Spike play

[yarnnelg]

QB fumbles the snap. Picks the ball up then spikes it. Illegal forward pass?

Same QB fumbles the snap picks it up, then spikes the ball behind his feet. Fumble or backward pass?

Watch Auburn's Pat Nix. Fumbled snap, pick up, spikes the ball behind his feet. White Hat signaling incomplete pass ...whistles blown before the scramble for the loose ball. Ball never recovered because the whistles blow.

Go to replay...White Hat talking to himself as he leaves the screen. You can bet the SEC in Birmingham told him "You screwed up, fix it."

Final ruling ... illegal forward pass, penalty yardage and loss of down. Arkansas not happy at all.

[JasonTX]

Fumbled the snap or muffed the snap?

[ElvisLives]

Fumbled the snap or muffed the snap?

With respect to ‘spiking’ the ball to stop the clock legally, it doesn’t matter whether the snap was muffed, or the ball was fumbled after possessing the snap. If the ball has touched the ground, a legal ‘spike’ is not possible, by rule.

In the down referenced, the snap was muffed, fell to the ground, was recovered, and thrown to the ground behind the passer. What happened, and, perhaps, what should have happened, after that will become record in the coming days.
I, for one, will not throw anyone under the bus. I would hope that others (not referencing you, Jason) would treat our brothers as understandingly.

[chaoslord]

Apologies if the formatting on this is weird, I’m on mobile and this site isn’t in Tapatalk that I can find anymore.

Clip of the play (with commentary by the person who tweeted it out, hard to find a copy without)
https://twitter.com/blutman27/status/1315074161497108482?s=21

SEC statement
https://twitter.com/secofficiating/status/1315118723347484675?s=21

Terry McAuly having a differing opinion
https://twitter.com/snfrules/status/1315082247070986241?s=21

I... I really don’t know what to make of this one. I see the SECs point and I also see Terry’s. Whew, what an interesting situation.

Thing I’m curious about is the delayed whistle. The spike happens and there is a pause where the ball is rolling and no whistle has sounded. My best guess is that everyone was putting the pieces together that this might have been backward, but as players started crashing in maybe judged it forward? Not sure. Would have expected either an immediate whistle or none. Could also have been a whistle getting caught with the face protection due to COVID, perhaps.

Very curious what Shaw will think. My guess is he ends up agreeing more with SEC than Terry.

Challenging, challenging situation.

[Kalle]

I don't know the standards of "immediate continuing action" in NCAA IR, but my gut feeling is that SEC is correct here. The recovery isn't really immediately after the whistle and the signal in my mind, and obviously some players in the immediate vicinity stop playing fully. The apparent recovery by the team B player is due more to team A players not playing the dead ball.

[wv ref]

One aspect of this play that seems to have been overlooked is the clock.  this happened around 30 seconds.  There was a 10 second runoff on the clock and the the clock started on the RFP, id assume given the situation the defense would have chosen for it to decline the 10 second runoff to save time for their offense time.  Makes me think the defense wasn't given the option

[Sonofanump]

One aspect of this play that seems to have been overlooked is the clock.  this happened around 30 seconds.  The clock started on the RFP, id assume given the situation the defense would have chose for it to start on the snap to give their offense time.  Makes me think the defense wasn't given the option

10 second run off is an option to the offended team.

[bama_stripes]

I was watching IRT.  My feeling was that the A players stopped because they thought the ball was dead on the spike (like it is 99.87% of the time), not because of the whistle.  I also thought that the B player’s reaction was too delayed to be called “immediate”.

[yarnnelg]

If you look at the replay from the original camera view. Immediately after the spike ....you can clearly see the White Hat signaling incomplete. He's waving his arms chest to fully extended. That is where the first whistle sounded. That is the reason everyone started stopping on the play. With the cascade of whistles following, is the scramble for a loose ball that is touched, hits the "C" official on the foot and then recovered.

You can tell by the actions of the White Hat after taking the headset off, that SEC HQ told him he messed up. He's talking to himself as he walks away from the screen and headset. He needs to develop a "poker face"

[yarnnelg]

The first film clip of the attachments ....doesn't show the White Hat's motion prior to him coming in to kill the play. His arms are already signaling incomplete pass before the reflection of the other Officials. He blew the first whistle ....that is expected on the spike.

Here are my thoughts .... "Tunnel Mental"

The White Hat expected a normal snap, spike, end of the play. It's like a batter deciding to hit the next pitch, the mental state is in place and he looks foolish swinging at a shoulder high pitch.

Because he went "Tunnel Mental" He expected clean and done. But ignored a cardinal rule of officiating. "Expect the unexpected" He got everything possible in the unexpected category. Whistle doesn't kill the play ...He'll be far more careful next time and won't put himself in the same situation again.

[JDM]

Fumbled the snap or muffed the snap?

A snap can only be muffed. Possession must be gained in order for the ball to be fumbled.

[yarnnelg]

 White Hat is behind and to the right of Nix. Is it likely he considered the pass to be at Nix' back foot and not a backwards pass? Thereby making it simply an illegal forward pass?