KCI or Illegal Blocking or Nothing

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by jchamp

Something similar to this happened in the Arkansas-Alabama game, I think the second quarter. There was a small crowd and a little blocking, but the ball hit an Alabama (K) player in the brainbucket as the Arkansas (R) receiver was moving at the last moment to try to catch it. K recovered, flag was thrown, KCI, 15 yards called from the spot.

What I wondered is, if this starts to become recognized, do the others on this forum think that special teams coaches may start to coach their players to play a few yards back from the ball on short punts in the hopes that it will hit a K player who would be playing the receiver?
If this starts to be a trend, do you think that it would be seen as gamesmanship by R with rules interpretations generated to help fix this problem?
Could R even feign recieving a punt when he is certain it is about to land short to further lure K into the ball? Could this eventually be considered USC?

I sure hope not in the general case. Stationing yourself a few yards behind where the ball's going to land has long been a tactic of the more daring receivers, who like to meet the ball with a running start. But if they wanted to change the rules as they apply to a player who has himself signaled for a fair catch, I wouldn't object -- possibly even to apply to a teammate of a player who has so signaled.