JustRules

Regarding the football speed, here's another example. A friend of mine has been an NFL official for 5 or 6 years. I remember talking to him after his first season and asking if the players were much faster compared to the B1G. He said it wasn't so much open field speed because the B1G has plenty of fast guys. It was other areas. For example, he said a defensive lineman rushing through a gap goes down with minimal contact. When he watched the video he saw the offensive lineman was able to stick his foot out and back to so fast he couldn't see it with the naked eye. It just looked like incidental contact on the field. I'm sure there are dozens of examples like this. Pursuit angles for defenders, change of direction by runners and route receivers, effective use of hands to initiate or shed blocks. Those aren't necessarily something you can teach Usain Bolt just because he can run really fast in a straight line.

The more scholarships you can give the more good players you can recruit. And the players generally want to play at the highest level possible. Opportunities to play earlier, proximity to home, success of the team, academic programs offered all factor in as well. The top teams of FCS are better than the bottom third of FBS and the top teams of D2 are better than the bottom third of FCS. Some of the FCS schools are also non-athletic scholarship. The Pioneer League where Butler plays are all non-athletic scholarship athletes so they are closer to D3 teams. D3 offers no athletic scholarship but many of the student athletes are getting merit and need based aid from the university. NAIA offers some athletic scholarships, but they are limited. Generally NAIA teams are ahead of D3 teams but there is a lot of overlap. D3 and NAIA football is still a very good level of football. Having officiated both the level is a step above the top high school teams. Most of the players were all-conference/all-county in high school. Someone should not think D3/NAIA is below them if it's their only option. It will still be better overall competition than what you have in HS.

Did it ever dawn on anyone he wants to attend IU and this is an opportunity to use his football skills to do that?

Definitely not true. For the longest time LN and LC would not allow Chatard or Cathedral to use their football stadiums. Both schools recruit students (and thus athletes) heavily in Lawrence Township (Cathedral lies in the district boundaries and Chatard is very close) and the athletic staff of both schools don't appreciate their potential athletes getting poached from the LT middle schools. I don't know if that relationship would prevent them from wanting to join a conference with them, but I do know the Lawrence Township schools are very happy and very much a part of the MIC. They have no interest in looking at any other conference.

It seemed like it was a done deal 4-5 years ago. But I think population growth slowed enough it wasn't warranted. You could argue 3 high schools with 2000 students each would work, but you have to look at the incremental cost of a third building. As long as the 2 current buildings can handle the number of students the appetite to build a new one is probably less critical. The growth now is more on the Hancock County side so those students would likely go to Mount Vernon. Other factors affecting growth are people waiting longer to have kids, families with kids graduating aren't leaving so you have more homes with no students, and those having kids are having fewer. The districts look very closely at the numbers and trends starting with the lower grades and can fairly accurately predict enrollment in 10 years.

It can be achieved in all those activities and it probably does. But if the student doesn't want to participate in those activities or those activities don't have enough opportunities (could the Frankfort soccer team absorb the 60 football players that would be looking for something else if the team contracted?) then this is the opportunity that was chosen. I have a lot of respect for players who join a team and stick with it knowing they will likely lose big on the field every Friday night. They have a commitment and heart I would love to hire some day. I've worked many games with teams that have lost a lot more than won (Elmhurst, Edinboro back in the day, Crawfordsville, Frankfort recently) and those players were still playing hard and having fun because they were getting to play high school football on a Friday night. They would definitely prefer to be more competitive but they weren't giving up. And as long as they have enough players to field a team then I'm all for them continuing.

You get to learn what it's like to be part of a team and play a role (leader and follower), learn an offense and/or defense, set goals as a team, have a reason to keep your grades up, be involved and make friends, an activity for the community to rally around and connect, handle adversity, push yourself to get better at something. I'm sure the list is much longer. Yes it's awesome if you can be part of a program that competes every week. Or a program that has a chance to win a sectional final. Or at least upset the huge favorite in the sectional. Or maybe even compete for a state championship. But not everyone can reasonably achieve that and that's OK.

I believe Frankfort had 60 players on their roster this year. They weren't great, but that's 60 kids who want to play football. High school sports aren't only about winning.

The issue with that is there doesn't appear to be a consistent application of "immediate". I talk with umpires who feel as long as it's the first move by the lineman it's legal even if he has to step beyond his gap to reach the defender. How much hesitation becomes too much if you feel there was a delay? Several states have already applied an interpretation that a lineman can't legally cut block if they are in a 2-point stance. I believe a couple have experimented with not allowing low blocks if the QB is in shot gun. At a minimum I like the interpretation for 2-point vs. 3-point. It's hard to be consistent with a definition of immediate which has to drive coaches and players nuts because it's a huge penalty (15 yards). For that reason I think one of two things should happen. The free blocking zone is extended all the way back to the end line or eliminate low blocks if the QB is in shot gun.

They have a lot more in common with the MIC schools than those schools. They are competitive in every sport in the MIC usually finishing in the middle or top. Football wins haven't been great but many games are competitive in most games. No matter how many teams you have someone will be at the bottom. They are very competitive teams (including Pike) against most teams in 6A.

The main reason I've heard against spiking in shot gun is it could potentially give the QB an opportunity to see if he has an open receiver and legally spike it if he doesn't. The same could happen if the QB is under center so I don't see it as a valid complaint. We've had the rule in NCAA for several years and in 10-years I've never seen a team do it in shot gun. It's not a major issue for me either way. The only reason they dropped the auto first down for DPI was due to a compromise on the committee. There had been a proposal for several years to drop the LOD on OPI but it wouldn't pass because several members felt it wasn't balanced with DPI. The only way they could get it to pass was to give up the auto first on DPI as well. Most people see that as a silly compromise so a rule change request since then is to restore the auto first on DPI. Just because NFHS adopts an occasional NCAA rule doesn't mean they need to adopt them all. Every level of football besides HS has an auto first down for PF/UNS. They are major fouls and deserve very punitive results. It makes sense to have them align between the codes.

I would definitely not put Western Boone, New Pal and Valpo in the same affluent category as Carmel and Center Grove. I'm more familiar with Western Boone and New Pal and consider both very solid blue collar/middle class communities with a fair share of lower income people. And Heritage Hills is definitely not private. I looked up the free and reduced lunch ratios for 2019 and this is what I found (lowest to highest). Carmel 9% Center Grove 19% New Palestine 19% Valparaiso 23% Western Boone 30% Heritage Hills 31% Eastbrook 35% East Noble 36% Based on that I would probably only put Carmel in the Affluent Public category and the rest in the Average Public category. Some of the high schools that fell into the 60% or higher group but still successful: Ben Davis 75% Decatur Central 62% Lafayette Jeff 62% Lawrence Central 64% Merrillville 60% Michigan City 65% New Haven 65% Pike 66% Southport 68% Warren Central 71%

Every year the NFHS puts out a survey for coaches and officials to get feedback on potential rule changes. If they are on these lists someone likely has submitted it and it will be considered by the rules committee when they meet in Indy in January. In the poll check the box if you would answer YES to the question. Observations – Have you observed any of the following this year? 1. Game officials having difficulty determining if the tight end is in the free-blocking zone. 2. Ball-colored helmets, jerseys, patches, exterior arm covers/pads, undershirts or gloves. 3. Applying the 5-yard face mask rule. 4. Field tarps in the team box too close to the field of play. 5. School bands playing while the opponent’s offense is on the field. 6. Announcers announcing or playing amplified music when an opponent’s offense is calling signals. About the rules for 2020 – Would you favor: 1. By state association adoption, using instant replay for regular season. 2. Allowing a player to save loss of yardage by throwing the ball so that it lands beyond the neutral zone, if the player is outside the free-blocking zone. 3. Not allowing visible numbers, logos, images or other symbols on the front of the tooth and mouth protectors. 4. Allowing the passer to spike the ball from the shotgun formation. 5. Making forward pass interference by the defense an automatic first down for the offense. 6. Making defensive personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct fouls an automatic first down for the offense. 7. With mutual agreement from both head coaches and the referee, shortening the halftime intermission to less than 10 minutes if a weather delay has occurred with less than three minutes in the second period. 8. Eliminating the free-blocking zone in the shotgun formation.

Maybe a little but I find it about the same. Both are usually 28-32 seconds left on the play clock. I think the reason the FBS guys support it though is their games are so long and it's a simple way to shorten it by a couple minutes. 15-minute quarters is like playing a 5-quarter HS game!

Under the 25 second play clock the game clock wouldn't start until the 25 second play clock was started which was usually 12-15 seconds after the previous play ended. A similar pace is expected now but the game clock is often started before the ball is ready for play. IO's estimate is accurate. We shoot for 30-32. NCAA using a similar play clock wants the game clock started even sooner (34-36).

DT started this thread because he wanted to get everyone's underwear in a wad and it worked. Of course this is a ridiculous idea. LN and LC fit very well in the MIC both geographically and demographically. They compete in most sports. They're records aren't great in the MIC but they get wins most years and are competitive in their losses. The coaches and athletes love being in the most competitive conference in the Midwest. There has been chatter about combining the schools but I'm not sure how serious it is. I hope they never do it.

This is definitely true. Community feel at the larger MIC schools can be more difficult. Small and medium cities are more connected because more families know each other and they tend to be associated with the school regardless if they have children in the school. Carmel and Center Grove are probably as close to that as you can get in the MIC. Warren and BD have had epic crowds in the past as people from all over the city would go to that game, but that interest seems to have waned a little. That would be hard to dispute. I think communities like Westfield, Zionsville, Brownsburg, and Avon in the HCC are more similar to Carmel/Center Grove than the Marion County MIC schools, but they still aren't the level of other communities. I've worked back to back weeks where we had more fans at Mississinewa than Pike.

I would say there is a very good chance! They are a solid, experienced crew. Technically 4 of the 5 have worked a state final but none with this referee. This won't be their first major experience like this and they had big games throughout the tournament.

I agree and could see that if it was a surprise onside kick. It was an obvious situation. It's the main thing that position needs to anticipate. They didn't show the R to see if he gave any kind of signal. They did give K the ball at the spot of the flag so it appears they awarded first touching properly. Not 100% certain the judgement part was right though because I knew they got the mechanic part wrong. Little things matter. Judgement is one thing. Mechanics are another.

The other factor is they have shown to keep county and district schools together. HSE and Fishers weren't likely to be split so unless you could move both of them south you aren't moving either of them south. So Carmel likely goes south even if they were located further north of HSE or Fishers. North/South doesn't have to be a hard straight line.

First touching as it's called in NFHS is not a foul so it should have been a bean bag rather than flag. It was a close call but the covering official loses some credibility by not using the correct mechanic.

It depends on what happens and the intensity and implications of the north south all star game are vastly different than a state final game. For example, a blocked FG, what does everyone do? Ball snapped at the B6 where do the deep wings go? Then you have a false start by the offense, does that change anything? Sideline catch/no catch communication and spots on long runs can also difficult if you've never done it. Back judge is probably the easiest transition because you do lose responsibilities on keys and you get the most help with the deep wings. But your keys are very different. In 5-man you have the widest receiver on the strong side (or press box if formation balanced) and widest 2 if you have trips. In 7-man you have the #2 receiver on the strong side (or press box if balanced) and #3 in trips. If you stick with your normal 5-man keys out of habit and the other wings watch who they are supposed to watch your guy will not be covered at the snap. If nothing happens to him nobody would know but it could be a big miss if he holds on the edge at the snap (assume TE most of the time) or a DB/LB holds him off the line trying to run his route. That's why I said a possible approach is the two wings and BJ watch what they normally watch and the deep wings focus on their zone. It's not optimal coverage but it's better than someone not being covered at all.

There would be some logistical challenges with going to 7-man because coverage and positioning are very different with 2 extra officials on the field. Since we don't know until the Monday before the game which crews are working that week how do you prepare them to work a mechanic they may have never worked? Most of the states that expand later in the tournament will have crews who worked 6 or 7-man during the season at least some games. They also assign individuals to playoff crews rather than advance existing crews so they have more flexibility in picking the officials who are familiar with the expanded mechanics. Ultimately I still think it would be better coverage. At a minimum you could have the original 5 members do what they normally do so we still have coverage and the extra 2 officials focus on their zone. The biggest advantage for the additional 2 officials are goal line/pylon coverage and special teams plays. I support this 100% and am confident we'd figure out something for the logistical challenges.

This is a very valid statement. Replay wouldn't guarantee every call was correct which is often the expectation when it's used. It could be helpful though if available. I am curious to hear how other states have used it. Hudl sideline could be helpful but you only have at most 3 cameras (more likely 1 or 2) and they don't always follow the action or zoom properly. Having a solid set of professional broadcast cameras would make it much more possible. If the only option is Hudl sideline I wouldn't support it.

Two legendary Indiana D3 coaches have retired. Bill Lynch announced his retirement earlier this week from DePauw and Mike Leonard announced his retirement today. These are two great men who have given so much to developing great leaders very much under the radar. They will both be hard to replace.