You make the call

[scrounge]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

I figured it likely there'd be a case play somewhat on point, but this one doesn't look close enough. A holder's attempting to gain possession of the ball on the ground reads differently from a ball that hasn't even fallen all the way over. In the case play, the kicker definitely still wanted to kick that ball even while seeing it was loose. In the play here, it's likely the kicker had started his motion and had no chance to pull up in time to not meet the ball with his foot. So I'm not sure it fits Fed's illegal kick provision. Because of different wording, though, it does fit NCAA's ruling of illegal kick. So in NCAA, illegal kick, but in Fed, it's a nothing, just a loose ball. Team A provided the impetus if the ball enters B's end zone.

I'm not sure there's really all that much distinction. As we see in the definition of a legal scrimmage kick in Fed:

ART. 4 . . . A scrimmage kick is any kick from in or behind the neutral zone during a scrimmage down. Either a place kick, punt, or drop kick may be used. For a place kick, the ball must be controlled on the ground or on a legal kicking tee by a teammate.

In the OP, we have a ball that is falling over, but just hasn't fallen all the way over. Even if barely falling, that doesn't sound like controlled on the ground or on a legal kicking tee by a teammate to me. Intent of the kicker doesn't matter here, so I still have illegal kicking.