3 yard box

[LDUB]

Originally Posted by mbyron

We are supposed to warn twice verbally, flag for 5, then flag for 15.

That seems odd that you don't have a flag for a warning. Why is that changed from the normal way of doing it?

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by LDUB

That seems odd that you don't have a flag for a warning. Why is that changed from the normal way of doing it?

We do have a flag for a warning. For this year, at any rate, Ohio wants to give coaches additional chances to comply with the rule before losing yards. :shrug:

FWIW, I haven't seen much difficulty enforcing this rule on the fields that have space. I worked a game last Friday where the visitors had literally 6 feet between sideline and fence. Not much you can do there.

[Reffing Rev.]

Originally Posted by mbyron

FWIW, I haven't seen much difficulty enforcing this rule on the fields that have space. I worked a game last Friday where the visitors had literally 6 feet between sideline and fence. Not much you can do there.

A couple of years ago when I was in St. Louis we had a field like that, and the R, who was a mechanics clinician as well, moved the visiting team to the home team sideline and set both boxes on one side of the field, 20-45. He said it wasn't safe to put the visiting team sideline where it was. I loved it, I worked HL, had the quietest sideline ever. On that side of the field there was me and 4 chain crew guys.

[JRutledge]

Whether you use a flag or a verbal warning is actually up to your crew, who you work for and the state associations that make decisions. Outside of that it is up to each individual how they want to handle those situations. I usually will verbally warn most things that are minor in nature and throw the flag to the things that are big time violations of rules.

Peace

[rockyroad]

Friday night the V head coach got a sideline warning flag for being in the box during a play, and about 4 plays later got a 15 yarder for actually being a step or so onto the field during a play. First two flags we have seen for the box rule all season.

He was told another one would cause him to be ejected, so he stayed out of the box the rest of the night.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

He was told another one would cause him to be ejected, so he stayed out of the box the rest of the night.

Since the 15-yard foul is a USC charged to the head coach, he was informed correctly.

[Canned Heat]

We mention the rule regarding the RZ during our pregame conference with the coaches and then both sets of sideline officials will mention it just prior to the opening kickoff RFP whistle, as there's always some clutter there it seems. We have only had one 15 yarder for an assistant who was walking thru the zone during a sweep to that side and our HL got caught up with him. I'm pretty sure we've had sideline warnings in almost every game with at least one or both teams and have had a few of the 5 yard initial varieties. For some reason, certain programs (up here anyway) have always seemed to let the coaches run amuck along the sideline or partially on the field in years prior to this and the last few. Something that has been hard for a few coaching staffs to break and they're finding out the hard way now. To the contrary, some coaches have been sticklers with it and it helps to keep the kids and other coaches or staff out of their way and they actually applaud it (the RZ). If we stick at this one, it'll be one of the best rule changes in a long time.

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Since the 15-yard foul is a USC charged to the head coach, he was informed correctly.

Yep.

Since it was the Visiting Coach, I didn't really care that much. Would have been fun to see, maybe...we have had no issues with it. Not even had to be warned...the only time anything was said to us was when I was out on the field during a time-out (out at the huddle with the players) and one of the other coaches stepped out to yell something at me and was warned for being on the field.

Not sure why this whole "box" thing is suce a big deal to some of these coaches.