Spotting the ball after a fumble in a running clock situation

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by 9thIsleZebra

I saw the following play about two years ago. Colorado at Hawaii, seconds left in the game, Colorado out of time outs and they need a touchdown to at least tie. Colorado on offense and there is a play that ends near the sidelines but stays inbounds. The officials are trying to relay the ball to be spotted but as they are relaying it to the U or the C, it accidentally hits a Hawaii player who was trying to get on his side of the scrimmage line. So it takes that much longer for the ball to be spotted and the time runs out on Colorado.

Don't all the codes have a provision to stop the clock in cases of unusual delay in readying the ball for play?