Catch or No Catch?

[Bob M.]

REPLY: Both of these plays are excellent teaching tools. In particular, the first one points out a fundamental philosophical difference between Fed and NCAA. In Fed, one might justifiably say that the player had possession while on his back in the endzone. Therefore the ball is dead (and the result is a TD) when the defender comes in and strips the ball off the receiver's chest. In NCAA, the prevalent thought is that the result is an incomplete pass. Their philosophy is that the receiver's control must survive both (a) his going to the ground, i.e. the ground can cause an incompletion, and (b) the immediate hit by the defender (assuming that the hit isn't so late as to be deemed a PF).

In the second play--the one that JugglingRef posted--I see it as an incomplete pass for both codes. Notice that when the defender finally makes contact with the receiver's arm(s), the ball is well below his belt, and the ball actually has its point in the receiver's crotch--not a place where I could legitimately say he had clear control and possession. And, with all due respect to JR, I really can't see it as a situation where forward progress has been stopped, since the runner hasn't lost voluntary use of his legs. Ask yourself: If the receiver had maintained possession and then broken free, would you feel good about having blown the whistle and killed the play?