5-man mechanic for swinging gate
 

We open this Friday with a team we've had the previous 2 years and they always use the swinging gate for a try. The majority of the line lines up to the left and their kicker is right-footed which means the majority of the players are in front of the wing official who has vacated his position to be under the goal post with the BJ.

My concern is a) making sure there are 7 players on the LOS which could be missed without the wing official in place and b) if K chooses to run wide to the strong side I (R) may not be able to get to the sideline in time to cover it.

Wondering how your crews have handled this.

Thanks.

Ohio has adopted the mechanic of putting U under the goal posts for tries. All U responsibilities are intact, and it leaves the wings to work the LOS and goal line. You could try that.

Same with Minnesota.

MN puts the U under the goalpost for ALL FG attempts (at least, my association does), and puts the U in the offensive backfield on punt plays.

I think moving the U under the goalpost is the most logical solution; the U can still cover his area even though he's a few yards further back.

Other things you could consider:
1) wait to move the wing official until AFTER K comes out in the swinging gate formation, and have the official on the opposite side of the swinging gate cover the uprights with the BJ. This means that sometimes it'll be the L, sometimes the LJ, depending on the formation. Keeps the wing on the gate side, but requires a quick movement by the wing that has to sprint to the goalpost. Plus you still leave one sideline open.

2) have the R position himself such that he can cover the kicker and cover one upright, and have the BJ cover the other upright and the crossbar. Keeps both sidelines covered, but makes it difficult for the R to cover roughing the kicker/holder AND make sure the kick is inside of his upright.

Same thing in MI. We have developed our own mechanics manual and do several things different from fed.

When in the swinging gate we line up just as we would for any other scrimmage play. If they shift to a kicking formation, we will then shift at the same time. BJ and LJ under the uprights. The referee will favor the side vacated by the LJ.

We do likewise, except the R is always face to face with the holder. If a fake the LJ is responsible for getting to the GL as best he can and U is to move that way also to assist.

I do like the mechanics of the U going under the GP and wish TN would adopt this.

Our reason for taking the vacated side is because that will put us closer to the sideline to rule on a player going out of band than the LJ trying to get there. I'm not sure what we would gain by facing the holder because no matter what side you are on you will still be able to catch any roughing or running into. Of course we use NCAA rules so maybe Fed rules have something to do with needing to know if the holder has possession and knee coming up and going back down etc. For us, we don't have any reason to be able to see the ball, only if it gets blocked.

As stated Ohio keeps the wings on the LOS this year, Last year my crew worked a game that one team used the swinging gate. We waited with the lineman until they shifted and sprinted to the goal post, not the best way to do it but the only way we could do it.

He is referring to using the open under mechanic where the wingman looking in at the holder is the wingman that goes under. Therefore the referee helps out on that sideline.