JustRules

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.

They are definitely still good and will be good in 5A but not necessarily any better than similar sized schools with less affluence.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a real thing. If you don't have safety as a basis it's hard to have anything else. That doesn't mean you still can't be successfully in a micro sense, but as a macro that's why more affluent schools can have a larger percentage of their good athletes be able to play and focus on football. If it was a guarantee Zionsville and Park Tudor would be dominant, but at Bob said it doesn't always apply. But not worrying about if you can get to games or practices or if you'll have food when you get home are big advantages. I worked an IPS game one year and they had #65 throwing to #72 in warm-ups. I asked the coach if those were his starting QB and receiver. He said they were today. He never knows until they get on the bus who will be playing that day. Some kids just don't show up. I doubt Carmel or Center Grove ever have that issue. It's not likely at township schools either, but more affluence and more stable home situations can be an advantage.

I was going to add the socio-economic difference for CG as well. Lawrence Township is probably one of the most diverse economically since it includes some of the wealthiest (much of Geist is in Lawrence Township) and the poorest (42nd and Post is one of the highest crime areas in the city) and everything in between. Despite the fact LN and LC have not beaten Carmel, looking at the scores many of the games have been competitive. LC didn't play Carmel in the regular season before 2013 because that's when they joined the MIC. Here is LN's history with Carmel: 2019 - lost 23-20 in OT 2018 - lost 23-9 2017 - lost 38-14 2016 - won 27-20 Here is LC's history with Carmel: 2019 - lost 20-7 2018 - lost 16-14 2017 - lost 21-19 2016 - lost 35-20 2015 - lost 35-26 2014 - lost 27-20 2013 - lost 17-7 For the most part those are pretty competitive games despite the number of losses.

Something didn't click for him there. The last year he had 50 players grades 9-12 so your 36 number sounds reasonable. In February Coach Mallory had 125 kids in the weight room and that would have only included grades 9-11 since the seniors were already done. There were a lot of boys in the building who wanted to play but didn't for some reason want to play for Coach Dilley. Mallory has kept those numbers up throughout his time. They have had a solid team the past 3-4 years but can't get over the hump consistently.

With the exception of a couple years with Jason West, LC and LN have been fairly even. I attribute the success those year as much to his coaching and the lack of athletes playing for Coach Dilley. Some of those players may have gone to LC instead, but most of them just chose to not play football. Once Mallory took over several existing students suddenly showed up in the weight room. They have both been competitive since but it's hard to win consistently in the MIC even for the big boys. So to say the schools similar in size to LN/LC/CG can't compete with the Carmel/BD/WC isn't just a size issue. It's also just the level of talent available in the Indy metro area is ahead of other regions in the state. I'm not sure exactly why, but it's true. I still admire the quality and effort of the teams outside of Central Indiana. They are still getting incredible high school football opportunities and won't back down to the central Indiana teams. But even if Carmel/BD/WC were to split in half, those teams would still be very competitive in the state.

I would be OK with that. However what is now a 5-yard facemask goes away as a foul. The NCAA 15-yard foul is the same as the NFHS 15 yard foul. Both require grabbing with pulling and twisting. The NFHS 5-yarder is just grabbing. I wouldn't want to make that a 15-yarder in NFHS.

LN, LC and CG all have about 2400 students and they often compete with and have beaten Carmel in recent seasons. And LN/LC have typically been in the bottom half of the MIC the past few seasons. This shows the MIC is better than every other conference in the state top to bottom. The HCC has a few teams that can also compete and beat MIC teams but outside of that very few can. This isn't a knock on any teams outside the MIC. It's just a fact the MIC and HCC teams have separated from the rest of the state.

It depends on the timing of the foul. If it was before the pass was completed the enforcement spot is the previous spot so either 1st and 5 (accepted) or 2nd and 7 (declined). If it was after the pass was completed the enforcement is the end of the run and replay the down. 1st and 3.

By philosophy that allows him/her to have his/her foot down in the neutral zone before the kick. I probably wouldn't allow him/her to run down the line in front of the ball and then kick it. That is not the intent of the rule. I'm not sure what advantage he/she would get by doing that thought.

The sheet the IFOA sends out with the crew assignments collected does indicate Regional 1-24 and Semi-State 1-12. I assume those are just for reference though.

He got to start working on his story early and hopefully finished well before the deadline?

A couple of them thought it was wrong at the time but they weren't certain enough to step up. As you know one of the challenges is remembering something if you never do it! I've been officiating about 20 years, and It think I've been a part of 3 or 4 OT games. Two of them were the same season. You can talk about something and read something 100 times, but until you experience it, it doesn't always commit to memory. That's not an excuse, but it does help people understand WHY it happens. It's not an intentional error.

The only one I'll add is R touches it beyond the expanded neutral zone and the ball ends up behind the neutral zone again, K can advance and will have a 1st down after the play as long as they have team possession after the play. They have the option to kick it again (yes, 2 kicks during the same play is legal but I don't see them doing that on an attempted FG), run it, or pass it! If they throw an incomplete pass it will be 1st and 10 at the previous spot. That's a very popular quiz question and rules discussion, but I've never seen it actually happen. You would almost definitely have linemen downfield if it's a punt because they would have released to cover the punt. If that happened it would be a 5-yard previous spot penalty and replay 4th down

Except in the instance of a playoff game last year when the crew went 1st and 10 from the 25. The team scored 7 plays later and won the game. I know the crew was devastated after the game when they realized their error and were not able to work a later playoff game they were scheduled to work. It's one thing to make a judgement error in a split second because those are subjective and not everyone will agree either way. To make a rules application error when you have plenty of time to think through it and get it right is hard to justify.

I personally think the best system would be to scrap the existing conferences and go with 8 team sectional assignments (8 team regional for 5A/6A). 7 of your games are against the other teams in your sectional and then 3 non-conference games. The top 4 teams in each sectional advance to the playoffs based on your sectional record. That way you can schedule whoever you want and it won't affect your playoff qualification except for maybe the 12th tie breaker criteria if needed. Then #1 from one sectional hosts #4 from the next sectional and #2 hosts #3. No computers or rankings. It's all based on what happens on the field. Teams are rewarded in both qualifying and hosting for a successful regular season. Because of geography you will have some better teams in one sectional/regional not make it because they have tougher competition in their area while a lesser team qualifies because of the competition in their area. This is no different than today with competition within a sectional. Getting over not having conferences any longer would be the biggest hurdle. If you can't get past that you will never support this model. I've lived where they don't have conferences and it was fine. But this is what people here are used to and people are generally resistant to change unless it benefits them.

Merrillville by chance? Very good crew!

Those are the same teams that never win a tournament game in the current format. Is that any different or better? Unless they draw another weak team which I think is the primary reason many coaches still support it and there isn't a rush to change it. With the random draw aspect there's a chance I could draw another weak opponent and get a tournament win. There were several examples of that last week and probably some in the 5A/6A this week. I was looking it from a different angle last night. If half of the 6A schools qualified and Sagarin was used to rank them, Columbus East would not qualify at 7-2 and neither would Penn at 5-4 or Columbus North at 5-4. But the matchup between Lawrence North (3-6) and Lawrence Central (2-7) features 2 teams who would have qualified. They would have played higher ranked teams though if the teams were seeded. Now they have a chance to advance to the sectional championship because they drew each other. In another sectional #1 is playing #2. Rather than ranking the top 16 though let's look at the top 4 in each regional. This is how they would shake out: Sectional 1/2 Warsaw at Lafayette Jeff Penn at Merrillville First out: Crown Point (73.18) Sectional 3/4 HSE at Carmel Homestead at Fishers First out: Westfield (92.99) Sectional 5/6 Zionsville at Avon Ben Davis at Brownsburg First out: Pike (79.19) Sectional 7/9 Lawrence North at Warren Central North Central at Center Grove First out: Lawrence Central (85.3) An interesting geographic note. Westfield would be out in the Sectional 3/4 regional, but they would be the #1 seed in the Sectional 1/2 regional and LC would be #3. Geography has it's privileges (or disadvantages depending on your perspective).

I just don't pay attention to the brand. I'm looking for the mark I put on the ball to make sure I have the right team's ball.

I don't pay attention at all to the brand of ball. I couldn't tell you what was used during or after any game. We see a lot more newer balls than aged ball so it probably depends on the school.

It's not unusual to have a play or two each game with the wrong team's ball. This is one example. The other is getting the wrong ball from the ball boy and not catching it. There is nothing that says a team has to use their own ball for any play. It says they may use any approved ball of their choice. If they don't notice before the play the ball isn't theirs they play with it.