NC State vs. Florida State

[GPC2]

I'm not totally clear on college mechanics, but this couldn't possibly have been the proper mechanic. An NC State running back broke a long run (beyond the first down line) and at the end of the run he was tackled and the ball came out. It appeared to me that he was down first, but the Linejudge never blew the whistle, so I thought maybe it was a fumble.

Following the fumble(?) the Linejudge just stood there as players scrambled for the loose ball. After a few seconds, a Florida State defender recovered the ball. At this time the Linejudge blew his whistle, stopped the clock and pointed to the ground and gave the first down signal for NC State.

Is that the proper mechanic, or should the Linejudge have immediately signalled that the runner was down? Seems like a dumb question to me, but maybe I truly don't understand the proper mechanics.

[ref-farai]

Good observation. Seems the LJ was having the replay session going on in his mind. When he finally made the call, there was absolutely no doubt. The LJ made the call with authority.

Not a dumb question. Why the delay? Dunno.

[FredFan7]

I didn't see the game, but here's a guess at what happened.

He probably wanted to hold his whistle in case the play was reviewed and reversed. He may not have wanted to blow the whistle, kill the play and have the replay not be able to review the call.

He got the best of both worlds. Wait until the action is over, blow the whistle, make the ruling and if it really was a fumble, there was no whistle to kill the play and nullify a defensive recovery.

[schmitty1973]

I think maybe he was looking over at the Umpire to see if he saw anything, and after a while he just made the call. Good thing it was the right one.

[SC Ump]

My understanding (as a fan, not a college official) is that whether or not he holds his whistle, if it is ruled down on the field there cannot be a replay. If he was 80% sure it was down and wanted to hold for a possible replay, he would have needed to rule fumble on the field and then allow the replay to show it was truly down.

[mcrowder]

Originally Posted by SC Ump

My understanding (as a fan, not a college official) is that whether or not he holds his whistle, if it is ruled down on the field there cannot be a replay. If he was 80% sure it was down and wanted to hold for a possible replay, he would have needed to rule fumble on the field and then allow the replay to show it was truly down.

Your understanding is incorrect. The reason this is usually not reviewable is because of the whistle - the whistle kills the play if it turns out in retrospect that the play was not dead... anything that happens after the whistle didn't really happen.

But in this sitch, or a sitch where there is no significant timing difference between fumble and recovery, and the whistle comes after the recovery, it IS a reviewable play if the official rules the player down.

[voiceoflg]

If the replay clearly shows the player was down, does the clock get reset to when the player was down? Or does it stay showing the time the whistle was blown?