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Referee's Question

Hatz

By Hatz
in KY Football (High School)

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Hatz

Hatz

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I'm looking for people's understanding and ruling of this.

 

I'm in Virginia and went to a VHSSL Regional Final on Saturday. The official warned coaches to keep their kids back from the field and as a coach to stay off the field.

 

Late in the game (Bassett vs. Martinsville) Bassett completed a long pass to the M'ville 15 on a 3rd and 9. A penalty for ineligible receiver was thrown.

 

In disputing the call with the refs the Bassett coach was then penalized for being on the field. But it wasn't 15 yards marked off on the coach, they marched off the penalty on the ineligible receiver and then took a down away as their penalty on the coach. So now it was 4th down. Thankfully the call did not change the outcome of the game but it did threaten it greatly.

 

So, is there a KHSAA rule that allows the ref to take a down away at their discretion? Can someone share if they have seen that before?

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Hatz

Hatz

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Obviously there are loss-of-down penalties. I'm not sure if this is one or not. I don't think so. But I don't know of any rule that ALLOWS the referee to take a down away from a team.

 

 

Yeah, I knew about that. This is the first time that the infraction (complaining, being on the field by the coach, whatever) was a random decision by the discretion of the Referee. He chose at that time to "take a down away."

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Hatz

Hatz

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Correct that the first flag is a warning. But I have never witnessed a game where an official, at their discretion, takes a down away from a team. It just doesn't sound right to me...

 

 

It did not to me either. I'm still very confused and am trying to find some more answers.

 

Maybe someone else can tell me but an ineligible player downfield is not loss of down, is it?

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kissinger

kissinger

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It did not to me either. I'm still very confused and am trying to find some more answers.

 

Maybe someone else can tell me but an ineligible player downfield is not loss of down, is it?

Loss of down fouls are Illegal handing the ball forward, illegal forward pass by A, Intentional grounding, Illegal touching and offensive pass interference. As I understand it, there are several states experimenting with different sideline control rules in an effort to get the coaches off the field (where they don't belong during the game for any reason). Florida is one of those, maybe VA is another. Their state interpreter is a guy from Charlottesville, he could probably more directly answer the question about VHSL rules. It's not that way in Kentucky. Unless of course the Referee invoked rule 9-9 which is open ended for any penalty "he considers equitable, including the awarding of a score". This is normally reserved for things that have happened by just can't be covered by rule, like a dog coming on the field and taking the ball (which has happened), a ball that exploded upon being punted (which has happened), a coach tackling a ball carrier running down the field untouched (which has happened), and a ball boy dropping a football on the field near the ball carrier after which the defense hollered fumble and dove on the ball while the runner scored untouched (which actually happened in Kentucky!).

 

As Coach Claiborne used to say, funny things happen when an oblong ball hits a flat field.

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