Defered Option

[Ed Hickland]

Originally Posted by Reffing Rev.

Anytime the word kick comes out of a captains mouth I immediately follow with two lines:

First: (If its the first half) "You mean you want to receive the second half, so you want to defer the first half right?"

Secondly: "You know if you choose to kick this half then they can choose to receive in the second half and you'll be kicking off both times."

Before I learned that trick, I had a couple of upset coaches both of which were more upset at their sons for not being the smartest captains on the field.

Since I got to varsity level I've never really had a problem. Only once did a captain say kick, but his coach told us in our pregame he was going to kick-off if he won. (They were awful on kick returns. I think they would have been better off after giving up a touchdown taking the option to kickoff again. Their defense gave them better field position than their kick return team did. )

There is one way to assure you get it right, in the pregame conference with the head coach ask him what options he wants.

[daggo66]

Originally Posted by Ed Hickland

There is one way to assure you get it right, in the pregame conference with the head coach ask him what options he wants.

That is what I do as well, including the direction they want to defend if they lose the toss. If a coach says they want to defer and the captain says "kick", I will ask him if he is sure and remind him that his coach wanted to defer. This is not something you want the captain to screw up because it will only cause you issues later. I do the same thing with penalty enforcement, especially if there is a loss of down and they are looking at me with that deer in the headlights look.

[bisonlj]

We ask the coaches in the pre-game conference as well. If one says receive and the other says defer, I know who is going to have the ball first. If I'm in a jovial mood, I will tell the captains that I am escorting to the R that they will definitely be kicking or receiving the opening kick off (depending on which team I have). They look at me like I'm crazy and laugh when they realize I was right. It's my own inside joke. The things we do to entertain ourselves.

[Texas Aggie]

is that most good White Hats will not let a captain select the option to "Kick" without making sure he is really sure that is what he wants to do

Change this to read: "(m)ost good White Hats will not let a captain select the option to 'Kick.'"

If the weather is very bad, or something really weird is at work (which I'm sure the coach will tell either me or my umpire before we go out to the field), only then is the kick option a rational choice under any circumstances. Defer, receive, or field position are the only rational choices. Kicking would fall under defer and field side virtually all the time and I'm hard pressed to think of a situation of when a team MUST kick the ball to start the game. I guess if they have a near perfect onside kick recovery unit, but if that's the case, the coach will tell me prior to the game when I ask for such things.

Both my umpire and I always ask our captains, "do you know what you want to do if you win the toss" prior to walking out to the middle. So I guess in the absolute worst case scenario, we'll have confirmed a kick option with the coach before leaving the sideline.

[Ed Hickland]

Once had a captain choose to kick, tried talking him out of it, but he would not have it. Their record was 0-6 coming into the game.

Before the kickoff asked the coach if he told his captain to kickoff and the told proudly said yes, they were a defensive team. Of which, they went on to lose 61-0.

Guess their defense was better than their offense!

[ajmc]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

"only then is the kick option a rational choice under any circumstances. Defer, receive, or field position are the only rational choices."

A pretty successful, now retired, long time High School coach often chose to kick off for the opening Kick Off. His contention was that playing defense is more natural than playing offense and that at the start of a game, when young players are nervous or excited, instincts will serve them better, when they are cold, hitting than being hit.

He claimed to have field position statistics that bore out his theory.