Mr. Saturday Night

I could title this post "It's Saturday night, you dork" for a rookie mistake I made. Now, this was not the end of the world, and I realized the mistake before my flag even hit the ground, but it was one of those high school vs college rule, brain-fart moments.

The play in question transpired sometime in the second quarter. Recall, I work at the umpire position and generally have a starting position seven to eight yards off the line of scrimmage. Why is this relevant? I threw a flag for a block below the waist that occurred behind me. Confused? Let's review.

First, block below the waist is another example of how crazy the college rule book is laid out. One simple rule: Blocking below the waist is permitted except as follows: (and what follows is an entire page of exceptions). I will spare you reading all the exceptions, but the exception that applies to this situation has to do with players who are not on the line-of-scrimmage in the blocking zone. What is the blocking zone (BZ)? You'll need to draw a picture.

The description of the BZ: The BZ is a rectangle centered on the snapper and extending five yards laterally and three yards longitudinally in each direction. The blocking zone disintegrates when the ball leaves the zone.

Ok, back to blocking below the waist. If a player is within the BZ and on the line of scrimmage, they can block below the waist anywhere on the field. Simple. Actually, all players can block below the waist (because it is permitted); however, some players are limited as to when and where they can use this blocking technique.

The restrictions apply to players who are outside the BZ (think, the wing back or a wide receiver), or for players who are within the BZ, but not on the line of scrimmage (think, a running back). They are prohibited from blocking below the waist toward the original position of the ball in or behind the neutral zone and within 10 yards beyond the neutral zone.

So, take that picture of the 5 x 3 rectangle I asked you to draw and add another 7 x7 yard box on the defensive side. Put a dot seven yards in the middle and this is where I am.

Now when I say the block in the back occurred behind me the questions is -- did the block occur within this 10 yard zone by a player under restriction? Heck if I know about the restricted player part, but odds are the foul occured outside the zone and thus would not be a foul... at least on Saturday.

During a high school game, this would be a foul, no matter what. On Saturday, it depends. I threw the flag because because my high school red flag went up.

I had not games on 9/18, but I did have a college game on Saturday 9/19 which pitted the 4th and 5th ranked teams in the State. It lived-up to the hype.

First College Scrimmage

Completed my first college scrimmage this afternoon. Well, the first one that really counts. Last year I while I was a prospect, I worked two college scrimmages, but these did not count towards qualifying. Now they do.

I ran my ass off and this was just a scrimmage. They ran about 75 plays, but there are so many more plays to the flats and long passes. The Umpire does not just wait for the ball many or stop at the hashes anymore. I'm running sideline to sideline on most plays now.

Working the middle is much the same in college as in HS, however there are a few things I've noticed so far that are very different. I still go to the LOS on a pass, but I'm not so focused on whether the passer crosses the line or not. The wings do this. In HS the White Hat often wants me over the ball until he blows the whistle. Not in college. Put the ball down and get hell out of there I was told. Unless, of course they are in a hurry-up offense, then I stay over the ball until released. I was also told the Referee will never... ever... touch the ball.

I worked the wings for a series or two. This is very different than college. Holding your position on a pass is just weird and then sprint to the forward progress spot like some nineteen year old when your... well, no where near nineteen. I had a player ask me if I wanted a drink of water because I was sweating so much. I declined.

I don't work the wings much in HS any more, but I guess I can kinda go on automatic. The game is so much simpler. But now, I need to pay more attention to which receiver to watch, who is eligible to block below the waist (BBW), is my man off the line, do we have a seven man line, did a covered receiver go down field on a pass. These players are bigger, faster and smarter (some would question this). They are better coached for sure and these coaches seem to actually know the rules. I see players changing techniques during the play as if they know when they are crossing the line(like with holding).

This is going to be harder than I thought.