1st and 10 ?

[joe bonner]

I am a second year football official . Since I do not have any Friday night games yet I enjoy watching Friday night crews. I have a small notebook in which I record interesting plays and penaltys. Although most schools near my home are AA enrollment , I travel a little to take in the AAAA action .Here's two notes I took this past Friday.

1.)Team A - 3rd down - ball on B's 41. Line to gain is B's 19. A1 legal forward pass is complete to A2 and is down at B's 17 . A2 is flagged for noncontact unsportsmanlike conduct 15 yd.penalty. Ball is spotted at B's 32 1st and 10 .

Should this be 1st and 10 or 1st and 25 ?

2.) Line Judge throws a flag for holding . The infraction should have been called by the umpire who was sleeping. After a conference the White Hat waves off the flag. LJ was not happy with the decision.
I wish the Referee would have left the penalty stand OR the Line Judge showed body language that he was in agreement with the decision .(even though he was not)

[nvfoa15]

Joe,

This is the correct enforcement of the penalty in item #1. The result of the play is a first down for A. The USC penalty is enforced from the succeeding spot (B17)(10-4-4a).
The line to gain is always 10 yards apart (2-25-5) unless a penalty occurs after the RFP.

As far as your item 2, you wold have to ask the crew what happened.

Keep up the good work!

[Ed Hickland]

Originally posted by joe bonner


1.)Team A - 3rd down - ball on B's 41. Line to gain is B's 19. A1 legal forward pass is complete to A2 and is down at B's 17 . A2 is flagged for noncontact unsportsmanlike conduct 15 yd.penalty. Ball is spotted at B's 32 1st and 10 .

Should this be 1st and 10 or 1st and 25 ?

Somewhere in the past ten years this rule changed. There was a time when you would enforce dead ball penalties by adding the yardage to the first down. Now all penalties are enforced before the line to gain is set, therefore, you never start a series greater than 1st and 10.

2.) Line Judge throws a flag for holding . The infraction should have been called by the umpire who was sleeping. After a conference the White Hat waves off the flag. LJ was not happy with the decision.
I wish the Referee would have left the penalty stand OR the Line Judge showed body language that he was in agreement with the decision .(even though he was not)

This is a crew management issue. Without talking to the crew it is hard to understand the specifics of what may have occurred. The referee may have felt the LJ was not in position to make the call.

As a referee you have to know and have faith in the members of your crew. Personally, when I have a flag by a member of my crew it is my position not to question unless they ask. I want each member of the crew to be confident in their call. However, if there is a dispute we will do a quick conference and each member will understand why I made the decision I made.

[Mike Simonds]

Yes, Ed is correct. Several years ago they changed the rule regarding the enforcement of dead ball fouls, live ball nonplayer and unsportsmanlike conduct fouls. They are enforced from the succeeding spot and then the chains are set 1st and 10. If any of these fouls occur after the ready for play then you would have a 1st and 25 situation, etc.

From your description, I do not like the way the R in your game treated the LJ. Of course, I do not know what the situation was in your game. Maybe the R was correct. As for the umpire, I know that the U has a lot of players to look at, maybe your U needs to concentrate on finding the point of attack and focusing his attention there. Remember, if its a marginal hold well away from the play your best call may be a no-call.

If the umpire was sleeping, maybe he should take No-Doz or drink a strong cup of dark roasted coffee before the game.