Positioning of R

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by CT1

Maybe it's a regional thing. We have many plays each game where a RB or QB goes into the opposite sideline and the potential for misconduct is high. Certainly it's the wing's primary area. It's the responsibility of the BJ and the R to get over there to help police the OOB action.

I guess I have to ask how often you actually need to police this. Have eyes on it ... sure. How often does your actual physical presence change things?

Also ... if the play comes toward you, you're letting it flow past before you follow anyway. Are you really getting more than 1 step closer to the action by starting on the off side? At best you're saving yourself the need to hustle a little bit.

Really, now -- how many times do you actually have to rule on a QB pass/fumble in a year? And of those, how many are so close that you can only get it right from the passing arm side? How many are in potential game-changing situations?

Granted - once or twice a year do you have to rule on this ... but on ALL of those, you can only get it right from the passing arm side.

I prefer to have the field balanced.

I would not want to trade off certainty vs a guess on the fumble play twice a year - usually a game changer, since this often results in a defensive TD, and possibly get that one wrong, in return for being one step closer to action on a sweep and save myself a little bit of hustling.

[REFANDUMP]

The starting position on the wide side would be less than 10 yards different than the starting position on the passing arm side. Does that 10 yards advantage gained to help out of bounds coverage mean more than being in the best position to see a play where a potential turnover is involved, and in many cases a defensive touchdown. As a referee, we have help on out of bounds plays. We have none on action involving the quarterback.

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by REFANDUMP

The starting position on the wide side would be less than 10 yards different than the starting position on the passing arm side. Does that 10 yards advantage gained to help out of bounds coverage mean more than being in the best position to see a play where a potential turnover is involved, and in many cases a defensive touchdown. As a referee, we have help on out of bounds plays. We have none on action involving the quarterback.

Not to mention that on most of these plays, if we were on the side being recommended, we're letting the play go in front of us before we trail - giving up the majority of that 10 yards anyway.

[Rich]

To me, "working the wide side" just sounds like a mechanics system that hasn't adopted to current philosophy or practice. Reminds me of the crews whose wings still start on the numbers when the ball's on the far hash mark. I get that some states still ascribe to this. However, none of the top referees I know (I'm not including myself on this list) work anything other than the passer's arm side.

To each their own. I'll continue to work on the passing arm side where I feel I belong. And (back to the OP), the OP shouldn't let other people on the crew tell *him* where to work.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Rich

To me, "working the wide side" just sounds like a mechanics system that hasn't adopted to current philosophy or practice. Reminds me of the crews whose wings still start on the numbers when the ball's on the far hash mark. I get that some states still ascribe to this. However, none of the top referees I know (I'm not including myself on this list) work anything other than the passer's arm side.

To each their own. I'll continue to work on the passing arm side where I feel I belong. And (back to the OP), the OP shouldn't let other people on the crew tell *him* where to work.

And to add to that, in our state we have a very bad action where one part of the state does one thing and another part does something differnet. And you have people in one part of the state that want to hold on to these "mechanics" that have proven that cause problems with coverage of the game. And it expemplifies itself when the State Finals come when you see officials working teams they are not used to, not being able to handle sytles of football they might not see. That does not mean everyone in certain parts of the state adopt those mechanics or philosophies, but enough of them do where is it noticable. In our state everyone from the 6 regions has a crew that works the State Finals and two other wild card crews are picked from those 6 regions. I think that is the thing IR is battling as no one in our area (but the person that he spoke to) would even suggest such a silly thing to do. But then there is a reason crews in our area also do not work certain games or for certain assignors. And this kind of insistence on some mechanic that brings more issues then it solves.

Peace

[CT1]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

I guess I have to ask how often you actually need to police this. Have eyes on it ... sure. How often does your actual physical presence change things?

Well, we won't ever know, will we? However, our state's philosophy is "the more stripes the better", and with the history of teams fighting in our state, that's not a bad idea.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by CT1

Well, we won't ever know, will we? However, our state's philosophy is "the more stripes the better", and with the history of teams fighting in our state, that's not a bad idea.

Why is closer better? What are your other officials asked to do?

Peace

[Illini_Ref]

Told the crew last night that I was staying passing arm side. Worked there all night. No problems.