Illegal Formation

Originally Posted by cmathews

you set yourself up for an ugly game....first by not preventively officiating and second by telling the coach they should already know where to line up. Even in the NCAA the philosophies are to "make em where they are supposed to be". Linemen are to be warned first to move up, unless their head is clearly behind the snapper, wideouts are to be given leeway to make them where they are supposed to be...don't be too technical...only flag after a warning unless it is material to the play...and very very obvious...as my whitehat says, lets not pick boogers here...

I've been taught only to tap my backside leg, and say "back side of the neutral zone" or give the off the line signal. I gave the off the line signal, and was right in front of the coach when that happened. This wasn't the first "ticky-tack" penalty in the game, because I had already flagged them for lining up in the neutral zone on offense. This team wanted a warning for EACH type of foul or infraction before we flagged them. My white hat said we'll do what we can, but there's only three sets of eyes. I was a little more lenient with those on the other side of the line, but my side of the line, the coach was there to say something to his players. That was our philosophy, and they just wouldn't accept it. The head coach actually used the penalties as a teaching moment, while the assistant was being the a**.