Kick Catch Interference

[RoyGardner]

Except what happened (or appeared to happen) on this play is that Auburn players on the right side of the kicker made a "wall" and went down field about 15 yds and "screened" the SC players from the ball as the ball landed behind them - about 12 yds from kick restraining line. Auburn players initially made no attempt to catch ball - just screen out the SC players. I also think that as ball was landing it struck one of the Auburn players in the wall in the back of the leg below the knee.

I saw the play twice last night, once live and 1 replay (same angle) and couldn't really tell if SC player(s) trying to reach ball were actually contacted by the Auburn players in the "wall" but it looked like they were. The SC players clearly never had a chance to get to the spot where the ball landed because 3-4 Auburn players were between them and the "landing spot".

This I believe is another of those KCI cases where we need to decide if KCI occurred even though there was no "hard contact", just "interference" by preventing the receiving team from getting to the ball.

[The Roamin' Umpire]

Originally Posted by RoyGardner

This I believe is another of those KCI cases where we need to decide if KCI occurred even though there was no "hard contact", just "interference" by preventing the receiving team from getting to the ball.

DISCLAIMER: Haven't seen the play in question.

I believe in order to call KCI on the wall, the receiving team needs to hold their ground. If the "wall" blocks a receiver before the ball hits the ground, then we'll have KCI. But if the receivers are retreating, no flag.