Touching

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by surehands

A punts the ball near sideline. R25 goes out of bounds on his own and before interring back onto the field grabs the ball at the 25 yd line. What do we have?

The ball is dead when he grabbed it. If the player deliberately went out of bounds to interfere with play, illegal participation in NCAA and Fed. It's a live ball foul enforced from where B25 grabbed the ball, which is where both the foul occurred and the scrimmage kick ended.

However, R25 might only have stepped "out of bounds on his own" while legitimately running towards the ball, and that shouldn't be called illegal participation. I think you'd have to see him looking at the sideline and carefully stepping out of bounds and having to reach or step in a ways to play the ball before you'd call IP.

Regardless, let's hope R25 isn't "interring" anybody!