Tell him to "mirror" the wings!
As the umpire in a 5, 6, or 7 man crew I have the benefit of the back judge, etc. to relay the ball into me. What I do is dead ball officiate after each play, then get to the spot of forward progress and "mirror" the feet of the wing official. What I mean is that I line up my downfield foot at the same dead-ball spot that the wing official has (or the box if its an incomplete pass). If the field is correctly marked then I have at least two hash-marks to help me line-up. Also, if the run ends in a side-zone and we have ball-boys on the sidelines, we use the "first ball down, second ball in" technique. Having the back judge and the referee help relay the ball in allows me to get my feet lined up first with the wing official, then when I catch the ball I simply have to bend over and place it at my feet. My feet are already lined up with the ball and wing's feet in the side zone. We train the ball boys to wait until I put my ball down before they remove the other ball.
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Mike Simonds
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