We had an out-of-town crew come in and work our local V game last night. Two things I noticed were:

1) LJ was lining up inside of the 9yd marks, unless the WO was outside of them. He was also within a couple of yards of the WO so if the WO wanted to make a move to the outsdie off of the LOS, it would have been difficult at best.

and 2) The HL and LJ swapped sides at halftime.

Any crews here swap at halftime?

WM

Out-of-town but from the same state?

1) Terrible mechanics. Nothing good can come out of this. It's just a matter of time before that one problem play eats the wing alive.

2) Never heard of this occuring at the NF level. For that matter not at the NCAA level either.

If from the same state, one has to ask where these changes come from.

We teach our wings to start with their toes on the sideline and keep the sideline clear with a get-back coach. Much of the officiating is done outside the sideline. As for switching at half-time, I've never heard of it since I started FB in 1975.

1) I agree bad mechanic, why start the play backing up when it comes your way?

2) Only heard of this in NFL, don't see why you would do it unless you had auxillary chains on the otherside. Why switch a guys responsibilities halfway through the game?

Not making excuses, but could be that someone was breaking in
new people and wanted to get both experience on the chains.

Or... maybe one of the wings was getting a lot of heat and
at half they decided to switch.

A very bad practice, I agree. Also agree that wings should
stay wide. Although it is kind of fun to watch football games
from the 60s and the 50s and watch the wings pinch and
actually hop in the air when signalling a touchdown on a plunge
play... usually landing in the end zone.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Theisey

2) Never heard of this occuring at the NF level. For that matter not at the NCAA level either.



At the East Carolina @ Wake Forest game last night (Conference USA Officiting Crew) the wings and FJ & SJ switched sides at halftime.

Interesting, but not surprising since this was CUSA. Fill me in, did the offical line-to-gain equipment stay opposite the press box and therefore were now under control of the Line judge?

Yes, the chains were on the visitors sideline for both halfs. HL and SJ on home side 1st half.

Conference USA is experimenting with switching the wing officials at the half. They are also experimenting with having the crew signal the foul to the Referee rather than go all the way to the Referee and verbally give him the info.

According to the NFHS Officials Manual, starting position for the wings is "Straddle line ball is on, no closer than 9 yards outside widest offensive player. On sideline if necessary."

Here in MO, we are instructed "Straddle line ball is on, no closer than 9 yards outside widest offensive player. If the ball is in the center of the field or closer to you start on the sideline. As the ball is spotted from the center of the field towards the opposite inbounds line move that same distance in from the sideline. If the ball is spotted on the far inbounds line start on the top of the numbers (9 yards from the sideline)."

The rationale behind this is because the hash marks are wider on HS fields than any other field. It makes our jobs of "cleaning up behind the play away from you" easier when you are off the sidelines. Is that the best way to approach this? Hard to say. But what I will say is you don't want to get in the way. Many of the wing officials are quick enough to get out of the way. Some out there, need to stay wide because they aren't fast enough to get out of the way, mentally or physically.

I personally like being off the sidelines. I can see more, don't have to listen to the coaches, and can get out in the middle faster if there is a fight or something.

And yes, there are college conferences experimenting with the NFL system of swapping LTG and wing officials at the half. To the best of my knowledge it isn't done on the HS level though.