Free Kick Option

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by Bob M.

REPLY: Kirby's right. And think about this...if the free kick makes it to the goal line, the clock won't start at all. It will be R's ball 1-10 with 2 seconds left...provided, of course, that the attempt was unsuccessful.

Yeah, but also think about the consequences if the kick is good. Are we not going to have a score with no time expired and now "A/K" kicking off? Since all this is a pretty unusual situation, I think it might be prudent to explain that to the coach beforehand because I'd bet you'll be doing some explaining after. And it might be a good idea to go over some of the fun that could happen during said kick off with the crew.

[MJT]

When the coach tells you he is planning to free kick after the FC, with 2 seconds left, I don't think it would be a problem to tell him the clock will not start at all if the kick makes it to the EZ, or is no good, and that there would still be 2 seconds left. I would tell him that cuz if he is close enough he may choose to do a regular scrimmage kick to run out the clock, although I'd take my chances doing a pouch kick. The odds of something going wrong there are much less than the scrimmage kick getting blocked and returned.

[Bob M.]

Originally Posted by MJT

When the coach tells you he is planning to free kick after the FC, with 2 seconds left, I don't think it would be a problem to tell him the clock will not start at all if the kick makes it to the EZ, or is no good, and that there would still be 2 seconds left. I would tell him that cuz if he is close enough he may choose to do a regular scrimmage kick to run out the clock, although I'd take my chances doing a pouch kick. The odds of something going wrong there are much less than the scrimmage kick getting blocked and returned.

REPLY: Since it's after a FC, why wouldn't he just run a safe scrimmage play. No reason to attempt any kind of free kick if he wanted to run out the clock.

[MJT]

One of us is confused Bob. I thought they were talking about B's coach wanting to kick a FK after FC to win the game after fielding the ball with 2 seconds left. In that case he may want to know the clock would not start at all if the kick was good or not good but made it to the GL. Maybe I totally missed the point of the question.

[Bob M.]

REPLY: I guess we were just talking past each other. I thought you were saying you'd tell him about the clock so that he could make a pooch kick or some other kind of kick where it would be legally touched and the clock would start. I was just asking that if he was concerned about the clock not possibly starting, why not just run a play from scrimmage.

[Texas Aggie]

While not intending to hijack the thread (perhaps this is better for another one) but I wish someone would explain to me the rationale for this rule. I'm certainly not against the fair catch, but it seems like it gives the receiving team a good deal: I won't advance it, but you can't pummell me. Either way, allowing the receiving team to take an extra bonus: a free kick with field goal points is a bit over the top.

[Bob M.]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

While not intending to hijack the thread (perhaps this is better for another one) but I wish someone would explain to me the rationale for this rule. I'm certainly not against the fair catch, but it seems like it gives the receiving team a good deal: I won't advance it, but you can't pummell me. Either way, allowing the receiving team to take an extra bonus: a free kick with field goal points is a bit over the top.

REPLY: I don't exactly know the rationale, but it was also a feature of the NCAA rules until 1951. The NCAA had previously eliminated the fair catch from their rules, but put it back in for the 1951 season and at the same time eliminated the free kick option following the FC.