mechanics for 8 man football
 

Hi.
first time for me in this forum. i have so many questions to ask....
i guess its never too late to start.
in the IFL, we run 8 man game. do you know where can be a good place to get information about officiating this game version?
i think the rules and mechanics are different.

thanks,
Ben.

In Nebraska we run a lot of 8-man games in the rural areas.

The rules differences are printed in the back of the book.

5 on the line, no numberring requirements. 80 yard field, touchback/safety ball put in play at the 15. TIck marks at 7 yards instead of 9. Kickoff from the 30.

As far as mechanics no real difference in our area. You stil have 5 eligiible receivers (including the QB) so keys don't really change. When wings pinch in to mark a spot they are generally close enough to the U to relay the ball directly to the U without triangulating with R or BJ, because the field is narrower.

I agree with the Preacher, however...
 

Not all states play 8-Man games on the 80-yard field, in fact I would venture to guess the 80-yard version seems to be the exception.
Many states play 8-Man football on a regulation 100-yard field.

It would be interesting to see a survey (with results) on that...

Having played and officiated the 8-man game, I just have one suggestion. GET IN SHAPE!!! These games are wide open. Lots of scoring. Lots of long runs. Mechanics are the same as 11 man for the most part.

We do 9-man in ND on 100 yd regulation fields. I did two games in a row as a wing in a dome on the carpet. The teams now run a lot of spread offense. I think the point total for the 2 games was well over 200 pts. Next time I will volunteer to be the U!

Nebraska and Iowa both require the game to be played on 80-yard fields, and will actually put a special tape down on 100-yard field for 8-man games in the playoffs. I've actually worked an 8-man game on an 11-man field which was taped during the regular season.

One thing you DON'T want is to play 6-man on an 11-man field. That would be like playing basketball on a football field! :eek:

No kidding! I had a Varsity weekend (Friday night and Saturday afternoon) where the combined scores were almost 300 points! Needless to say, I was so exhausted attending the Huskers game that Saturday night, I was sick after our post-game bar run! :eek:

NU must have played Misouri that night huh???:D

No, Virginia Tech. First time the Huskers lost when I attended a home game. Of course, Bo's sideline rant probably turned my face blue. My buddy couldn't tell because he said I was starting to look like sh1t.

We play 6 man football in Texas. The field is 80 yards, but narrower -- something similar to one sideline of a regular field out to the numbers on the other side. Anyway, first downs are 1st and 15 rather than 10, 3 on the line, all are eligible -- even the Center, but he can't get the back BACK to him between his legs, and the only real difference in flow is that for someone to run (beyond the LOS), there must be an exchange -- usually a hand off or pass of some sort. What teams will do is have a receiver of the snap toss it to the real QB who then runs his play and can pass or run.

Mechanics wise, we go 4 guys with an Ump/Back, who's more of a back judge but he will come in and spot the ball on occasion and he marks off penalties. The U/B stays behind the defense and covers the deep pass. The Referee does plenty of ball spotting, and the wings have their normal duties. When I'm the R in these games, I tell my wings to stay home if they are on the backside of a play, since only they can determine if the QB went beyond the LOS for a pass.

8-man here is played on an 80-yard field. A few years ago, I worked an 8-man game on a 100-yard field--final score--90-46.

8 man, 80 yards in Kansas.

They are talking 9-man in Wisconsin as a possibility for smaller schools.

All I know that I'm interested in working these games only if they hire my entire (5) crew to work. Otherwise, I'll continue to book 11-man football for Friday nights.

I wouldn't take a varsity game if they won't let you use the entire 5-man crew. We work both 8 and 11-man in Nebraska and Iowa and use it everywhere. We've never had a school say we couldn't go 5-man in varsity ball. The only times we go 4-man is for JV and Reserves. Some schools will let us go 4-man for Freshman and JH games, but usually we go 3-man still for some of those.

I had a final score with about the same total on an 80-yard field on more than one occasion. I don't think it has to do with the field size (although in most cases it probably does), but more or less the type and strength of the offenses and the "weakness" of the defenses in the game.