Defensive Holding on Kickoff?
 

First year official here. Great site. I have learned a lot on these boards. Ok, here's the situation:

R25 receives kickoff at their 20 and runs to his 30 where he throws a lateral across the field to R81 at his own 25. Before the lateral gets to R81, K45 pulls R81 down and the ball is recovered by K at R's 23. Is there a penalty for holding on K45? If so, this would be a loose ball foul, right? Loose ball basic spot is PS, so where would be the PS on a kickoff? Would they have to kickoff again?

I had a situation similar to this, except that K made a play for the ball instead of holding the player. It got me thinking to what if K held/tackled the player trying to recieve the lateral.

Thanks!

No penalty. Two players going after a loose ball.

REPLY: I'm not disagreeing with Rich's answer, but you must determine whether or not K45 was making an attempt to go after the loose ball himself. If it's a momentary grab to get the receiver out of the way so that he himself can catch/recover the loose ball, I agree with Rich--no foul. But...if his grab is designed to remove the intended receiver from the play so that K's teammate might have a shot at the loose ball, then it is definitely defensive holding.

And...if you do call this defensive holding, your enforcment (previous spot) is not correct. Remember that the kick ended when R25 gained possession, right? Therefore, this was no longer a loose ball play, but a running play, right? And the basic spot for a running play is the end of the run, correct? If the foul occurred while the backward pass was in flight, the end of the run was the spot where R25 threw his backward pass (we don't say 'lateral' here because we're too sophisticated for that ;) ) across the field. That would be R's 30. Let the play run to its completion. Then it will be up to R to decide on accepting or declining the penalty for K's hold. If they accept, enforcement will be from R's 30 (all fouls by the defense are enforced from the basic spot). This is exactly why you need to bag the spot of the backward pass.

Rich and Bob, thanks for the answers. So basically, it should be an obvious foul to call holding in that situation. If I do call it, enforcement is from the end of the run.

I really appreciate the knowledge!

Scott

REPLY: Let me say it another way...it should be obvious that the 'holder' had no intention of going after the loose ball (pass) himself. He just wanted to take the receiver out of the play.

That is exactly how I interpreted your response. Thanks again!

Scott

No - the obviousness of the hold has nothing to do with it. The INTENT or PURPOSE of the hold is what matters. He's completely allowed to hold, even if obvious, if his INTENT is to get to the ball.

And just to reiterate as Bob mentioned earlier. Beanbags are not just reserved for fumbles. Anytime there is a backward pass beyond the LOS before a COP or anytime after a COP (whether or not a kick occurred on the play), that spot--or at least the yardline--must be bagged. I think too often we get into the mindset that the beanbag is only for fumbles, but that's not the case and it's a good thing to cover in a pre-game. In fact, I'm going to ensure that we touch on it tonight with my crew in our pregame.

As you could tell, I was providing a specific answer based on how I saw it. What you said is certainly true, too.

I wonder how many beanbags would be needed on the classic Cal/Stanford runback. ;)

What's a "lateral"? The rule book recognizes a FORWARD PASS and a BACKWARD PASS. "Lateral" means sideways.

Bob

Bob, great point, had a guy say this the other night at the meeting.

There is no lateral, its either forward or backwards, just like "tie goes to the runner" in baseball, NO he's either out or safe, no ties.

Not a lot to gain in beating on the term lateral. We all know what it is intended to mean, a sideways pass (even the dictionary uses the term to describe a football play). We also know that any pass that is not sideways or forward is by definition in the rules (both NF and NCAA) backward. While it would be nice if the announcers in games used the correct terms, since a lateral pass (sideways) is probably 50% of the time a forward pass, it's more important to have the correct call on the field.

The focus on this play is paying careful attention and using good judgement. If in our opinion the K "defensive hold" simply took out the R player, and the K player was not making any attempt to get to the ball, then we have a foul. If we judge that K player's "hold" was a valid attempt to get to the ball then we have nothing.