The Offensive Coach Unhappy with a DPI Call?

I worked college scrimmages, albeit inter-squad, last Thursday and Saturday.

Thursday's scrimmage only lasted about an hour. Okay, I guess, but not a lot of work for an hour drive. Our sixth official (a female) never arrived, so we did five-man mechanics. I don't think the coaches even noticed.

But the head coach was smart enough to ask an interesting question following a DPI call. Here is the scenario:

It was 2nd and 8 and a DPI was called 11 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The pass was caught, they made the line to gain, and earned a first down. In these cases the DPI would be declined because DPI fouls within 15 yards are 'spot fouls'. There is no yardage penalty, but there is an automatic first-down at the spot of the foul. In a sense, DPI within 15 yards of the LOS, is an awarded catch. But since they made the line-to-gain there is no need for the automatic first-down. Just decline the penalty and let's get out of here.

But this cleaver coach asks - can I decline the spot foul (ignore the completed catch) and take the penalty from the previous spot? (DPI fouls beyond 15 yards are enforced from the previous spot). In other words, forgo the automatic first, but take 15 yards from the previous spot and gain 15 yards instead of 11. A net +4. He wasn't upset his man was fouled, but rather he was fouled too early. Interesting.

At certain times during the game yards are more important than and 'benefit' of an awarded catch. Its late in the game and they need yards to get close to field goal. It may be advantageous for the defense to foul if the passes are short. Better to give them the awarded catch than the chance of catching the ball and gaining even more yards.

The college rules have a bias towards punishing the defense, but in the case of DPI on short passes, the benefit may be in the favor of the defense.

Let me know what you think.

Friday night will be my first High School games for the season. I'm the White Hat for the JV game and then move to Line Judge for Varsity. I'm working with the leader of our association during the Varsity game.

As you may recall, I recently asked if I could be considered for the next available Varsity White Hat position. I think I'm being watched during the JV game... like a test. I'll let you know.

Hard to Be Excited

So, Friday night was the HS Scrimmage. These are always a joke. They bring four team, split the field in half, and start on the 40 going in. Coaches are on the field, there is no clock, there are no chains, no kicking game. No all pointless, but still not a real game. And real games start next week.

Now get this, as I mentioned earlier, I'm on this new crew they just created. We only have three of us with any real Var experience, our White Hat is a new Crew Chief and our BJ is supposedly 'ready' for Var. I still don't know who the 5th guy is. To top this off, we also have 3 rookies - were they at the scrimmage? Ah, no. But this coming Sat. I have a three game set and I know I'll White Hat at least one of these games with guys who have never been on the field before. Swell.

And to think I came from a crew where I was the rookie with 10 years experience.

Day Jobs and Scrimmages

I missed the second controlled scrimmage on Thursday because of a crisis at work. My boss was on vacation and it was just one of those things I could not pawn off on any of my employees. I had to involve Sr. Management and the corrective action impacted about 40 people who had to work through the night until about 4:00AM. Not the ideal time to say I need to go a scrimmage -- see ya!

This really sucked, because I needed to get back on the horse after the crap-fest scrimmage on Tuesday. So many things I need to work on so they become more ingrained. Oh, well. The more I work this level the more I realize I don't know crap. Everyone told me this would happen, but you know, this would never happen to me!! I'm starting to get nervous.

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.

Scrimmges 'R Us

Saturday is both college scrimmage day and one of the HS scrimmage days. I'm required to do both in order to work games. Luckily, our college regional rep is also part of our association (and my former HS crew chief) and he was able to negotiate a deal with the HS head guy. But we still need to work and hour at the HS scrimmage, then run over to the college scrimmage, then back to the HS scrimmages. Next Sat will be the same thing. What a pain.

I did get the schedule for the first half of the college season - three games. I don't work the first two weeks. I guess this is ok since we were really only promised four games for the season. I get the last 5 weeks of the season in 10 days or so. If I get 6 games for the season I'll be ok with it. Since I work primarily at Umpire, I should be happy with what I got. There are 22 umpires and 17 games per week. Getting 3 games is pretty good I guess.

Next year I'll have to push to work the wings.

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.