Rules review video: Illegal kicking, scrimmage kick formation, and pull and shoot

2024 Media video #13

National coordinator of football officials Steve Shaw posted his weekly video breaking down rules and interpretations from week 12 of the college football season. Before discussing plays for this week, Shaw went over statistics about penalties.

There have been 14.3 fouls called per game, which is very consistent with the last couple of years. False start is usually #1 foul called, but this season it’s offensive holding.

• Illegal kicking. On a 4th and 1 in 2OT, the ball is snapped well over everyone’s head and there is a chase for the loose ball. A defensive player intentionally kicks the ball to help him recover it, which is a foul for illegal kicking. The offense retained possession after a 10 yard penalty on the defense (enforced half the distance to the goal in this case) with the yardage on the penalty being enough for the first down.
• Scrimmage kick formation. There was a flag on the play of an attempted fake punt that went all the way for a touchdown. As we discussed in this week’s episode of the 1st & 25 podcast, if the offense is not in scrimmage kick formation, there must be 5 players on the line numbered 50-79. While there is a punter back 10+ yards behind the line of scrimmage, there is a player directly behind the long snapper, which is interpreted as being not in scrimmage kick formation. Therefore, an illegal formation was correctly called, as there were not 5 players on the line numbered 50-79.
• Fumble. A jet sweep flip to the receiver leads to a fumble recovered by the defense. However, replay assist steps in and overturns this to an incomplete pass. Because the quarterback tossed the pass forward to his receiver, it is a forward pass, and the receiver never established control/completed the process of the catch.
• Pull and shoot. This play is a good representation of when defensive holding is called on a field goal or extra-point attempt. One defensive lineman grabs an offensive lineman and pulls him to the ground, while another shoots through that gap that was created to try and block the kick. This is known as a pull-and-shoot maneuver, which is not a legal play.
• Illegal touching. On a 2-point attempt, the receiver is deemed to have gone out of bounds on his own. He then re-established himself in bounds and was the first to touch the ball. There was a correct flag for illegal touching, which carries a loss of down, so the attempt was unsuccessful.
• Substitution process. The offense makes a substitution, so the defense is given time to match. On this play, the defensive player subbing out takes his time and is basically walking off the field. The referees are instructed to allow play to resume when the substitution should have been completed if they deem the defense to be intentionally wasting time. (This was also discussed on the 1st & 25 podcast, using a different situation from the NFL.)