2019 Rules Changes

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

I have worked college for a rather long time as well and I work Deep Wing or Back Judge most of the time. And very familiar with the procedures used at that level. But we have to struggle a lot with the clock and it is visible on the field. We have almost every week have someone or during the game we either have the wrong time put up or they start it improperly or not at all. All I am saying is that is just when we have it visible, what is going to happen when it is not visible?

I also did not say we had problems getting the ball in play. I said that we do not have ball boys like college. So when there is a deep incomplete pass, they do not have people in place to get another ball and chase the other ball. I can ask them to do this and they would look at us with 5 heads because if the ball goes to the other sideline, are they getting the ball? Nope. We often have a little kid that is bringing out the ball and yes they do not bring out the ball all the time when requested. Even at the college level we have terrible ball boys where we are having to constantly talk to them about when to get us a ball properly.

The bottom line is it is one thing to take on a rule that has all the other procedures in place to make this transition smooth, it is another when you have many procedures missing. That is the concern. I am the crew chief on our crew and I set the tone. Nothing I say is going to automatically make this easier because I ask the teams to do something when they are not prepared to accommodate or they have never heard what I am asking. And most of all I cannot make any school put up a play clock on the field because I said so. I was a two-time State Final Back Judge as well, we often had issues with teams getting read before the clock when we would never have a single game other than the State Finals with a play clock. I did not say issues as a crew, my mechanics or routine was the same, but there were still teams not aware of how quickly that time runs.

Peace

Those are all issues that have nothing to do with either play clock rule. Sounds like you have issues no matter what you do. This rule changes makes them no worse and may help you make them better. Use the rule as a reason to get them to do fairly standard ball mechanics or find someone else to do it. This really isn't that difficult.