Last Weeks College Game
Last week was a travel game -- 350 miles round trip. It rained and was played on an old crappy grass field, but it was evenly matched, well played game, without much drama. The game ended 21-31.
This game exemplifies of why I really enjoy working at the college level. Three of my fellow officials I had never met before, but we worked well as a team. In fact, one official, Frank Kristensen, was from Denmark. Frank works Football throughout Europe and is a great official. He also writes a blog which can be found at www.whitecap.dk.
What's really great about working with guys at this level is after spending about 20 minutes reviewing how we are each going to handle basic football scenarios we are all on the same page. It just works when you work with quality guys who really want to do a good job. How I wish we could have this at the high school level.
The other pleasant suprise was PAC-10 official Jeff Hansen evaluated our game and gave us a great assessment after the game. He made the point that last week we observed a Division II crew (a crew that works together all the time) and he could not tell the difference between our two crews. That was cool to hear.
No odd or unusual plays or rules during this game. Just good old fashion football in the rain.
This Weeks College Game
The coolest thing about this weeks game was there were only 13 fouls and we finished in 2:30. From an official's point of view this was a great game. A well played game without any of the testosterone + adrenaline + immaturity = stupid acts drama most JC games have.
One play I think I may my have missed was on a fumble. I was working Umpire and this was a pass about 15 yards down field. The receiver caught the ball, made some football moves and when the pile drove him to back, and before he hit the ground, the ball came loose, bounces in the air, the opponents pick it up and run for a score.
The question is was he down before the ball came out? As I replay this in my mind I'm convinced the ground did not cause the fumble. But were his knees, or "When any part of the ball carrier's body, except his hand or foot, touches the ground, or when the ball carrier is tackled or otherwise falls and loses possession of the ball as contacts the ground with any part of his body, except hand or foot..." This comes from Rule 4 under Ball Declared Dead (4-1-3-a).
You have read this carefully. The second phrase is the classic ground cannot cause a fumble. If a body part other than the hand or foot is in contact with the ground during a tackle, and the ball comes loose, it is NOT a fumble.
The twist comes in with something called the our Officiating Philosophies. It our Philosophy document is states "When in question, the runner fumbled the ball and was NOT down."
These are hard plays to call - hence the need for a "when in question" philosophy. They happen quickly. I am not watching the ball as Umpire, but plays such as this where I turn to help on the pass, I typically see the end of these type of plays. But I'm not looking for non-foot or hands in contact with the ground. I'm watching for illegal contact and other stupid acts (see equation above).
When it happened my mind was going a mile a minute trying to put it all together. My first reaction was fumble, then I started thinking about maybe his knee was down, maybe this, maybe that. Finally, (and this is all in about 1 second) I knew I was "in doubt" so I ruled fumble. Meaning, I did not blow my whistle and continued to officiate.
I think we all properly applied the "when in doubt", but we may have been technically wrong.
The game ended 56-21, so it didn't matter anyway, but I still want to get it right.
Denmark has nothing to do with a fumble.
