Ineligible catches pass NFHS

[FredFan7]

Third and 12 from the A 3 yard line. QB A12 under pressure scrambles in the endzone. In a desperate attempt to save a safety, he throws from the endzone to A68, who catches it one yard in the endzone and runs to the 7 yard line. What do you have? NFHS.

[SouthGARef]

In my not so expert opinion,

Illegal touching. Since the foul occured in the end zone, you have a safety.

[SoGARef]

Originally posted by SouthGARef
In my not so expert opinion,

Illegal touching. Since the foul occured in the end zone, you have a safety.

SouthGARef is correct. If an ineligible player who is behind the neutral zone, catches, bats or muffs a pass before it touches an opponent, it is illegal touching, a five yard penalty from the spot of the foul and loss of down. If he touches the pass beyond the neutral zone, it is offensive pass interference, a 15-yard penalty from the previous spot and loss of down.

Here the spot of the foul was in the end zone, so as SouthGARef says it is a safety.

[Ed Hickland]

Basic spot is the endzone. Safety.

[Patton]

So if the touch or catch by A68 occurred at the 1 yard line, we would have 4th and about 14.5 from the half yard line correct?

[SouthGARef]

Yup.

Also, the basic spot would NOT be in the end zone. It's a loose ball foul, so the "basic spot" would be the LOS. The enforcement spot is in the endzone however because of the all-but-one enforcement. But now we're just splitting hairs...

[mikesears]

Originally posted by Patton
So if the touch or catch by A68 occurred at the 1 yard line, we would have 4th and about 14.5 from the half yard line correct?

Yep,

If he'd only committed what is normally the worse of the two fouls, he would have saved his team 2 points.