Job Of Ump & Ref

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

I've worked with crews that punch back or signal on as well. Why. Why would the guy on the other side of me care if the guy closest to me is on or off ... all he should care about from my side is how many. All I care about on his side is how many. 3 + 3 or 4+2 is six, regardless of whether or not the guy closest to me is one of my 2 or 3 or 4.

On/Off works best when R is responsible (perhaps a 3 man crew) since R is counting backs and can't tell if your guy is on or off. But this is truly the weaker way to do it.

I feel it is significantly easier to count the number of backs than the number of linemen. Since they are often in a straight line from the wing it can be tricky to count them. 99% of the time the offense has 11 so don't get hung up on the R's signal. If they have 10 or fewer they are going to hold the signal much longer anyway. This is an odd penalty for A anyway since they are at a disadvantage if they have 10 players with 4 backs. I much prefer the NCAA rule for this reason.