Free Kick- Touch Back Having a mental block

[BoBo]

Kick Off/Free Kick

B22 receives ball in B's end zone- all action by B22 occurs in the ez

A) B22 muffs ball and it hits  ground in the EZ but never leaves the EZ recovered by A44?

B) B22 muffs ball then goes and recovers ball in the end zone but never takes a knee?

Refresh my memory- If a free kick hits the ground in the EZ untouched by B we have a touchback

If B muffs a kick and it hits the ground in the EZ does B have to recover the ball to avoid A recovering for a score.

[Kalle]

A free kick touched by team B before it hits the ground in the end zone is a live ball.

a) Touchdown.

b) Live ball.

Rule 6-1-7-a.

[Rulesman]

Question b) brings up a similar scenario in a game I watched last week. For the life of me I don't remember which one (might have been Ole Miss/Alabama). There were at least 2 kickoffs caught by B in the end zone where the receiver chose not to run them out, yet failed to take a knee. When the R recognized B's intentions he blew the play dead. I'm thinking this is, by rule, an IAW, but obviously there appears to be an accepted philosophy going around where B doesn't have to take a knee. Has anyone else noticed this?

[NVFOA_Ump]

I have to believe that when this occurs there has been some verbal communication between the runner and the R in addition to the runner's clear indication that he is not intending to return the ball, otherwise we would have potential IW questions.  It would seem for everyone else involved that it would be advisable to instruct the teams pre-game that the accepted standard for killing the play is taking a knee to avoid the multiple issues that could arise with the "implied" I'm not going to return the ball indications.