Muff Play

[Legacy Zebra]

6-3-6-a. The ball is dead when a scrimmage kick that has crossed the neutral zone is caught or recovered by A.

NFL is like NFHS. If the ball comes back behind the line, A can still advance the ball. If the ball was touched by B, they get a new series. If the ball was not touched by B, it is the same series and they must reach the line to gain to maintain possession.

[Texas Aggie]

Legacy and Robert are right: under no circumstances can Team A advance a recovered KICK, unless it hasn't crossed the neutral zone. A new series of downs would attach, thus, Team A, first and 10 at the spot of recovery. (NCAA).

However, change the play just a little: what happens (Fed or NCAA) IF the ball goes out of Team A's end zone?

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

Legacy and Robert are right: under no circumstances can Team A advance a recovered KICK, unless it hasn't crossed the neutral zone. A new series of downs would attach, thus, Team A, first and 10 at the spot of recovery. (NCAA).

However, change the play just a little: what happens (Fed or NCAA) IF the ball goes out of Team A's end zone?

Out as in out of bounds?

If the muff by the receiving team player is of the kick in flight, then in both Fed and NCAA, responsibility for the ball's being in the end zone is on the kick, i.e. team A, so you'd get a safety.

If the kick touches the ground before being muffed, then there's a difference between Fed and NCAA, because in Fed that muff would usually have altered responsibility by the muffer's applying new force. I could, however, see cases in which the ball would've been bouncing towards A's goal line from the field of play, and the muff by R being ruled not to apply new force.

In NCAA the kick would have to come to rest before the receiving player could be ruled to apply new force to it.

So whether it's a safety or touchback could depend on factors not specified in the question.