Disagree with this one. I believe the rulesmakers wanted this penalized more, and so gave it a 5-yarder (IF) rather than 15 (IP or UNS).
I want a flag on this one so that we don't have a flag for a pretend substitution or other, more severe, illegal act.
I think we're just from two different schools of thought. I am from the school of thought to "pass" on certain fouls based on score, situation, time left, etc. I obviously won't ever pass on "safety" fouls (RTP, BIB, BBW, clip, faskmask, etc), but for me, this is one of the "pass" fouls.
If I see a player that doesn't have all four points to his chinstrap attached but I can't get to him before the ball is snapped, I won't flag him for FTPWRE, I will remind him to strap up when the ball is dead. If I see a kid without his mouth guard inserted, I'll blow the whistle, run past the kid to "speak" with the U, and tell the kid to put his mouth guard in. If a team has interlocked legs on a try for point, I'll let the coach know, but I probably don't have a flag. If a "covered" slot receiver fails to be properly in the backfield and doesn't catch the pass, I'm definitely not throwing my flag, but I'll have a conversation with the coach. If a team is down by 40 and one of their OL "disrobes" a DL, I'll probably pass, then I'll get a good chuckle when the parents of the winning team scream their disapproval. The other day, with the score 54-0, the "zero" team threw a backward pass that fell do the ground. The kids stood for a second while the "54" coach screamed it was a live ball. I killed it and said it was an incomplete forward pass. The "54" coaches yelled it was a backward pass. I said "not right now it isn't."
Of course, we will speak with the head coach and the involved players to remind them about the rule to be inside the 9's some time after the RFP. But I think we need to understand the intent of the rule, and officiate accordingly.
We can have "slow flags" because we have the ability to determine the outcome of the play before we toss our rag. For example, I don't like having a flag for holding when the runner is stopped at the LOS. If the game is not a blowout, the foul "screams," and even grandma can see it from the top row of the stands, I have a rag.