I, as a U, tell my defense " IF he takes a knee we are not going to hit him" I do not tell them he is going to whether he has told me or my R he is.

I am in complete agreement with everything posted here regarding not coaching this play. I will say I am in a distinct minority where I live. Even the members of my crew like to announce to the world that "he's taking a knee" and they expect there not to be any hitting on the line. Something to try to persuade them against next season, since our regular season is over and as a 1st year crew, we're finished.

I will post something I saw in a youth game yesterday, though. Team was up late and B was out of timeouts. Now, this is an age group where they allow a coach on the field, and the offensive coach announced that they were going to take a knee. The defensive coach told his linemen not to hit the offensive linemen. I didn't say a word.

Then the QB fumbled the snap and since none of the linemen moved, he was able to fall on it.

THIS is why I don't want to give any advice to anyone. If the QB takes the snap and gets his knee down quickly, there are rules to protect him and the linemen and I will make sure those are applied liberally.

I'm too lazy to start another thread, so I'll just stick a few unrelated comments here:

There's also something that seems to be a local practice I hate -- finding out if a team is going to onside kick and giving the crew members a secret signal. I was trained in a place where we read the situation and moved officials up based on the situation, beanbags in hand. If the teams snuck one in at a weird time, then the LJ is right on the free kick line and can officiate accordingly.

Of course there are some other weird regional practices I can't seem to get used to -- wearing a raincoat or striped parka on the field during a game, the umpire signalling a touchdown (which happens too much around here), and some others that I can't think of right now.

Theisey said it right: It ought to be a rule.

If you guys can remember back about 8-10 years ago, there was a stipulation in the NFHS rule book that covered this situation; but from the echelons above reality, the edict from the inner sanctum-sanctorum, it was removed. Why, we don't know; all we can do is call the game.

I am a newer official with approximately 30 varsity games, about 50 junior high and jv games, and about 35 youth games under my belt. In my approximate 120 games I have never heard an official tell the defense the QB is going to take a knee.

It's a regional thing. I learned to officiate football in the south and we'd never do it. It's done where I live now.

I hate to say it, but I'd probably have myself a little IW if the QB announced to me and the world that they were taking a knee and then didn't.

I totally agree that this is bad advice, as telling B of the intent to take a knee will only cause trouble (as I mentioned in a previous post, what if A botches the snap, and B is just standing there?).