I am filling in for a fellow official who has come down with a bug. This will be my first taste of varsity FB, a 5-man crew and I'll be umpire which I have done only a few times. I would appreciate any pointers or things I should keep in mind so as to make this evening go smoothly. Thanks in advance.

I see your move is working out.
 

;)

I cannot give you much advice as it relates to working the umpire position.

You will be nervous, that is natural. You will make mistakes, we all did that (many still do).

You will probably communicate the most with the Referee. Listen to his explanations of penalties very carefully, he could be wrong.

Have a good pregame so that you understand who has a spot and who does not.

I am sure there are many more things, but I do not work umpire. I just know that the umpire is my best friend on the field (as a Referee).


Have fun.

Have a good talk with the R in pregame about what he expects of you BEFORE the game. I'm sure that once the game gets going and the nerves get normal, you'll fall back on instinct, and be fine. But a V game is much different than anything you've done previously in the way it's handled PRE-game. Also make sure you know what you're expected to write down. Some crews have each official track his own penalties. Some have everyone track everyone's penalties. You've probably done neither at SubV.

Other than that - once you get on the field, let your secure knowledge that you were picked to fill in for a reason calm your nerves. I'm sure that you know what you're doing on the field - trust yourself.

Line up seven yards off the LOS. You'll see the play develop better. On punts, don't turn downfield until the players pass you. I almost had a knee blown out before I learned that......

Pre-game with your wings on who has the spot. SLOW down in walking off penalties. Know where you're going before you start off. Say to yourself, "ok, we're going from the 33 to the 43" and march it off.

Count A players. Know the signal you and the R will use to say you've got 11.

BE VOCAL with the players. Tell the players, "its over, roll off, push off the ground" etc. If some player is getting hot, get a captain to cool him down, or say a word or two to the player. Sometimes a quick, discreet word to a player can calm things down.

Don't be picky. If you don't call a single hold all night, don't think you did a bad job. Just call the blatant stuff at the point of attack. And of course call safety related things. Know the free blocking zone rules.

Have fun and enjoy not having a coach chew your ear off all night!!! :-)

Let us know how it went!

Thanks Guys,

Rut: Move is all right, right now I am picking up games here and there. They already have 2007 scheduled and are starting on 2008 here. Insane if you ask me. Also the AD's assign the games, no assignors.

I actually didn't throw a single flag all night, didn't see anything. They wings were a little busy. Fortunately it was a blow out (45-0), it was the home teams 23rd straight loss. I 'bout got ran over on a cut back and almost broke some fingers, I went to brace myself when the back came at me with about three guys on him and accidentally stuck my hand in his face mask, luckily it slipped out. I thought about throwing the flag on myself but I thought better of it. It would have only been the five yard varity anyway. I spotted the ball wrong once because I thought we had an incomplete pass, but it was complete. Our BJ had an inadvertant late in the fourth quarter when the visitors picked the ball off, he blew while the ball was in the air, replay the down. They weren't happy of course, but to add salt to the wound, it ws the second week in a row they had an inadvertant whistle go against them. Wriled them up a bit, but we got them back under control. All in all it was a good game, I'm sure my positioning could have been better and I wish I had been a little smoother with other things. I look forward to my next challege on the 8th when I have another opportunity to shine on Friday night.

Thanks again for everything guys. Hope your seasons are progressing smoothly.

That is the type of system I started in. It was a lot easier to move up and get opportunities. At least that is what I experienced.

Peace

I know this has been discussed before, but I don't recall reading a complete answer. How in the world do you schedule officials four years in advance? How do you handle retirements, injuries, or relocations to another part of the country?

They're other problems like business travel, family situations, etc. that can't be planned more than a month in advance. A third of our officials have less than four years experience. What do they do? Wait four years for their first game? Hope a senior official dies?

Furthermore, in order to schedule officials four years in advance, one must schedule games four years in advance. How does a new school join the club? Do they have to wait four years to play their first game. In my area, school districts shut down schools from time to time as the population ages. They don't give four years notice, either. We're lucky to get six months notice. If you were scheduled to play that school under your system, now you have a big hole in your schedule.

Just like anywhere else.
 

It is really not that complicated. They schedule crews to work games. If the crew lineup changes, then it changes. You get someone else to fill in. When I moved, our crew had games for a couple years in the future. They found a replacement and that was it. You do not have to call the National Guard to have a change.

Peace

Re: Just like anywhere else.
 

Thankfully, it's not the National Guard, so you can be sure they showed up. ;)

Sounds like it was a good experience as U in a varsity game. Hope you can do more!