Awarded First Down

[LeRoy]

I was watching the UW - Texas game this week-end and during the game there was a play where the officials awarded a first down after a PF, then after the next play which everyone thought it was 1st down it was deceided that there was NO first down and that it would be 3rd down. My real question is in NFHS if something like this happened in a HS game can we go back after a live ball and change the down if there is a mistake on our part.

[mikesears]

Under NF, once the error is made and is not corrected and a play is run, it is too late.

I wouldn't count on this happening with many coaches, but the coach who is impacted by the error has the right to call a timeout to correct an obvious enforcement mistake using the coach-referee conference before the next live ball.

[TXMike]

It was a mess to be sure. I would venture to say that before IR the crew would have just realized they had erred and moved on. But now there is some sort of "rule" that we always have to get it right. Problem is, that even by "correcting" they still did not get it right. NOt sure why they did what they did but if they were going to "correct" the best thing would have been to erase evrything that happened after the missed enforcement and start over again, to inclue resetting the clock to the previous time. That would not have been supported by the rulebook but neither was the option they chose.

Description of the play from another board:
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Wyoming had the ball 1/10 from Texas 14. Wy throws a pass into the end zone where Texas #8 breaks it up. After the play, #8 waves his hand in front of his face and is flagged for a dead ball UC.

The crew penalizes the dead ball UC from the previous spot and gives a first down (they must have thought that it came with an automatic first down). So now we have 1/G from the Texas 7. Wy runs a play and gains 2 yards, so now we have 2/G from the 5. All of a sudden, someone on the crew has an epiphany and realizes they messed up. The R comes on the mike and says that the UC should not have been an auto first down, so now it is 3rd down. They took a play away from Wyoming! Wy winds up kicking a field goal, but would have most likely made a TD if they enforced the DBUC correctly. It should have been 2nd/3 from the 7 after the enforcement for the DBUC.
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[ajmc]

Originally Posted by LeRoy

My real question is in NFHS if something like this happened in a HS game can we go back after a live ball and change the down if there is a mistake on our part.

NF: 3-5-7, "The Referee shall have authority to correct obvious errors in timing if discovery is prior to the second live ball following the error unless the period is ended as in 3-5-5." This authority is limited to TIMING errors only

[ppaltice]

For NF, see 5-1-1, more specifically the case book 5.1.1A. Once a new series is awarded (when the referee signals first down), no change can be made.