LSU/Arkansas Clock Situation

[Fan10]

Can anyone explain this clock situation? With 1:40 to go on a play where the ball carrier was tackled inbounds, Arkansas had an injured player. After he was helped off, the clock started on the snap. You could see Bobby Petrino saying, "That's bull ----," and based on what I saw, quite frankly, I agree. Did I miss something that would have caused it to start on the snap? It wound up not mattering because LSU fumbled on the ensuing possession, but it could have given LSU 25 extra seconds.

[BoomerSooner]

I thought that the play-clock should have been set to 25 seconds and the clock started on the referees signal. The only adjustment from a normal down is that the offense doesn't get the entire 40 seconds. If it had been a defensive player the play clock would be set at 40 and the game clock would start on the referee's signal. There are situations in which the referee could hold the game clock until the snap but this shouldn't have been one of them.

[MJT]

The referee can enforce 3-4-3 if he feels either team is conserving or consuming time by tactics that are unfair. If he felt the injured player was trying to do so in a way to conserve time, he could start it on the snap. I did not see the play and I'm not saying he should have but he can.

[jchamp]

I was watching this game live and on the phone with my family in Little Rock as it happened. Not only could you read Petrino's lips, you could hear it over the audio. With no other information, the 3-4-3 decision seems logical, and would explain why Petrino got so hot--it's a judgment call.
Through most of that games I watched yesterday, the TV crews did a good job of getting details regarding the rulings and the replay analysis to the broadcast booth so it could be stated on air. It's made watching the game much more enjoyable.

[MD Longhorn]

Who had the ball, where, and what was the score when this happened?

[bkdow]

Ball was on LSU's 48. The player was slow to get up and the ref stopped the clock. He, then, got up and limped across the field to his sideline without any assistance or trainers coming out to the field. Arkansas had the ball.

I am not sure if he was delaying but had been slow to get up on a few previous plays and remained in the game. I can see why the judgement would be exercised there because this one was longer than before.

[TXMike]

VIDEO HERE: YouTube - Timing Issue

[Fan10]

As my screename implies, I am just a fan. But, the way that I've always understood that rule that you cited about unfairly conserving/consuming time applies when a team would be attempting to find a loophole in the rules to consume/conserve time (For example, when the offense is ahead, the game clock is running, and intentionally gets a false start penalty so that the play clock resets, and they can run off additional time).

In this case, Arkansas had the lead and the ball. LSU had no timeouts, and the clock was running. Under normal circumstances (without an injury), Arkansas would have been able to have run 40 seconds off the clock before running the next play. When the injury occured and the game clock was stopped, they lost that opportunity. About 5 seconds had run off from the end of the previous play to the time that the clock was stopped for the injury, so had the game clock been started on the ready, they would have been able to run off 25 more for a total of 30 (rather than the 40 that they could have run off without the injury).

So, summing this up, without the injury, Arkansas could have run off 40 seconds (leaglly). Now, with the injury, they are only going to be able to run off 30 (if the clock starts on the ready). But, somehow, it is determined that they are unfarily consuming time so they are not even allowed to run off the 30?

[ottobabble]

I would love to hear the official explaination as to why R decided to start the clock on the snap. I agree with Fan10's summary and although I am NFHS only, my white hat is also a college white hat. I will try to copy the rule reference he sent me on this (he did not see the game, but looked at the game summary). Arkansas would have lost the opportunity to run off about 10 seconds had they started the 25 second clock on the ready instead of over 30 seconds not run off based on what R did.

Reminds me of a Fiesta Bowl game a few years ago when Ohio State was trying to run out the clock and committed a false start, and R started the clock on the ready (causing K-State almost 25 seconds), and I might have severly verbalized my disagreement with his rule interpretation at time.

[BoomerSooner]

I think situations like this are a great example of the benefit of the 25/40 second play clock. In this case, even had the Arkansas player been faking in an attempt to run additional clock time, he wouldn't have acheived anything as long as the clock was stopped within the first 15 seconds of the original 40 second clock. Since the play clock starting is not dependent on spotting the ball, there is no benefit unless the play clock was under 25. If it was under 25 seconds, then by all means start the clock on the snap.

In the days of just a 25 second clock, the administration of the clock as was done in the situation in question would have been fine.

[Texas Aggie]

About 5 seconds had run off from the end of the previous play

It was more like 7-8 seconds, if the graphic clock is correct, but the rest is pretty accurate.

Unless the R had warned Arkansas prior to that for faking injuries he suspected, I don't see any reason why the clock didn't start on the ready.