Life is getting is the way of my posting, so I'm a little behind. I have seven games to report on including tonight's college game. Relax... I'll condense everything. Although tonight's game is at the facility that is notorious for terrible game management. See http://pigskinref.blogspot.com/2007/10/this-is-college-football.html for a preview. I'm sure I'll report the same problems as last season.
Another interesting twist for tonight's game is we have a female official who rubs some people the wrong way. I have not worked with her before, but one of the male officials on this game really has a hard time with her. A lot of history between them. This may make for some interesting reading.
I have the day off on Monday, so I should be able to get back on schedule.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
09/28/08 Weekend Game Wrap-up
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Being Kinda Right is no Option - The Final Chapter
Lesson Learned #2
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. Truman Capote
Truman Capote is the one of the last people I'd associate with football, but I'm hoping his metaphor rings true. That lessons learned during screw-ups make uncertain future success that much more satisfying.
The screw-up occurred midway through the second quarter. And screw-up does not even begin to describe the severity of this mistake. For screw-up, Roget's recommends; botch, blunder, foul up, mess up, mishandle, spoil, make a muck of. The description to harm irreparably through inept handling is pretty close.
The play itself is pretty simple. The quarterback rolls out to my left, scrambles for a bit, and then throws the ball away. Simple. Basic. And apparently easy for the officials to botch.
As soon as the football skids across the feild the White Hat throws a flag for Intentional Grounding (IG) . This didn't make any sense to me. IG occurs when the QB dumps the ball to save a loss of yardage (i.e., to prevent a sack). Clearly, this is why the QB dumped the ball on this play. However, if the QB is outside the of the normal tackle position (i.e., outside of the pocket) when the pass is thrown you have two criteria to consider before it becomes a foul.
The first is whether the ball is thrown pass the line of scrimmage (LOS). If the QB is outside the pocket and the ball crosses the LOS, then IG should NOT be called. The second is whether the QB is outside the pocket and there is a receiver with a reasonable opportunity to catch the pass. If so, then IG will also NOT be called.
During our game the QB was outside the pocket and the ball was thrown beyond the LOS. No foul. Yet we enforced a penalty for IG. This was a botch, but this is not the BOTCH I have been teasing you about.
Why did we enforce a phantom foul? The White Hat generally has no idea where the pass goes. He should be watching the QB and nothing else. If he feels the QB is throwing the ball away to avoid a sack then he tosses a flag. The protocol during these situations is the wing official hustles over to the White Hat and tells him either there was a player in the area or whether the ball crossed the LOS or not. This did not happen.
Neither did the deep official (he is the official who speaks with the coach) get the foul information and report to the coach. And finally, I didn't question the White Hat on the pass crossing the LOS. I should have asked the White Hat what was reported. This is a simple technique to save the White Hat from doing something stupid. And I knew there was no foul. I knew this was not right.
But at the time I did not have the confidence I knew the rules on IG. The White Hat is Mr. Rules. He is a Crew Chief in our High School association. He's been officiating since the 1960's. He was my college mentor last year. I trusted him. And he was wrong. It's my job as umpire to cover his ass.
I now confidently know the IG rules and will never forget them. I've seared them into my brain. So, major mistake. We penalized a team that did not foul.
But it gets worse.
The penalty for IG is five yards from the spot of the foul PLUS a loss of down. We did not enforce the loss of down. Meaning, we let them repeat the down. We gave them another down. I don't even remember what down it WAS, let alone what is was supposed to be, but this is cardinal rule #1, go straight to hell and do not collect $200 kinda botch. Know what down it is and never, never, never, EVER give a team an extra down. This is Officiating 101. It's preschool officiating.
So here is the rub; if there was no foul, then it was an incomplete pass and the down ends. If it was a IG foul then they would lose the down. Get it? Botch with a capital B.
And of course they scored two plays later. (Insert awkward silence) Good thing they lost the game.
It doesn't end here. Our entire crew was downgraded. Here is an except from the weekly bulletin "This situation is a CREW downgrade as 5 other members, within their responsibilities during penalty enforcement failed to recognize, question or communicate the loss of down situation."
Downgrading is a form of disciplinary action. Everyone at some point gets downgraded for mistakes. Even the NFL guys. But too many of these and you'll never get moved up.
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. Truman Capote
Truman Capote is the one of the last people I'd associate with football, but I'm hoping his metaphor rings true. That lessons learned during screw-ups make uncertain future success that much more satisfying.
The screw-up occurred midway through the second quarter. And screw-up does not even begin to describe the severity of this mistake. For screw-up, Roget's recommends; botch, blunder, foul up, mess up, mishandle, spoil, make a muck of. The description to harm irreparably through inept handling is pretty close.
The play itself is pretty simple. The quarterback rolls out to my left, scrambles for a bit, and then throws the ball away. Simple. Basic. And apparently easy for the officials to botch.
As soon as the football skids across the feild the White Hat throws a flag for Intentional Grounding (IG) . This didn't make any sense to me. IG occurs when the QB dumps the ball to save a loss of yardage (i.e., to prevent a sack). Clearly, this is why the QB dumped the ball on this play. However, if the QB is outside the of the normal tackle position (i.e., outside of the pocket) when the pass is thrown you have two criteria to consider before it becomes a foul.
The first is whether the ball is thrown pass the line of scrimmage (LOS). If the QB is outside the pocket and the ball crosses the LOS, then IG should NOT be called. The second is whether the QB is outside the pocket and there is a receiver with a reasonable opportunity to catch the pass. If so, then IG will also NOT be called.
During our game the QB was outside the pocket and the ball was thrown beyond the LOS. No foul. Yet we enforced a penalty for IG. This was a botch, but this is not the BOTCH I have been teasing you about.
Why did we enforce a phantom foul? The White Hat generally has no idea where the pass goes. He should be watching the QB and nothing else. If he feels the QB is throwing the ball away to avoid a sack then he tosses a flag. The protocol during these situations is the wing official hustles over to the White Hat and tells him either there was a player in the area or whether the ball crossed the LOS or not. This did not happen.
Neither did the deep official (he is the official who speaks with the coach) get the foul information and report to the coach. And finally, I didn't question the White Hat on the pass crossing the LOS. I should have asked the White Hat what was reported. This is a simple technique to save the White Hat from doing something stupid. And I knew there was no foul. I knew this was not right.
But at the time I did not have the confidence I knew the rules on IG. The White Hat is Mr. Rules. He is a Crew Chief in our High School association. He's been officiating since the 1960's. He was my college mentor last year. I trusted him. And he was wrong. It's my job as umpire to cover his ass.
I now confidently know the IG rules and will never forget them. I've seared them into my brain. So, major mistake. We penalized a team that did not foul.
But it gets worse.
The penalty for IG is five yards from the spot of the foul PLUS a loss of down. We did not enforce the loss of down. Meaning, we let them repeat the down. We gave them another down. I don't even remember what down it WAS, let alone what is was supposed to be, but this is cardinal rule #1, go straight to hell and do not collect $200 kinda botch. Know what down it is and never, never, never, EVER give a team an extra down. This is Officiating 101. It's preschool officiating.
So here is the rub; if there was no foul, then it was an incomplete pass and the down ends. If it was a IG foul then they would lose the down. Get it? Botch with a capital B.
And of course they scored two plays later. (Insert awkward silence) Good thing they lost the game.
It doesn't end here. Our entire crew was downgraded. Here is an except from the weekly bulletin "This situation is a CREW downgrade as 5 other members, within their responsibilities during penalty enforcement failed to recognize, question or communicate the loss of down situation."
Downgrading is a form of disciplinary action. Everyone at some point gets downgraded for mistakes. Even the NFL guys. But too many of these and you'll never get moved up.
Its been a week and I still cannot stop thinking about this.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Being 'kinda' Right is not an Option - Part II
Being Kinda Right in College
Last Saturday I worked two College games. One was great. The other was a complete disaster.
First Game
The first game started at 1:00PM ended in 2:50 minutes in spite of a score of 38-22 and nine timeouts being called. I'm still loving this new timing rule. The game ran smoothly and the game was easy to manage. We only had a total of thirteen fouls.
I did throw an Illegal Helmet contact on a tackler. That was easy. I also threw a Personal Foul when #55 drive both this hands into the chest of opponent. I could have tossed him for fighting, but told the White Hat I did not want to eject him. I didn't need to. You could hear his coach screaming across the field "I told you never to retaliate!". He's right. We always catch the second guy. Otherwise a simple game. Then came the second game.
Second Game
The second game began at 7:00PM. By 8:00 I wish I was somewhere else.
The White Hat and I worked the 1:00 game and we also were working the 7:00 game. The first game ended at 3:50, but by the time we completed the game report, took a shower and drove to the 7:00pm game, we did not arrive until 5:30pm. We were rushed.
Being rushed didn't help as this was a difficult game to officiate. There were several personal fouls, and an Unnecessary Roughness when the a defender threw the QB out of bounds and then the QB retaliated. I think there were four flags on the ground.
I threw a flag on an open field Chop Block. The 'low' part of this block needs to be at the thigh or below. I wish I could see the film to confirm the low block. At worst we was at the thigh, but on film it will look pretty dramatic. The defender went head-over-heals folowing the block.
In all there were twenty-six fouls during the game.
I nearly had an Inadvertent Whistle when a receiver muffed a pass, it falls towards the ground, hits a defender on the foot, springs into the air and is finally intercepted. I had moved the whistle into my mouth when the receiver muffed anticipating the incomplete pass. By the time the third player was going after the ball, I had taken it out. That was a close one.
I was involved in two controversial calls, one of which I'm still feeling the sting about. I learned a lot during this game.
Lesson Learned #1
The first was on a pass to the flats to my right. The QB put a lot of heat on the pass so I had to turn quickly to help with coverage. The ball was behind the receiver and thrown short. A defender stretches for the ball and it does a shoe-string catch. I instantly signal incomplete. I know I heard the ball hit the ground and from my angle the ground assisted the receiver with the catch. The wing official did not protest my call, but later said he felt his hand was under the ball. I still felt the ground assisted.
What complicates my call is the interception occurred right in front of the wing official. No, he was trailing the guy who intercepted the pass where I was observing from the front. This is why I turn to assist on these type of passes, because I have a better angle. After the game I asked one of the deep officials who is a former Umpire what his opinion was. Did I go fishing is someone else's pond?
He felt it is OK for an umpire to make that call, but it's one of those things you have to be 100% positive about. The question is -- was I in the best position to make that call? He felt I was still in the process of moving. I had not planted my feet and I was not in the best position to make the call, right or wrong.
In hindsight, I still believe my call was correct, but when this situation occurs again I will add to my mental checklist "am I positioned to make this call." If I'm not positioned properly, how can I really make a call like that even if I am right?
Lesson Learned #2, is a big, painful, humbling lesson I'll describe in the next post.
Last Saturday I worked two College games. One was great. The other was a complete disaster.
First Game
The first game started at 1:00PM ended in 2:50 minutes in spite of a score of 38-22 and nine timeouts being called. I'm still loving this new timing rule. The game ran smoothly and the game was easy to manage. We only had a total of thirteen fouls.
I did throw an Illegal Helmet contact on a tackler. That was easy. I also threw a Personal Foul when #55 drive both this hands into the chest of opponent. I could have tossed him for fighting, but told the White Hat I did not want to eject him. I didn't need to. You could hear his coach screaming across the field "I told you never to retaliate!". He's right. We always catch the second guy. Otherwise a simple game. Then came the second game.
Second Game
The second game began at 7:00PM. By 8:00 I wish I was somewhere else.
The White Hat and I worked the 1:00 game and we also were working the 7:00 game. The first game ended at 3:50, but by the time we completed the game report, took a shower and drove to the 7:00pm game, we did not arrive until 5:30pm. We were rushed.
Being rushed didn't help as this was a difficult game to officiate. There were several personal fouls, and an Unnecessary Roughness when the a defender threw the QB out of bounds and then the QB retaliated. I think there were four flags on the ground.
I threw a flag on an open field Chop Block. The 'low' part of this block needs to be at the thigh or below. I wish I could see the film to confirm the low block. At worst we was at the thigh, but on film it will look pretty dramatic. The defender went head-over-heals folowing the block.
In all there were twenty-six fouls during the game.
I nearly had an Inadvertent Whistle when a receiver muffed a pass, it falls towards the ground, hits a defender on the foot, springs into the air and is finally intercepted. I had moved the whistle into my mouth when the receiver muffed anticipating the incomplete pass. By the time the third player was going after the ball, I had taken it out. That was a close one.
I was involved in two controversial calls, one of which I'm still feeling the sting about. I learned a lot during this game.
Lesson Learned #1
The first was on a pass to the flats to my right. The QB put a lot of heat on the pass so I had to turn quickly to help with coverage. The ball was behind the receiver and thrown short. A defender stretches for the ball and it does a shoe-string catch. I instantly signal incomplete. I know I heard the ball hit the ground and from my angle the ground assisted the receiver with the catch. The wing official did not protest my call, but later said he felt his hand was under the ball. I still felt the ground assisted.
What complicates my call is the interception occurred right in front of the wing official. No, he was trailing the guy who intercepted the pass where I was observing from the front. This is why I turn to assist on these type of passes, because I have a better angle. After the game I asked one of the deep officials who is a former Umpire what his opinion was. Did I go fishing is someone else's pond?
He felt it is OK for an umpire to make that call, but it's one of those things you have to be 100% positive about. The question is -- was I in the best position to make that call? He felt I was still in the process of moving. I had not planted my feet and I was not in the best position to make the call, right or wrong.
In hindsight, I still believe my call was correct, but when this situation occurs again I will add to my mental checklist "am I positioned to make this call." If I'm not positioned properly, how can I really make a call like that even if I am right?
Lesson Learned #2, is a big, painful, humbling lesson I'll describe in the next post.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Being 'kinda' Right is not an Option - Part I
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.
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.
Monday, September 8, 2008
New Timing Rule is Awesome
Saturday's game was hot. Frickin hot. And then on top of that it was hot.
The field itself (grass) was in okay shape, we had a twenty-five second clock that actually worked, the chain-crew actually did a good job. The home team provided water and sports drink, towels and soap for showers. Nothing to gripe about.
The new NCAA timing rules seem to be working. Our game finish in exactly three hours. This was with twenty-five penalities, eleven time-outs, and final score of 38-16, so there were plenty of times where the clock stopped. Last season the average was something like 3:15. I'm loving the new clock mechanic.
In simple terms the clock is now only stopping on incomplete passes. For plays going out of bounds (could be a run, completed pass, fumble out of bounds, backward pass, etc.) the clock will start on the Ready. Once I put the ball down the White Hat starts the clock. The clock will still be start on the snap on change of possession and and will be stoped to move the chains as ususl. The twist is within two minutes in the 2nd and 4th quarters we fall back to the previous timing rules. But for 56 minutes, it is pure bliss.
The game started on a strange note. During the opening kickoff, the 25-second clock expired way before the kickers were even close to kicking the ball. When I say expired, I mean it was '00' for five seconds. I threw a flag for delay of game. As umpire, this is not my call, but no one seemed to be paying attention. I heard the coach say "that was ticky-tack". Well, ya, it was, but why bother having the rule if we aren't going to follow them. We keep getting preasured to speed the games up, so what the hell. And you damn well know if it was the the other team he'd be screaming. Nonetheless, I won't do that again.
We had an unusual Illegal Batting by the offense following a blocked scrimmage kick. Batting, in case you are not familiar, is intentionally striking or intentionally changing the balls direction with the hands or arms. So, in this case, the blocking of the scrimmage kick (punt) is technically batting, but that touching is ignored. What is not ignored is after the kick is blocked a player from the kicking team leaps in the air and intentionally strikes the ball so it goes forward. Batting is complicated because sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. I'll do a post just on batting soon. Luckily, batting does not occur often, but when it does it is a 15-yard, loss of down penalty. But there are exceptions to this also.
I threw flags for Chop Block, False Start, Ineligible Receiver Downfield, and a Defensive Holding.
The new Chop Block rule is also great. More on this next time.
There we also several defensive holding fouls during pass plays.
The field itself (grass) was in okay shape, we had a twenty-five second clock that actually worked, the chain-crew actually did a good job. The home team provided water and sports drink, towels and soap for showers. Nothing to gripe about.
The new NCAA timing rules seem to be working. Our game finish in exactly three hours. This was with twenty-five penalities, eleven time-outs, and final score of 38-16, so there were plenty of times where the clock stopped. Last season the average was something like 3:15. I'm loving the new clock mechanic.
In simple terms the clock is now only stopping on incomplete passes. For plays going out of bounds (could be a run, completed pass, fumble out of bounds, backward pass, etc.) the clock will start on the Ready. Once I put the ball down the White Hat starts the clock. The clock will still be start on the snap on change of possession and and will be stoped to move the chains as ususl. The twist is within two minutes in the 2nd and 4th quarters we fall back to the previous timing rules. But for 56 minutes, it is pure bliss.
The game started on a strange note. During the opening kickoff, the 25-second clock expired way before the kickers were even close to kicking the ball. When I say expired, I mean it was '00' for five seconds. I threw a flag for delay of game. As umpire, this is not my call, but no one seemed to be paying attention. I heard the coach say "that was ticky-tack". Well, ya, it was, but why bother having the rule if we aren't going to follow them. We keep getting preasured to speed the games up, so what the hell. And you damn well know if it was the the other team he'd be screaming. Nonetheless, I won't do that again.
We had an unusual Illegal Batting by the offense following a blocked scrimmage kick. Batting, in case you are not familiar, is intentionally striking or intentionally changing the balls direction with the hands or arms. So, in this case, the blocking of the scrimmage kick (punt) is technically batting, but that touching is ignored. What is not ignored is after the kick is blocked a player from the kicking team leaps in the air and intentionally strikes the ball so it goes forward. Batting is complicated because sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. I'll do a post just on batting soon. Luckily, batting does not occur often, but when it does it is a 15-yard, loss of down penalty. But there are exceptions to this also.
I threw flags for Chop Block, False Start, Ineligible Receiver Downfield, and a Defensive Holding.
The new Chop Block rule is also great. More on this next time.
There we also several defensive holding fouls during pass plays.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
