NCAA Questions
 

Watching 'Bama/UGA and had two things come up.

1. Has the SEC finally done away with the "incomplete pass/stop the clock" duo of signals on an incompletion? Or was it just this crew that doesn't do that?

2. On one play, a defender ripped off the QB's helmet while the QB was scrambling in the pocket. The R threw a flag (and correctly called a 15-yd facemask) and let the play develop, but the announcers claimed that in college football, the ball is dead as soon as a player's helmet comes off. I figure they were just plain wrong, but I wanted to get confirmation.

As with Fed ball, if the helmet comes off a player in possession of the ball, the ball immediately becomes dead.

Rule 4.1.3.Q. If the runner's helmet comes "completely off" it becomes dead in NCAA ball.

Good to know (on both counts) - I'm shocked they got it right.

As a follow-up, the announcers said that there should be another penalty on the D for tackling the QB after the ball was dead. However, I didn't hear a whistle blown. Would you flag this as a DB PF if the whistle wasn't blown?

Normally no whistle is required for the ball to becom dead. But if the covering official does not even know the ball is dead I am sure not going to flag the defense for not knowing it. Similar to when a punt returner signals for a fair catch but does not get the ball until after it has bounced on the ground. If the crew lets hiom run because they do not realize ball should have been blown dead, no way can we flag the kickers for tacklink th eguy eventually.

It appears that Dave Parry (Big 10 assignor and national coordinator) has won the mechanics war. There are standardized NCAA mechanics published by the CCA just like basketball and baseball and the latest issue of Referee talked about Parry standardizing mechanics nationwide.

The thought to not giving the "stop the clock" signal after an incomplete pass is that the incomplete pass signal stops the clock, so there is no need for the extra signal.