Texas A & M - Alabama Final Scrimmage Kick Formation

[TXMike]

This video was on Rom Gilbert's page ( http://romgilbert.us/2012vidclip11.htm  )   this week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENc6lpS_Ra0

False start or offside?

[fencewire]

seems that there was only one time that the snapper raised his head, even though it wasn't particularly abrupt... every other snap he kept his head down.

[El Macman]

Forget the snapper. The issue is with the upback calling signals. Was his head-bob enough to warrant a false start call. They were clearly hoping to draw Alabama offside. A false start call would have been easy if the upback had dipped his shoulders and/or made some sort of arm thrust movement (like you'll see shotgun QBs do). To his credit, he seemed to only bob his head. Enough for a false start? Obviously the crew (R) didn't think so.
A very difficult judgment call. You won't hear me criticize. It is what is was. Game over. Move on.

[TXMike]

The upback is who I was thinking of.  Interesting you would use the term "head bob" in light of what the player's coach is being credited with:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/andy_staples/11/10/texas-am-alabama-johnny-manziel/index.html

The Aggies special teams units didn't have the best night. They missed an extra point and a field goal. But when they needed to put away the win, special teams coach Brian Polian had just the call. After the Everett interception, Alabama's defense stopped Texas A&M on three plays, forcing a punt on fourth-and-one. Well aware that McCarron had shredded LSU's defense on a game-winning drive a week earlier in Baton Rouge, the Aggies did not want to give McCarron the ball. "We can Bob him," punt team members told Polian. In Polian's parlance, a "Bob" is a double cadence designed to draw the punt return team offsides. Polian ordered the "Bob" and watched as the left side of Alabama's line jumped when they thought A&M would snap. Flags flew. The Aggies pointed at the Crimson Tide, and when referee Tom Ritter indicated the penalty was on Alabama, the Aggies celebrated. Swope grabbed Kingsbury and lifted him off the ground. The band played. The Yell Leaders yelled, and the rest of Bryant-Denny Stadium fell silent. When he returned to the locker room, Polian, who coached at Stanford in 2010-11, turned on his phone to find it flooded with text messages. "I've had that forever," Polian said. "About 20 Stanford kids texted me and said 'You Bobbed them!'"

[BankerRef]

Nothing illegal about what the snapper did even if it was different from how he had done it before. Nothing wrong with a hard count from the up back.  Changing presnap routines or snap counts within the rules in these situations in an effort to slow down or draw an aggressive rush offside is completely normal and should have been expected by the crew and the defense on this play.   Two teams were focused, one team was not (really just one player).  Crew got this one right.

[TXMike]

From the "Coaching Ethics" section of the book:

Shifting in a way that simulates the start of a play or employing any other unfair tactic for the purpose of drawing one’s opponent offside. This can be construed only as a deliberate attempt to gain an unmerited
advantage.


Just saying...........

[NVFOA_Ump]

Pretty clear that both the snapper and the up back calling signals changed their mechanics on the play and in virtual unison.  To say it was not a special play orchestrated as an attempt to draw an offside call would stretch credibility a bit.

That being said, this is a pure judgment call and it's clear what the judgment was in this case.

[Andrew McCarthy]

Whatever happened to watching the ball?

[Curious]

From the "Coaching Ethics" section of the book:

"Coaching ethics"...

An oxymoron!

[T.C. Welton]

Does the wingback FST make this on the offense?  Perhaps I am mistaken, but I didn't think a back could be threatened in any situation.  Or was it that by the time he moved, the offensive linemen had already moved....

Just a thought...

[110]

I think the crew botched this. False start.

[BankerRef]

Does the wingback FST make this on the offense?  Perhaps I am mistaken, but I didn't think a back could be threatened in any situation.  Or was it that by the time he moved, the offensive linemen had already moved....

Just a thought...

I think this may be a closer argument you could make for this being a false start than the snapper or up back actions.  Neither the wing nor the guard are threatened by definition. However, it seems fairly clear that the threatened lineman moves prior to any other movement by those two.  In my mind it is at that point when the threatened player moves that the action is dead and the foul is established (DOF).  I don't think we have a philosophy that specifically addresses this but in my view whatever movement that happens after that is not relevant.  If the non-threatened guard or back moved prior to the threatened tackle I would make it a FST.

No matter how you look at this it takes some judgement on the part of the crew to discern what the foul was.  When taking the game situation into account I think they did a good job working it.  Every player and official on that field should have known the potential for the hard count was there on 4th and 2.  The crew looked focused and decisive in my opinion.  I don't see enough on the video to criticize their judgement.