sorta like a promotion. Second, it was an 8-man football game. Yes, you can play football with eight players.
There are several small schools in the area just starting football programs, most of which are Christian based schools. Although not as intense as 11-man the quality of the football is not lacking. It is a very different game, however.
For instance the field is smaller -- only 80 x 40 yards (verses 100 x 53 for 11-man). The field used during this contest was quite unique. Rather than painting or chalking the yard lines the grounds keeper simply killed the grass. As I'm walking towards the field I'm thinking, "holy shit, there are trenches for yard lines." The trenches were an illusion. The field was perfectly flat, but the three inch grass made the 'depression' look huge. The field also lacked goal posts and most of the western endzone overlapped the infield of the baseball diamond; somewhere between first and second base as I recall.
And adding to the ambiance was the portable lighting system. All night we had light shining horizontally into our eyes and the constant droning of six gas powered generators. If the QB threw the ball high enough the ball sorta vanished for a moment. Nice.
With the shorter field, kickoffs are from the thirty verses the forty. There were several Touchbacks during the Kickoffs which is rather unusual for high school. The only other major difference is you need five players (verses seven) on the line of scrimmage, but most of the other rules are the same.
The game does play very different than 11-man. Holes open up faster and once a runner gets past the line there seems to be only one linebacker or safety to stop him. The final score was 54-40, so this this gives you a clue of what I am talking about. With all the scoring the game time was longer than a typical 11-man game - 2:45.
One interesting play occurred late in the third quarter. The team which ultimately lost was at their own 15 yard line with 2nd down and fourteen. The QB rolls out for a pass and is immediately in trouble running for his life. The poor kid was all of 5'2'' and looked like a scared rabbit. He rolls out of the pocket, scrambles towards the sidelines, and feeling the breath of his 6'3'' pursuer, dumps the ball to out of bounds. I toss my flag for Intentional Grounding (IG).
The QB says, "...but I was outside the pocket", to which I retort, "yes you were, but we are playing with Friday night rules." His coach asked to speak with me about this, and of course, stated the same thing. He is obviously coaching the QB to do this. I politely informed the coach the IG rules are different between high school and other levels. I was all over this call and if you read last weeks post you recognize why I would be a bit hypersensitive about IG. The unfortunate thing for his team was IG is a five-yard, spot foul (meaning, enforced from where the pass was thrown), PLUS a loss of down. The QB threw the pass at the 3-yard line. Two plays later the QB was sacked for a Safety.
Otherwise, a pretty routine game. This was technically my second varsity White Hat game, but the first where I was not working with my regular crew or my crew chief was working another position. I was truly on my own from a leadership point of view.
The college game report will be in the next post. A wild game with two team ranked in the top ten in the state.
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