new Kickoff procedure question
 

With the new restrictions on K's pre-kick allignment, what are other's ideas for facilitating this?

I'm thinking a pregame reminder with coach and have BJ wait with the kicker until the formation is legal (preventative) as long as possible.

3 of the teams on our schedule this hear like to take the RFP huddled up. This is fine as long as everyone (except the kicker) is within 5 yards and at the kick there are 4 to a side right? The BJ has to make sure that as they run out to their positions no one steps 5 yards out. Seems tough to watch 2 lines 5 yards apart.

The rules meeting video said that if a K playrer was touching any part of the line it was a foul,are we planning to split those hairs?

At our state clinic this week, the R was instructed to hold the RFP until K is properly in formation. The crew is to encourage K to get into position ASAP and if they abuse it to flag them for DOG.

No more muddle huddle kickoffs.

Yeah...we've discussed this in length too. I think this is going to be a little bit of a mess for the first few weeks for a lot of teams....and probably involve a good bit of babysitting this year. I know of a few teams that always try to get cute with jumping out of a huddle quick or running from the sideline after the RFP (which only seems to tire out K). Will e interesting to say the least.

I don't know if it's just this area, but it seems like any rules mod or revisions or new rules altogether take some of these coaching staffs years to get down.

We still see kids with an all white or all clear mouth guards during pregame discussion, check, and intro and mention it to the coaches and every week it's "wow, when did they change that?"

"Almost a decade ago, coach."

Spent last night at a high school practice/scrimmage... talked to the coaches about the new kickoff rule... this was the first any of them had heard of it.

Which makes me think we're going to have a lot of delays and/or illegal formation flags in the first week.

Few friends of mine coach at a school by us. I mentioned a handful of the changes and he looked at me with the same turned head action I get when I say something to my pooch.

If the varsity guys aren't picking all of this up...imagine the JV/FR, and youth guys also using the NFHS guidelines.

Whoa.
Nelly.

NC requires coaches to attend a rules conference at the state coaches meeting in July at Greensboro or the regional officiating clinic. It's a rather stiff fine for the school if they don't which draws the principal's attention.

If ours don't know it, they tuned out.

Our coaches have to watch the same video on-line we do...which means you have to push Olay and then when the video is over enter your name and say you "watched" it. I personally feel that coaches should have to take the same test we do...and I would say they must pass all of the qualifications to be an official in order for their team to be eligible for the post-season. Now I will probably work with an official or two during some JV games this year who won't know about the rules changes either because he isn't in the room while watching the rules.meeting and the other crew that he works for has one who actually takes the test and everybody else copies it...so the coaches can skirt that too, but it would help.

As do ours.....they aren't required to (like us) to have everything screened and rules test submitted back until next week. I showed the actual book with rule changes to the OC I saw at a meeting last night.....they had discussed the targeting/defenseless player changes, etc., yet had absolutely NO idea about the new kickoff rule and procedures.

There is going to be one hell of a quick learning curve with some staffs over the next week or two, I predict.

In our state, ND, only the head coach is required to take the test and he is not required to pass it. Thus, we have a pretty low requirement and it shows when we have coaches complaining about rules they have never seen. I did a workshop last night and I went over the rules changes. The coaches were interested in what I was presenting, which was encouraging. I told them that the better they know the rules, the greater their team is prepared for the games and this could be an advantage for them. Coaches are super busy this time of year so it would take a mandate by the state to get them to put some time into the rules.

Also, when I read the new requirement for free kick alignment, I laid the responsibility on our BJ, but in the manual, the R is responsible for the alignment. I'd say some preventive officiating by the BJ would take care of the problem.

We had a JV game last night. Tonight's Week 1 for most of the state, with a few varsity games last night.

BJ worked hard to get everyone legal before he signaled me. No real problems. Our crew philosophy is that we will NOT have a penalty on this unless they go illegal AFTER I've given the RFP. Period. Even if we have to tell them where to move to. And I won't give the RFP until the BJ has them legal and has signaled me.

That's how we approached it.....took a little bit of babysitting for both teams on their first go-round.

And we went back to the old KO mechanics just in time.

Eleven KOs, no problems for our crew on Friday.

HS Football on ESPN
 

Has anyone watched the HS games on ESPN this past weekend played in Alabama? It appears that they are lining up the BJ in the middle of the field directly behind the kicker.

Who had K's Free Kick line?

I'm guessing they worked with 6.