Benefit of the doubt

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Forksref

Rich,

My first reaction to the play was, "Where is the wing? We need to talk."

I would agree that it is too big a play to make it a touchback if you are not sure. The ball was fumbled. It was not recovered by B. It went OOB. We aren't 100% sure that it went into the EZ. This leads me to say we will rule it OOB before it reached the pylon.

I did call the wing over and talk to him. He did not mention the fumble (not sure why), but said that the ball did NOT hit the pylon and the play was out of bounds short of the endzone. The problem is that I didn't know what question to ask -- I didn't know the runner fumbled the football.

It will be a pregame discussion for next week and I have a copy of the play in question to use when we gather to watch our game videos (we have 4 so far and have watched 2 of them).

[Kirby]

Rich,

How do you get your game videos? Do you ask one of the schools for a copy or do you have somebody else video for you? Are the schools usually ok with sending the video to you or do they hesitate at all?

Don't want to hijack your thread as this is a very interesting discussion.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Rich,

How do you get your game videos? Do you ask one of the schools for a copy or do you have somebody else video for you? Are the schools usually ok with sending the video to you or do they hesitate at all?

Don't want to hijack your thread as this is a very interesting discussion.

My crew emails the athletic director of the home team on Monday -- to coordinate arrival time, parking, etc. We don't have an assigning association, so it's up to us to make contact with the school.

In that email I ask if the team will send us a tape or DVD of the game. I make sure that the AD is aware that we will hand him or the site manager a self-addressed stamped envelope with a blank VHS tape or DVD-R (depending on what they use to make game tapes) when we arrive. I make sure the AD knows we're doing it to improve the crew -- they know the value of game tapes and many are impressed we want to use tape to improve. But how else do you?

We get almost all of them back and nobody's turned us down up front.

--Rich

[cougar729]

I have used friends or just other officials, usually the schools are good at letting someone get in the pressbox to tape it, but there are a few who dont, I think the national federation and state associations should help officials by letting schools know that by helping officials with game tape, they are helping officials better themselves

[NickelDeuce]

I totally agree with everything Wisref had to say. That was a good post.

As far as the play goes, my take is just like everyone elses. If you're not sure, mark it out of bounds. But if you are sure the ball goes over the pylon the you step up and make the big call.

[Mack10]

Is your spot where the runner went out of bounds with the ball, or is the spot where the ball went out of bounds by itself? a) The runner could have fumbled, with the ball going out bounds at the 1, and the runner continuing on (inbounds or out) to hit the pylon. b) The runner could have gone out of bounds at the 1 (e.g. stepped on the line) ... with the ball coming loose (no fumble since it's now dead) ... and the runner continuing on to hit the pylon.
c) as you indicate, somebody else could have hit the pylon.

In all cases, sounds like the wing made the right call. If I'm the wing, I'm going to tell you why I called what I called.

[wisref2]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Rich,

How do you get your game videos? Do you ask one of the schools for a copy or do you have somebody else video for you? Are the schools usually ok with sending the video to you or do they hesitate at all?

Don't want to hijack your thread as this is a very interesting discussion.

We bring a video tape in a stamped, self-addressed envelope to every game and give it to the AD (or whoever meets us). Last season, we got 100% of the tapes back. This year, only one school has failed to return the tape.

I include a letter asking for feedback. I don't usually get any, but when I do, it's usually pretty helpful.