Stop Asking Stupid Questions

Let' see, it's 11:15PM on a Saturday night and I'm blogging. Yea, I know. The kid are finally asleep... so is the wife. I guess I can finish the 2nd of three HS football test.

I'm not sure about your association, but mine uses open books now. But we have three, 100 question tests, so its not like you can just slack off. Some questions are straight out of the rule book, others are from the case book, and others are well crafted and force you to look in several places in the rules. An example would be a play scenario where you have to account for which teams was last in possession, who had "clean hands", dead-ball fouls on plays with a double foul, with PSK involved. Or something like that.

But as I mentioned last time, some of these questions are just not well thought out. For example, one of the questions on this years test is "A PSK foul can only occur after the kick crosses the line of scrimmage." I hate these kind of questions. Follow me on this.

First, the foul occurs when and where the foul occurs. PSK is simply an enforcement spot for a foul that occurs under certain conditions during a Scrimmage kick down. In Rule 2-16-2-h PSK requires a foul by "B", during a scrimmage kick plan (and here is my point) in which the ball crosses the expanded neutral zone.

So, to cross the expanded neutral zone also means the must cross the line of scrimmage. But, what does the question designer on my association test want? If you take the literal description out the manual, then the question is false. If you read it like someone who 'thinks', then the answer is true. The kick cannot cross the expanded neutral zone with out first crossing the LOS. So, yea a PSK foul can only occur after the ball crosses the LOS... duh.

But I still think it is a trick question and the answer is false because... well I really don't know why. A better question would have been "When K commits a foul behind the LOS the enforcement spot is the PSK spot". At least this version really tests you knowledge on what a PSK foul is and when it occurs.

But whatever. I know what to do when it happens in a game. I wouldn't care so much, but you have to get a score of 90+ in order to work post season and there are always about ten of these bullshit type questions. Or they use double negatives. Those really suck too.

College scrimmage start next week, but do I know when and where... no.

Change is good, right?

Just returned from the HS football meeting. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I expected to be moved to another crew. Unfortunately, I was.

Being on a crew is akin to being on a team. That's a really nice cliche, but not really true... it is more like being in a click. We have our table at the meetings, our own inside jokes, our own countless stories about games where 'this' or 'that' happened, and we want the whole thing to be exclusive. There are people we never want to work with, and lets be honest, don't deserve to be on our crew. Our crew ROCKS and we know it. And I will miss working with those guys.

But, we all knew this day was going to come. We do actually have the highest rated crew in the association. All five of us work at least 1st or 2nd round of playoffs each year. Most of the other crews are really hurting for experienced people. We need to do what is best for the association.

From what I was told, my new crew chief asked for help and my name was the first to come-up. I'll assume this was a complement.

My new crew chief, I am told, is a good guy and runs a good game. Its odd, but in 11 years with the association, I have never actually worked any games with him. When I asked where he planned on using me, he said that was up to me. Now, that has never happened before. Either I am highly respected and thus, can get whatever I want, or this crew is weak all around and anywhere I work will make things better. I prefer to think the former, but I expect it is the later.

Completed the first of three open book test. I have another gripe session next time on some of the annoying questions that are asked on the NFHS test.

The Ugly Side of the Game

Last month I was asked to work the so-called County All-Star game. I've worked several of these contest in the past and each year I say I'll never do them again. They are simply the poorest representation of what this game is all about. This year was no exception.



I only agreed to work the game if we could use NCAA mechanics and we could use this game as a training exercise. This seemed like a good idea since four of us were CCFOA candidates. All agreed and we decided to use seven-man mechanics.



I worked line judge (I typically work White Hat on JV/Fresh and Umpire on Var) which took a series or two for me to get my eyes back, so to speak. Holding my ground until the ball passed the LOS is not natural. This is not the same mechanic as five-man HS. Eventually, I settled in.



Even more challenging for me was trusting the field judge. Again, I was not used to having this help on passes to my sideline. We had one of those plays where the receiver danced the sideline. I saw feet in, but not the ball. I ruled catch, but the FJ saw the ball was not possessed in the field of play. I should have looked at him before killing the clock. Lesson learned.



All this was marred in the 2nd half of the game More than once we spoke with the team captains to get everyone under control and once we even brought both head coaches together to calm things down. Just a lot of pushing and smart mouthing. We ejected a player for throwing the ball at the opposite team's coach following a touchdown. It all finally came to a head when the benches cleared and there was a big brawl with about 4:00 remaining in the 4th. We tried for a good two minutes to get things under control. We'd get it stopped, then it would start-up again.



We finally ran off the field when fans entered the playing field. We were already being heckled and the losing side was looking for an excuse to take it out on us. When the cops came on the field, then I knew our jurisdiction was finally over.



All very sad since this game is for charity and these players are supposed to be 'all-stars'.

Now the fun begins

For anyone who has worked both High School and College Football, then I don't need to explain just how screwed-up your mind gets. I already find myself saying - oh crap, that's a HS rule. This is only my second season in the college rule book and I'm already feeling like I'm going to do something stupid.

For those who are not familiar with the 'distinctions' between the two systems, let me explain. In the Football Rule Differences 2007 book which outlines the differences between the two codes) there are 286 pages (after you exclude the index, table of contents, and other diagrams). Essentially, over 200 differences. Some are not that big of a deal - in HS you need shoes, but not socks. In NCAA you can kick barefoot but need socks otherwise. The number of panels on the ball, who can talk to the media. Simple things like that. Other rules are more complicated. In HS, no blocking below the waist except in the free block zone, but in NCAA, well this is a difference story depending upon who is doing the blocking, where it occurs on the field, and it which direction. This is blog entry in itself.

So, I paid my HS association dues ($75 bucks this year) and now have the 2007 HS books. I'm afraid to open them. I finally have what seems to be a fairly clear picture in my mind of what NCAA rules are and I'm going to cloud it all up with HS rules. The old timers tell me to not compare the two systems. But how do you avoid this?

My college mentor (who is a HS Crew Chief and a College White Hat) told me he worked HS for 15 years before he started college. When he first started college ball he said it was as if he never officiated before. It is a completely different game.

Test Results

I met the crew at 5:30AM. I'm tired and have information overload. A lot of great information was provided by several D1 officials covering holding philosophy, mechanics, DPI, etc.

Or association reps reported back from a meeting with the coaches. There seems to be an open dialog between the coaches and the staff regarding rule interpretation and he as a group will be enforcing them. I think this is great idea, although I expect to hear the same thing I hear in high school - last week they didn't call that.

This is a topic I like some opinions on. How do you ensure consistency between crews when it comes to judgement calls? Obviously by their very nature they are somewhat subjective. Does your association provide you with judgement guidelines?

During the clinic we took two tests - 30 questions each. The first was fairly easy and I only missed one (and an easy one too) Prior to the snap from scrimmage kick formation the SJ and FJ should identify the numbers of the two eligible receivers on their side of the formation.. Well, duh... but I got that one wrong.

The second test was on penalty enforcements and I did not do as well. I passed but with a caveat.

I explain more on this next time.

So Late

Went for a run tonight in a feeble attempt to get back into shape. I can only seem to to any running two or three times a week. Better than nothing I suppose, but not nearly enough.

10:14 PM and I'm just now getting to sitting down at the desk. Having three kids really puts a damper on how much time you can spend on preparing. I'm really sicks being so tired and trying to pull knowledge most poorly written books I've every read. The rule are confusing enough let alone having many of them written in double negatives.

Better stop procrastinating, Now it's 10:29.

Next Steps

Completed the last college summer study meeting tonight. Watched some film. Reviewed the tests questions. Made plans to meet 5:30AM in order to get to the clinic by 7:45.

We had a long discussion on one of the new rules changes related to fouls by A on free kicks out of bounds. Can B elect to take the ball at the OB spot and tack on the five yard penalty. One side felt accepting the OB spot was one the penalty options and thus wiped out the distance penalty. You could not have both. At the end of the discussion, we determined that with the new rule, B could take the ball at the OB spot and tack on five yards. I'm sure this will get screwed-up several times and there will be many a coach who want an explanation.

I also learned tonight from my HS Crew Chief I was being moved to a new crew that needs some help. The crew I am currently on is very strong and we've been together for 10 years now. This is very disappointing for me. Three of us on the crew all came-up together.

We all knew this day was coming. There just are not enough officials to fill all the games and the crew system just doesn't work when you are thin.