[Mike Simonds]

Seriously coach, your current style was in vogue during the 1920's when officials actually jumped on top of the pile to see what was going on (there is a great video of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame scoring on a dive play in the middle of the line and the referee actually takes a running leap and does a belly flop on top of the pile to see if the ball had indeed crossed the goal line in the back's possession; if I can find the file I'll post a reference here; I'll get back to you guys on that one).

Coach, you need to remember that even in high school mechanics the current trend is for wings to start on the sideline and stay there unless you are pinching in at the end of the play when you know for sure the ball is dead...

Coach, you will never go wrong if you slow down, take a deep breath, stay wide and never move in unless you are absolutely sure that the play is over.

Also, that is not a good thing to be running past the other officials. But of course perhaps you had to in order for the crew to have proper coverage on long plays. But really, you need to discuss this issue with your crew and make sure that the other guys are running and/or back-pedaling to put themselves in the proper position. Your duties would be to clean-up the play from behind... Did you ever stop to think that perhaps trying to do another official's job is going to make you miss something in your primary area of responsibility...

Think about it Coach, we do not want Supermen out there... We just want guys who will do their responsibility and have faith in each member of the crew to do theirs... My advice is to slow down, stay wide, and stay in your own area for now...

Best wishes to you, and remember the bumper sticker that was popular at Notre Dame: "Faust fever, cure it!"