A strange call on a punt- HELP!

[jTheUmp]

The punter (or any other member of Team A) can advance the ball in this situation under NCAA rules as well.

This happened to me in college:
Overtime game, we get the ball second, after the other team kicks a field goal in the first OT possession. We line up to kick a field goal. Good snap, good hold, kicker slips on his plant, and just barely taps the ball, which bounces forward and hits our snapper behind the LOS. Snapper picks it up, a rugby scrum ensues, and the snapper hands it backward to one of our upbacks, who runs into the endzone untouched. Touchdown, ballgame.

So we won the game by missing a field goal in overtime. And it was a playoff game (Division III).

[MNBlue]

Originally Posted by jTheUmp

So we won the game by missing a field goal in overtime. And it was a playoff game (Division III).

Must be a Johnny!

[jTheUmp]

Originally Posted by MNBlue

Must be a Johnny!

Dutch actually. We ended up losing to the Johnnies the next week.

[Robert Goodman]

The answer to this one was so easy -- the call was correct according to all major codes -- that I can't let it rest there, so I'll tell you about circumstances in which the ball would've become dead in that play situation.

Starting in 1903 and continuing until...uh...1928, maybe(?), the maker of a scrimmage kick wasn't allowed to advance the ball had he recovered it (absent first touching by an opponent). It was part of a rule change adopted to decrease incidents of roughing the kicker. Under the proper circumstances (being onside) it was even possible for K2 thru K11 to recover & advance, but not kicker K1, even though he was onside.

For a comparable though much later period of time, NFSHSA rules made the ball dead if any player of team K recovered on their side of the neutral zone. Fed was going thru a period where the number of conditions producing a dead ball was peaking, out of safety considerations.

Finally, youth football frequently uses highly modified rules for scrimmage kicks. In the club where I coach, if team A declares a punt in the Pee Wee Div., the kick is dead when it comes into any player's possession, anywhere.

[MJT]

Legal in NCAA rules also.