Your Call?

[sm_bbcoach]

Team A huddles. 3 Subs come in, 1 leaves. As R, I hear them yelling at A23 & A88 to get out. They leave. As they are about 3-4 steps from the huddle, the team breaks the huddle comes set to LOS.

I know this is by rule ill sub. BUt, do you call this? I did not. TEam A was NOT attempting to decieve. Kids just did not get out quickly. 1st game of season.Team B's coach went nutso. It happened again 2 plays later. Next play, I swung by the wing on his side, told him to let his coach to "gets subs in and out quickly". I attempted to explain to coach of team B the confusioin I hear in huddle. He does not care.

At this point of the season, do you call this? I will for sure by week 3. Am I wrong for not calling this 1st week when I hear the confusion?

[Warrenkicker]

Well one thing I would be interested in that might affect my answer is what age group are you talking about? Obviously the rule says that they must leave the huddle immediately. Sometimes the incoming substitute doesn't communicate with the other players who he is coming in to replace. You obviously had some confusion that you referenced and there will always be problems like that in the first game.

My crew does not hold to an absolute 25 second clock in the first game as long as it is not abused. We do talk to the coach of the team that is pushing the clock if there is one and advise them that they can't assume that kind of leniency the next week so they should work on it. The thing is that the team going over 25 seconds to get the ball snapped usually isn't the team winning the game and a 25 second clock is easy to be lenient on.

Something as obvious as IS would be something to allow in the first game with a warning once or twice but it can't be a consistent thing allowed to go on and if it is late in the game then you probably should be less willing to let it go because they proved they could do it right all game.

[cowbyfan1]

I have to agree in being easy going on it intially. I would tell the coach to get it right by half time or flags will fly in the second half or even the second quarter if it is really bad in the first quarter.
I know I personally love the teams the line up with the 5 lineman in a row facing the defense and then the 5 other guys behind them and the QB facing all of them. Makes it easy to count the 11 in the huddle.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally posted by sm_bbcoach
Team A huddles. 3 Subs come in, 1 leaves. As R, I hear them yelling at A23 & A88 to get out. They leave. As they are about 3-4 steps from the huddle, the team breaks the huddle comes set to LOS.

I know this is by rule ill sub. BUt, do you call this? I did not. TEam A was NOT attempting to decieve. Kids just did not get out quickly. 1st game of season.Team B's coach went nutso. It happened again 2 plays later. Next play, I swung by the wing on his side, told him to let his coach to "gets subs in and out quickly". I attempted to explain to coach of team B the confusioin I hear in huddle. He does not care.

At this point of the season, do you call this? I will for sure by week 3. Am I wrong for not calling this 1st week when I hear the confusion?

For the Cdn officials out there, and those interested:

This is not a foul in the amateur rulebook. A foul for too many players is not committed until the ball is snapped.

However, if the players are near OOB but on the field of play at the snap, we let it go, as it had absolutely no effect on the play. If you do need to call it, it is a judgement call and it's important to be consistent.