College Football Rule 3-4-3

[VAHuskyFan]

Unfair Clock Tactics—ARTICLE 3, Approved Ruling 3-4-3

Example V: Late in the fourth quarter Team A trails by four points and is driving for a potential score. After a running play on which the ball carrier is tackled inbounds, Team B players are obviously and deliberately slow in letting him get to his feet or otherwise are employing tactics to delay the officials in making the ball ready for play. RULING: Dead-ball foul against Team B, delay of game. When the ball is ready for play, the referee will signal the 25-second clock to start, and the game clock will start on the snap.​

Sound familiar? Navy's linebacker even admitted to the delay tactic after the game: "We practice that," linebacker Daniel Gonzales said. "You just lay there until the ref pulls you off." (Game Recap) (Of course, you aren't actually allowed to just lay there until the ref pulls you off.)

The Navy players played smart. They forced the refs to make the tough, correct call -- knowing it's the last thing the refs would want to do in that situation. Diaco simply assumed that because there's a rule against it, the refs were going to make that call against a service academy at home (potentially denying weekend leave to the thousands of cadets going crazy in the stands). So yes, Bob, there is indeed a rule against what Navy did and the refs should have called a penalty. But you'd have to be a fool or crazy to think that they were actually going to do the right thing there.

 

[superjohn]

Every player is instructed to do that and the refs will never call that at the end of the game. Diaco was probably shocked by this, just another reason he is a huge idiot.

 

[whaler11]

LOL. That wasn't even close to being a delay of game penalty.

UConn might have showed some interest in lining up if you wanted to try and sell that angle. They couldn't have gotten a snap off if there were 10 more seconds.

The refs are totally concerned with the leave the soldiers might get too - is that even a comment from this planet?

 

[VAHuskyFan]

LOL. That wasn't even close to being a delay of game penalty.

UConn might have showed some interest in lining up if you wanted to try and sell that angle. They couldn't have gotten a snap off if there were 10 more seconds.

The refs are totally concerned with the leave the soldiers might get too - is that even a comment from this planet?

Don't know what to say if you think that wasn't close to being a delay of game penalty. The Navy players literally admitted to laying on top of our guys to keep them from getting up. I agree with you that our guys should have lined up to try and force the call (they were waiting for a spot, but the optics are better if they're in a stance). None of that changes what was going on in the pile.

Also, officials are absolutely affected by their environment and make calls that favor the home team. That's backed up by statistics: "being social creatures (and human beings) like the rest of us, [referees] assimilate the emotion of the home crowd and, once in a while, make a call that makes a whole lot of close-by, noisy people very happy."

 

[whaler11]

Don't know what to say if you think that wasn't close to being a delay of game penalty. The Navy players literally admitted to laying on top of our guys to keep them from getting up. I agree with you that our guys should have lined up to try and force the call (they were waiting for a spot, but the optics are better if they're in a stance). None of that changes what was going on in the pile.

Also, officials are absolutely affected by their environment and make calls that favor the home team. That's backed up by statistics: "being social creatures (and human beings) like the rest of us, [referees] assimilate the emotion of the home crowd and, once in a while, make a call that makes a whole lot of close-by, noisy people very happy."

I officiated for a decade.

Nobody on the field officiating is thinking about anyone's leave. At that point the game is moving so quickly they are just reacting and not thinking.

It wasn't anywhere near a delay of game.

 

[UConnNick]

I really hope and pray that Diaco's entire strategy there wasn't to force a pile up in the middle of the line, hoping the referees would call a delay of game penalty, moving the ball a foot closer to the goal line. If that's the case, we've got more serious problems with this guy than imaginable.

 

[RoadTrip]

Watch the replay how are the refs going to call a delay penalties when half the UConn players weren't lined up.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

The line was standing there waiting for the ball

 

[UConn76]

LOL. That wasn't even close to being a delay of game penalty.

UConn might have showed some interest in lining up if you wanted to try and sell that angle. They couldn't have gotten a snap off if there were 10 more seconds.

The refs are totally concerned with the leave the soldiers might get too - is that even a comment from this planet?

Unfortunately our players had no sense of urgency to get back to the line. Diaco didn't know what down it was and neither did our offense...

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I've only seen that penalty called if the runner is trying to get up and one or more defensive players continue to try to prevent him from getting up.

Johnson should have been instructed (especially after a TO, but backs should be taught this repeatedly in practice for situations like yesterday) to get down as soon as he started moving sideways, then fight to get up and hand the official the ball immediately. The linemen should have been instructed during the TO (and again taught in practice) to get up and get into position as soon as the back goes down (only three of them did and they seemed in no hurry to so.

Maybe too many of things needed to be taught the past couple of years (since BD arrived) but we seem to be severely lacking in situational coaching (which needs to be worked on repeatedly in practice). We are not even 25% through year three following an unmitigated disaster but still, I've seen many other schools figure some of this out quickly. We need to find a way to figure it out without too much more time passing.

 

[businesslawyer]

It was technically a penalty. I have never in my life seen that penalty called in that situation. HCBD needed to assume he wouldn't get that call at that time.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Should Navy had been allowed to pile on RJ for 10 seconds after the play actually stopped? No but you can't expect the ref to make a call there. To use a hoops analogy that's like expecting the ref to call a foul when you're fighting for a rebound and going up for a put back or drawing up a play for a 3pt shooter to explicitly get fouled. Refs hate making calls like that in the final seconds (don't tell OK ST that though).

In many ways that game was like so many in the KO era of UConn hoops. Fall behind huge early. Cut into it a little bit by the half. Come out like a bat out of hell in the second half. Fizzle out for a "could have won but at least we tried!" type of loss.

 

[SubbaBub]

Game was lost on the non-fair catch (Special Teams are part of the game of football);
followed by the indifferent play calling from the 5 yd line (failure to get a couple first downs guarantees at least a tie game);
followed by not covering the punt (special teams are part of the game of football and the chances of a block were minimal);
followed by the public service announcement "Bob can't manage the clock. Don't be like Bob" level bad clock management;
followed by the completely wrong play call on the last play. (We passed our way down the field and haven't shown any abilty on short yardage.)

Can a guy get a Y-banana? Everybody runs the Y-banana in that spot.

It killed what would have been an important win and a legendary final drive. Looking at the numbers, you can't expect BS to play better than he did in that game. They deserved to win it and the coaching absolutely cost them the win.

 

[psilotic]

Last play reminded me of when Chuck Bednarik tackled Jim Taylor at end of 1960 NFL championship. Held him down until clock hit 0:00, then said "Now you can get up." Of course Navy stalled but I can't remember the last time I've seen that called.

 

[BHusky]

10 UConn players lined up ready for the next play waiting for the Navy players to get off our RB equals a delay penalty.

4 UConn players sort of attempting to line up, 6 guys looking around confused and one RB under a pig pile equals end of game.