Misapp

[MJT]

Originally Posted by MI Official

What happened: a few players came in after Ready for play for a FG attempt....5 seconds later they went off to run an offensive play, violating rule 3-7-3. Ihad alwaysthought itwasn't actually a penalty until theball was snappedsince theplayershould have the chance to go backoff the field.

That is not how the rule reads. The rule states that a substituted player must leave the field immediately. 5 seconds for team A is too long, and most definitely if they start to get into a formation. In this case, it should be a DB foul. Since the ball did not yet become live after the questioned play, you could legally make a change IF that is truly a missinterpretation. I am going to do some looking in Reddings and see if it gives anymore knowledge to this type of play.

[MI Official]

I was looking at 3-7-3 which states that during the same dead ball interval no substitute shall become aplayer and then withdraw and player shall withdraw and re-enter as a sub unless a penalty is accepted a deadball foul occurs a charged time-out or a period ends.

If you read this though the mere fact that they re-enter is a DB and thus they can come back in or withdraw if all they have is a 5 yard penalty, and in this case...actually go for a FG, instead of trying to see how the defense reacts. my $.02

[cmathews]

MI I would say that if the coach requests and audience with the referee before the ball becomes live then you have reason to give it to him and change the ruling...it is just a longer dead ball period than we are used to LOL....however if he says he used video tape to justify his thoughts then get him with the USC as well...