A strange call on a punt- HELP!
 

Team A has the ball 4th and @15 on their own 30yl. Team A punter punts the ball straight up. Ball comes down, never crosses the line of scrimmage, bounces and is fielded by the punter. Punter looks around, no whistle sounds, takes off up field for a 65 yard gain to team B's 5 yard line. Since he fielded the ball behind the line of scrimmage and no one else touched it I know he can punt it again, but can he advance his own punt?

Yes he can. I assume you're talking Federation rules.

Rule reference:

4-2-2

The ball becomes dead and the down is ended:

f. When the kickers catch or recover any free kick anywhere, and when the
kickers catch or recover a scrimmage kick beyond the neutral zone and
when the kickers are first (i.e., before any touching by the receivers) to
touch a scrimmage kick after it has come to rest beyond the neutral zone
and between the goal lines.

There is no prohibition against Team K advancing a scrimmage kick recovered behind the neutral zone.

He most certainly can. So can any other player on the field.

Canadian Ruling
 

CANADIAN RULING:

He can run, pass, or kick.

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).

As long as it is recover behind the LOS, why wouldn't he be able to?

What did you do with the clock?

No one, and I mean no one did anything, other than the punter who stood there with the ball in his hands. He almost took a knee, turned to hand the ball to the official who just stood and looked at him. Clock continued to run because there was no whistle. Punter looked around and took off up field. No one laid a hand on him until he had run about 25 yards, then his blockers woke up as did the defense still on the field (some had begun to leave the field). I was at this playoff game just to watch football - I didn't care who won. The dads in the stands spent the rest of the game trying to figure out the call. They were hot because the other team scored on the next play. All the dads decided they got screwed by the officials, but I guess the dads were wrong and the officials were right!

Very often the case

Must be a Johnny! :)

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

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.

Legal in NCAA rules also.