NFHS Ball Mechanics

Originally Posted by RichMSN

Hurry-up doesn't mean the officials should be in any more hurry to start a new series than in any other game. What the team does after the normal RFP is completely up to them.

Oh, so when the clock is ticking down to the last few seconds, we can screw the team trailing and in the hurry up offense out of their time? With the logic in your quote, I take it that we don't need to hustle. Watch a game at the NFL and college level, and what do you see happening when the clock is ticking down? You see the crew hustling like crazy because the offense is hustling because of the clock running down. Now, if that isn't giving an advantage, what is?

Originally Posted by ajmc

The secret is simply; don't don't be complicit, even unintentionally, in doing something that might allow either team to gain any unearned advantage.

And the crew in the original posting wasn't complicit? I'm confused as to your point now, because first you were defending the crew and deriding the coach, and now you're condeming the crew, or at least that what it seems to me. I'm not being critical of your comments, but my day job as a college instructor is kicking in right now mentally, and I'm just trying to make sure I understand you correctly.

[ajmc]

I'e don't know what you teach, or what difference that makes but having no control over your reading comprehension, I'll try harder to express myself clearer.

I was simply trying to reiterate a related point, which comes up periodically and is germane to the general issue of ball replacement. Perhaps because of the processes involved in the more visible professional and collegiate games, many coaches are under the misunderstanding that they have direct input into the conditions or circumstances that dictate when, and even how, game balls are replaced.

That is NOT the case. Game officials have the exclusive and absolute authority to decide if and when game balls should be exchanged, other than at the start of a series (NF: 1.3.2) and as otherwise defined by the rules (NF: 1.3.3).

Your references to, "we can screw the team trailing and in the hurry up offense out of their time" and that somehow leads to your conclusion, "that we don't need to hustle" seem to exist more in your mind than in any of the suggestions made up to this point.

As I have tried to suggest, as officials we should not alter our process, or the interval of,of declaring the ball RFP to satisfy and special requirements giving an advantage to either team. I was not condemning the crew, although I believe the incident as described, exceeded what I would consider reasonable protocol for handling an ancillary matter such as ball exchange.

I wouldn't deride any coach's motivation, unless and until I was working a game in which a specific coach tried to exceed his authority, and even then my initial response would be to simply explain the proper answer to whatever question was being raised.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Ref Ump Welsch

Oh, so when the clock is ticking down to the last few seconds, we can screw the team trailing and in the hurry up offense out of their time? With the logic in your quote, I take it that we don't need to hustle. Watch a game at the NFL and college level, and what do you see happening when the clock is ticking down? You see the crew hustling like crazy because the offense is hustling because of the clock running down. Now, if that isn't giving an advantage, what is?

That is the default pace.

We can slow down if the teams aren't ready to snap right away or if the clock isn't running and we need the time.

Trust me, if the clock is running and the team is working no-huddle, we're hustling whether it's the last minute or the first minute.

But this (described in this thread) is a new series and the clock is stopped. Taking the proper time here does what, other than screw the defense out of the chance to properly substitute?

I guarantee, every time there is a new series I take the same amount of time. Nobody is going to hurry me or the crew into making a mistake, the clock isn't running.

[Ed Hickland]

The mechanic described in the original post is similar to the NCAA mechanic. Most of the time ball coming in is from the home team side, for instance, always on a change of possession the ball will always come from the home team side. The only time the ball comes from the visiting team side is when the ball goes out of bounds on the visiting team sideline.

[azbigdawg]

For subvarsity games here (Arizona) we usually get ONE ball from each team, and a ball boy provided by the home team He gets the ball in to the line Judge (or umpire if the LJ is downfield).

For varsity games, we get TWO balls from each team (and TWO ballboys), and the balls still come in from the home side. For long incomplections,etc we just grab the second ball. Works like magic.