Football Officiating > National Federation Discussion

Offense Alignment

<< < (2/3) > >>

Jackhammer:

--- Quote from: The Roamin' Umpire on August 30, 2010, 09:04:55 AM ---Technically, yes. Anytime a player is in "no man's land", it's an illegal formation foul.

In practice, unless it's clearly causing confusion for the defense, I'm going to talk to the coach and player and get this fixed before it DOES cause a disadvantage.

--- End quote ---

Roamin,
Not sure I get this, it's not necessarily an automatic foul, the foul is dependent upon the actions that occur.  There is not a "no man's land."  Technically, he's either a lineman or a back and it's up to you to judge.  If you judge him to be a lineman, then you enforce accordingly with all appropriate numbering and positioning requirments.  If you judge him to be a back, then you enforce accordingly with all appropriate numbering, position, motion and eligibility requirements. 

The Roamin' Umpire:

--- Quote from: Jackhammer on August 30, 2010, 03:06:48 PM ---There is not a "no man's land."  Technically, he's either a lineman or a back and it's up to you to judge. 
--- End quote ---

Not true. A lineman must be breaking the plane of the waist of the snapper and must be facing his opponents' goal line. A back (if not under center) must NOT be breaking the plane of waist of the nearest lineman. So if you have an offensive line that's bowing a bit (guards half a step behind the center, tackles another half-step back), you can easily have a flanker who is clearly not on the line but is breaking the plane of the waist of one of the tackles. By definition, he's neither a lineman nor a back, and thus in violation of the last sentence of 7-2-3, which makes it illegal formation.

Is this something that comes up often? No. Is this something we want to be flagging instantly when we see it? Again, no. If I've asked the coach to fix this and it hasn't happened, or if it's confusing the defense about who's eligible, then we'll have a flag, but I'm going to try very hard to not let it get to that point.

BoBo:
Roamin that is how we handled it we tried to prevent it, spoke to coach twice and i as a the white hat spoke to the kids in the huddle as to the alignment. finally we just had to flag it.  once we did problem was solved. of course as luck would have it the play we flag they score a td and called back, it seems to always work that way. but it was mid 2nd quarter so we got it resolved early in my mind.

VALJ:
I'd definitely say something to at least the kid once (and probably the coach too, as soon as I get a chance).  If he doesn't listen to a couple of warnings, though, some times the only way they'll learn is a flag.  It's a shame that the flag nullified a TD, but I'd be willing to bet that he doesn't make the same mistake again, either...

TampaSteve:
To paraphrase NCAA axioms and NCAA clinicians.  When WR are out wide, why split hairs to whether someone is on/off/ et al?  When in dobut, it's legal.  Who are they fooling out there?

On the other hand with linemen and wing back, allow once if they are in 'no man's land' (in the backfield) as there can certainly be an advantage gained (i.e. pass play) - although I can never remember a wing back lining up incorrectly.  After the one play, communicate to A's coach and maybe R can pass along the word to A in the huddle.  After that, flag it.  Once a few flags fly, they will get the hint and adjust.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page