Topic: question about the USF-Rutgers game

[bigblankowsky]

I just saw the fake field goal that Rutgers pulled off. My question is.... when the holder is receiving the snapped ball, and his knee is touching the ground, why is play NOT whistled dead? Not to pick on this game, but alot of games have had fake kick, and it just occurred to me that it should not be legal. It is a live play. What happens if he is touching the ground and then gets up and goes back to the ground. Surely they would call the play dead then. Just wondering what other people think about this.....maybe I'm just getting sleepy.

[dshoe]

I just saw the fake field goal that Rutgers pulled off. My question is.... when the holder is receiving the snapped ball, and his knee is touching the ground, why is play NOT whistled dead? Not to pick on this game, but alot of games have had fake kick, and it just occurred to me that it should not be legal. It is a live play. What happens if he is touching the ground and then gets up and goes back to the ground. Surely they would call the play dead then. Just wondering what other people think about this.....maybe I'm just getting sleepy.

It's a good question and one that often comes up..............the simple answer is that there is an exception to the rule for holders.......they are allowed to come up from the holding position with the football........the rule isn't really for the fake, but rather that under the normal rule the ball would be down as soon as the holder recieves the snap (since his knee is on the ground) before the kicker would have a chance to kick the ball.......so there is a rule book exception on placement kicks.

[bigblankowsky]

thanks for clearing that up for me. I had never even heard  mention of it. I guess it makes sense, since the play would be called dead before the kicker could kick it!  :lol: