Play clock, fair catch, knee pads, jerseys

[ElvisLives]

Certainly didn’t see every NCAA game broadcast, but in the dozen or so that I watched to varying degrees, I saw no issues with knee pads or jerseys.  Knees covered.  No undershirts exposed.  No big problem.
Saw no fair catches on kickoffs.
Saw a couple times when the R pumped the play clock to 25 on a Try, because, in normal and appropriate process, confirmation from the RO took long enough to allow the play clock to run under 25 seconds.  No real problem.
Saw one team get hit twice for delay following kickoffs.  They just didn’t get their folks out there and get the ball snapped in 40 seconds.  No real issue - they just gotta get better.

So, did anybody see Team A attempt to rush to the line and snap - without subbing - on either a Try or after a TD?  I didn’t.

Just observations.

Robert

[TXMike]

LSU Miami Mike D sent at least 1 LSU off and there may have been another but talking heads made it difficult to tell.  All the talking heads I listened to seemed to know about the uniform changes and the play clocks

[centexsports]

Question: Team B scores a safety and then taunts the downed player.  On the ensuing kick, R fair catches the ball at the B 16.  Where I the ball put in play?

[ElvisLives]

Question: Team B scores a safety and then taunts the downed player.  On the ensuing kick, R fair catches the ball at the B 16.  Where I the ball put in play?

The taunt is a dead-ball foul that gets penalized on the free kick after the safety, so A free kicks at the A-35.  After the free kick and fair catch, B gets the ball at the B-25.

Robert

[Andrew McCarthy]

It didn't always go smoothly in our game.

On the 40-second clock after a kickoff, if the defense decides they need to huddle on the sideline before they come out (why wouldn't they?) I held the center judge at the snapper to prevent the offense from snapping without a defense on the field while my wings tried to break up this huddle and send them out.  When the defense came on I released the center judge.  I know we say now if the play clock runs out we'll charge the defense with a delay but the offense doesn't know this so they are now rushed to go through their presnap motion.  In my opinion the defense has gained an advantage.  If we tell the offense the delay would be on the defense then they'll just stand there and wait for it to run out.  If we bump it up to 25 we've defeated the whole point of the rule.  I can see this whole thing being manipulated at some point this season.  This was a non-conference game without much gamesmanship going on.

We had two kickoffs that were recovered by the kicking team.  I believe in this case the rule should set the clock to 25 as it's not reasonable either team would be at the ready to get on the field.

As far as sending players off for equipment, tell me how I'm supposed to send players of the defense off without stopping a clock or holding up the offense?  In order to do this I have an official who is out of position, not ready to officiate.  Plus it's almost impossible to catch them when they come out after a kickoff because of the rule noted above.  After trying that we decided to make examples of the offensive players since that triggered substitution mechanics.

In my opinion they should go back to the rule we had a few years ago- charge a timeout for a violation.  It'll get cleaned up real quick.

I had two fair catches on kickoffs- one in the end zone and one when he was standing on the goal line.

[Clear Lake ref]

It didn't always go smoothly in our game.

On the 40-second clock after a kickoff, if the defense decides they need to huddle on the sideline before they come out (why wouldn't they?) I held the center judge at the snapper to prevent the offense from snapping without a defense on the field while my wings tried to break up this huddle and send them out.  When the defense came on I released the center judge.  I know we say now if the play clock runs out we'll charge the defense with a delay but the offense doesn't know this so they are now rushed to go through their presnap motion.  In my opinion the defense has gained an advantage.  If we tell the offense the delay would be on the defense then they'll just stand there and wait for it to run out.  If we bump it up to 25 we've defeated the whole point of the rule.  I can see this whole thing being manipulated at some point this season.  This was a non-conference game without much gamesmanship going on.

We had two kickoffs that were recovered by the kicking team.  I believe in this case the rule should set the clock to 25 as it's not reasonable either team would be at the ready to get on the field.

As far as sending players off for equipment, tell me how I'm supposed to send players of the defense off without stopping a clock or holding up the offense?  In order to do this I have an official who is out of position, not ready to officiate.  Plus it's almost impossible to catch them when they come out after a kickoff because of the rule noted above.  After trying that we decided to make examples of the offensive players since that triggered substitution mechanics.

In my opinion they should go back to the rule we had a few years ago- charge a timeout for a violation.  It'll get cleaned up real quick.

I had two fair catches on kickoffs- one in the end zone and one when he was standing on the goal line.

Agree 100% on the 25 following Team A ending up with ball on kickoff. The rule doesn’t allow for this.

Of course it’s poorly written. Is team B awarded a first down usually after a free kick? That calls for a 25 with no exception written.

Also think it should be a 25 after a B touchdown.

[ElvisLives]

I had two fair catches on kickoffs- one in the end zone and one when he was standing on the goal line.

A fair catch in the end zone. Wow.  The only remotely realistic scenario I can think of where B might want to do that would be a kick after a safety, with a penalty putting A's restraining line at the A-35 or more, and a really good punter kicks the ball so high and long that it not only reaches B's end zone in flight, but it allows A players enough time to run to B's end zone for the possibility of catching the ball in flight, but not committing KCI.  In that case, a fair catch, would, indeed, help protect the receiver from getting tackled immediately after completing the fair catch.

Is that what happened?  Or, was it just a case of a receiver being foolish, and not just letting the ball land in the end zone (i.e., bad coaching)?

[Andrew McCarthy]

These were just normal kickoffs where in the beginning of the game he was letting them just hit and go through the end zone. Not sure why he decided to signal and catch it.

[ElvisLives]

These were just normal kickoffs where in the beginning of the game he was letting them just hit and go through the end zone. Not sure why he decided to signal and catch it.

Bad coaching.  Case closed.