Everyone Meets this Wednesday Sept. 5th – Crew Chief Meeting at 6:15 – Agenda this week: Attendance; The Bull; Crew Sharing of Interesting Plays; Calibration; Instructional Video; Rules Exam Part I w/answers (for preparation for the 9/19 Rules Test.
Need to Make Up Your Mechanics Test? – You can take the Mechanics Test tonight (9/5) if you wish. See Coover and take in your classroom or in room B-3. Passing both tests is required to be eligible for next year’s draft! By the way, 2nd year class did extremely well on their tests! Keep up the great work. Your efforts are paying off!
Week #3 – Overall, we had a great week of officiating by our crews. Thank you for your extra effort on the kicking game. Your efforts are paying off, now select a new area of emphasis for your crew this week and get even better! Keep up the hustle…especially our wonderful umpires who are running the butts off!
Counting Players – Reminder, there is absolutely no excuse for missing the counting of the offense or defense. It must be accurately completed each and every play!
Flanks Closing When Necessary – Our observers have seen flanks who could have closed with more purpose and intensity on scoring, and/or line to gain calls. This serves as a reminder that your urgency on these situations does help sell the accuracy of the spot and greatly increases confidence in the crew!
Transitions – The expectation is that the one minute transitions be completed in one minute or less. So far, observers are commenting positively on our crews’ efforts. Keep up the intensity.
Tack-On Fouls – Do we have the option to tack on the foul for an illegal kick if R is the next to put the ball in play? The answer is YES. “…for fouls by K during a free or scrimmage kick down (other than KCI)” nothing in the rule stating is must be a legal kick.
Keys to Great Enforcements – 1) The foul information must come quickly, smoothly and completely from the calling official to the referee. 2) The referee must process the nature of the foul and the game situation to determine if the coach needs to be consulted. If not, provide the umpire with the basics of the enforcement. 3) Referee leaves umpire, HL and LJ to do their thing…while signaling and moving to the new position. 4) The crew must be ready with the clock status when the referee faces the crew.
Injuries on the Field - If you are in the area of the injured player and an official’s time out has been taken, pause and stay with the athlete until help arrives. Just a nice thing to do for an athlete in pain. If you have information that may help the trainer determine the nature of the injury you should offer the info to him/her. It’s just common sense and helpful to the athlete and the trainer. If we decide to declare an official’s time out for injury, then only an outside the 9-yard mark conference may be held. The coach may not come on the field and meet with his team in the huddle….team must go to the sideline and then any number of coaches can come on the field and meet with individuals or groups or the whole team (just like normal). Again, only if the referee has granted an official’s time out! PLEASE, have the teams back on the field and ready to play when the injured player is safely off the field. Prompt resumption of play is critical to the overall game tempo.
Showing IPad to Officials vs Officials Using IPads for Stats – We are not allowed, by rule, to view or use any video in regards to judgment calls for plays that occur. Coaches offering us the opportunity to view a play on an IPad should be respectfully declined. But, if we as officials are in a situation where we need to check game information such as the correct down, we may use any evidence available, including information on a team’s IPad, to make or confirm correct administration of the game. Remember, statisticians can be your best friend!
Coaches Assisting with Difficult Situations – It is generally appreciated when the officials seek the coach’s assistance when working with one of his players who is losing his composure on the field. Coaches may ask that you watch a particular player on the other team, but they will still help with controlling their own player. It is important that we get information to coaches when we’ve warned a player so they can follow up with the player and understand that we’ve already warned him.
Ejections So Far – The players in San Diego are doing very well so far – I hope I’m not jinxing it! We also must be complimented for working well with players and coaches to prevent problems and help our athletes. We’ve had several ejections at the JV level but only a few at the varsity level. Fingers crossed!
Keep Your Sidelines Clear But Your Focus on the Field – We’re doing an outstanding job of keeping the sidelines safe for ourselves and for coaches and non-players. This is an important portion of your pre-snap routine, but less so when we get into the Red Zone. Remember, we must be fully present and ready to officiate the next play. If we’re fixated on the status of the team box, maybe we’re not ready for the snap?
Unintentional Contact in the Restricted Area – Please review these enforcements. Unintentional contact in the restricted area calls for a 15 yard unsportsmanlike on the non-player involved. A second offense calls for another 15 yards plus the disqualification of the head coach. Important: This sequence does not couple with any other unsportsmanlike foul on head coach. So Head coach calls you a bad name and is flagged. Then there is contact with head coach. Head coach is not ejected (Case Book page 93) 9.8.1 Situation D. Treat Unintentional Contact as a separate event from all others when it comes to ejecting a head coach. It takes two in each separate case…not combined.
Contact with Coach or Nonplayer on the Field – This foul falls under rule 9-8-1i being on the field except as a substitute or replaced player. 15 yards charged to the offending coach or nonplayer. These are not charged to head coach – only to the person who commits the act. These unsportsmanlike fouls can couple with other unsportsmanlike fouls for cursing or arguing to cause the ejection of the offending coach or nonplayer. These do not go automatically to the head coach!
What Fouls Do Automatically Go to Head Coach? – Failure to comply with coin toss, being ready to start game or second half, failure to have his players legally equipped after verifying legality in pregame conference. Plus – Second unintentional contact between a nonplayer and a game official in the restricted areas while the ball is live is automatic ejection of head coach.
Catch at Sideline – We know that to complete a catch the receiver must establish player possession of the live ball and contact the ground inbounds. So if the receiver establishes player possession of the live ball but is pushed (not carried) by the defender so that he contacts the ground out of bounds – the pass is incomplete.
Legal Equipment – I think we’re winning the war. Coaches and players are conforming. Please remain vigilant as we continue on. I’m definitely seeing players assisting other players, and adjusting their own uniform following most plays. Keep up the great work and let me know where there are problems.
Proper Use of the Whistle - A "toot" of the whistle (sometimes referred to as the “funny whistle” can be used to get the attention of other officials including the referee. This is a light, repeated whistle just loud enough to get the attention of others. When a penalty has been called we use a “staccato whistle” which is a loud repeating whistle. Blow immediately and loud for dead ball fouls, wait until the end of the play for live ball fouls. This is a loud whistle. Finally we have a whistle which signals that a play has ended. This also is a loud whistle. We are careful to make sure we see the ball in possession on the ground, out of bounds, progress stopped, an incomplete pass, or a kick has ended, etc. If we do not see the ball in possession but we assume the play has ended, or we have players combating each other at the end of a play, we don’t use our whistle – we use our voices to YELL that the play has ended or the pass is away, etc. Might be a great time to review the rules regarding inadvertent whistles?
Observer Program – By the end of week #5 9/14 we will have seen all but 10 crews. Great job observers and I’ll continue to include their observations into these Bulls which are getting a bit lengthy - LOL
BJ’s Fundraiser is Back – Last year we earned $400 for our Youth Fund! The flyer is attached to this Bull but I believe you can just take a picture of it on your phone and have it in the “wallet” of your IPhone. Thank you Bob Hood for setting this up and thank you BJ’s management for the support!
Targeting, Spearing and Excessive Contact – Reminders:
There are three different types of personal fouls where the opponent takes aim and initiates contact:
Targeting - hits to the head and neck area
Spearing - using the crown of your helmet to deliver a blow below the head and neck area
Excessive Contact to a Defenseless Player - Blind-Side Blocks and Defenseless Receivers.
* Flagrant = "a foul so severe or extreme that it places an opponent in danger of serious injury."
Coaches can teach their athletes to avoid targeting, and spearing in many effective ways. Avoiding excessive contact to a defenseless player is a newer concept and many coaches have been teaching their players to identify those situations where they have an opponent who does not see them coming and where they could "blow him up" or deliver the “big hit”. In those cases changing the blocking strategy from using their helmet or shoulder to deliver a crushing blow to the unsuspecting opponent, needs to occur. Initiating the block with the hands and extending the arms, or using their body to "shield" or "screen" the opponent can both be very successful blocks yet have safe consequences for the defenseless player. I hope this is not new information and we're thinking the same about these fouls.
Forward/Backward and Complete/Incomplete Passes – We continue to be challenged with these new offensive schemes. Properly ruling on quick and delayed passes to the flanks from shotgun creates a situation where the line of scrimmage officials must immediately judge forward or backward. We are now signaling with our arm the direction of the pass. The “off official” is responsible for signaling forward or backward. If the “near official” does not get help, he/she must make the call and signal accordingly. When in question, the ball is forward.
Complete/Incomplete Passes – We do not have the same issues with catch/incomplete as the NFL but one of the same concepts does apply to our game. If a receiver is going to the ground as he begins the catch process, the receiver must control and complete the catch after striking the ground. He must produce the ball and the ball cannot move during the contact with the ground. We will continue to be slow with this call to make sure the catch is completed.
Chiropractor – Travis Ehlers will be on site starting at 5:30 for any who would like a $20 adjustment.
