Welcome to Art of Officiating’s “Weekly Dozen”, comprising plays through September 6th. These videos are from Colorado games, so I’ll reference the Colorado 5-person mechanics manual and Colorado rules interpretations and modifications. Please consult your state’s mechanics manual and rules interpretations if I say something that doesn’t match what you do in your state.
1 – I’d like to begin the Weekly Dozen video with a “this is what right looks like” clip. We’ll begin with Team A breaking the huddle, which is a shift. Team A aims to snap the ball quickly when all 11 players are set. The ball is on the A-23. Let’s focus on A2, who unfortunately lines up 2 yards beyond the line of scrimmage (on the A-25). There’s really no way for the head linesman to practice preventative officiating to yell to A2 to move back. We can’t do that when the snap is imminent. I’ve included the audio in this clip so you can hear his whistle as he flags A2 for encroachment.
This is perfect. Toss the flag, blow a loud “look at me” whistle, signal “stop the clock” and hustle onto the field. By the way, this is why I like using a lanyard whistle. The wing can blow the whistle and immediately give the stop the clock signal. We don’t want a one-armed signal, which sometimes happens when we use a finger whistle.
If you’re a wing and you throw a flag for a false start or encroachment, make sure you hustle onto the field at the referee. If the opposite wing also has a flag, run at the opposite wing to compare flags before reporting the foul to the referee.
2 – This is an 8-man game. The home team previously played 11-man football and then moved to 8-man, so you’ll see the sideline is close to the numbers and everyone appears to be on the field.
In this play, B11 steps into the neutral zone. The head linesman could try to yell to B11 to step back, but the snap happens immediately after he encroaches. This position just inches from the receiver gives him an unfair advantage, and the head linesman should shut this play down.
The head linesman may have decided B11’s position did not give him an unfair advantage. That’s his judgment. But in my opinion, this encroachment is too obvious. With some fouls, like a takedown hold, we need to flag the foul, even if we believe it doesn’t impact the play, because if we let it go, our credibility will take a hit.
Notice this umpire keeps the whistle in his mouth for the entire play. Umpires should only have the whistle in their mouths to signal a snap infraction or false start. When the ball is legally snapped, the umpire should spit out his whistle and use his voice. Umpires don’t mark forward progress so they can go an entire game without blowing their whistles. If you run around with the whistle in your mouth, you are risking an inadvertent whistle.
I love how the line judge shifts his focus to his initial responsibility, the receiver right in front of him, when his tackle retreats to pass block. Then when the quarterback runs a draw, the line judge shifts focus back to the runner and hustles to mark forward progress. Excellent mechanics.
3 – Here’s another demonstration of superior mechanics by the head linesman. It’s third down and 1 yard to go from the A-22 with 52 seconds remaining in the first half.
The head linesman steps to the line to gain at the snap. His eyes are immediately on the money line. He then sells his spot by pinching to the ball. You can read his lips… he’s yelling “short” and “fourth down, fourth down” and he shows a fist to indicate it is now fourth down.
The umpire hands the ball to the head linesman to spot. He spots the ball a half-yard short of the line to gain. The head linesman knew the location of the line to gain, stepped to the line to gain at the snap, and then spotted the ball short of the line to gain.
Wings, if you judge the forward progress spot is short of the line to gain, spot the ball short of the line to gain. If you want it to be a first down, spot the ball beyond the line to gain. It’s much easier to do that on a turf field or a well-marked grass field.
4 – The ball is snapped on the B-49. The runner goes to the head linesman’s side of the field. Notice how the head linesman steps back 2 yards to the A-49 to safely let the runner pass before trailing the play.
I like how the umpire moves down the field and keeps his eyes on the players behind the ball.
Here’s the goodness. Notice how the back judge hustled to the goal line and has earned the right to make this call. He rules the runner is downed on the B half-yard line. This was the correct call. The ball is not across the goal line when the runner’s leg hits the ground. The back judge steps into the field of play, kills the clock, and marks forward progress.
This action is not big enough to warrant a flag. It’s well behind the play, and the block is unnecessary, but it’s not unnecessary roughness. I would hate a flag here that could potentially bring the ball back.
Just a quick note, the wings should instruct their ball runners to stay out of the restricted area. I absolutely love how this ball runner stays with the line judge. I would just like him to be outside of the restricted area so the wing doesn’t accidentally collide with him.
5 – Here’s the first scrimmage play of the game. The free kick was returned to the K-45. The formation is strong to the head linesman’s side. The back judge’s passing play initial responsibilities are the two outside receivers on the linesman’s side. The linesman has the inside receiver. The line judge has the lone receiver on his side.
The far right receiver goes in motion. When he passes the left tackle, the passing play initial responsibilities completely change. The linesman now has the two receivers on his side, the line judge picks up the receiver in motion and the back judge picks up the receiver on the line judge’s side. Note, with Colorado mechanics, the wing that has the player in motion going away from him will rule on the legality of the motion. I know that’s different in some states.
When the referee spoke with the head coach before the game, he asked, “Do you have any special plays or formations that may take us by surprise?” The coach said no… I hate it when that happens. The umpire is not necessarily looking for ineligible players illegally downfield, and he’s not going to try to get to the line of scrimmage to rule on where the pass was released and caught.
Let’s look at A71, the left guard. He’s a half yard beyond the expanded neutral zone when the pass is released. I would not flag him for that. We’re not looking for reasons to throw our flags. He didn’t gain an advantage by being a half-yard too far downfield.
Let’s look at A11. He begins to block B17 before the ball is caught. In my judgment, this is offensive pass interference. A11 is interfering with B17’s opportunity to move toward the ball.
The line judge should be looking at blocks ahead of the runner, so when the pass crosses the neutral zone, he should have a flag on this block.
One final thought. Do you see anything wrong with A7 (the halfback’s) uniform? His play card cannot be on his waist. Sometimes we miss those uniform errors until later in the game. We should try to pick those up as we observe the teams during the pregame activities.
6 – Here’s the same team from the first video, the team that liked to snap the ball quickly.
Rule 7-2-6 says after a huddle or shift, all players of A shall come to an absolute stop and shall remain stationary simultaneously for at least one second before the snap.
In my judgment, A28 is not stationary for at least one second before the snap.
How many Team A players do you count in the backfield?
There should be two flags on this play, one for an illegal shift, and one for an illegal formation. Team B’s coach would decline the two penalties and take the result of the play.
7 – Here is a scrimmage kick formation. You can probably immediately discern the problem here. The ball is snapped on the K-42. How many Team K players are legally on the line of scrimmage with their head or foot breaking the imaginary plane through the waist of the snapper? Maybe three if you want to give some the benefit of the doubt.
Team K is getting an unfair advantage because the linemen have an extra yard to retreat and block the Team R rushers.
In this play, there are three players at the K-35, and the punter is at the K-28. Team K is not trying to confuse Team R and run an eligible receiver from the middle of the formation. But hypothetically, if one or more of the players were standing near the line of scrimmage, Team R could not clearly determine which players were on the line and which players were in the backfield.
The punch line is, the head linesman needs to communicate with his sideline to clean up this formation. If the wings choose to flag this, and I wouldn’t have an issue with a flag here, it would be a live ball foul, and Team R could elect to have Team K replay the down, or they could add five yards to the succeeding spot in accordance with Rule 10-4-2 EXCEPTION
8 – Here’s another example of passing play keys changing following a shift. Prior to the shift, the formation is balanced. Therefore, the head linesman has the two outside receivers on his side, the back judge has the outside receiver on his side, and the line judge has the inside receiver on his side. A5 shifts. Now the strength is to the head linesman’s side. The back judge now must look across the field to the two outside receivers on the head linesman’s side. This is why I think the back judge needs to start in the middle of the field, and not on a hash. The linesman now has one receiver on his side, and the line judge now has two receivers on his side.
The pass is caught behind the line of scrimmage, so A13 can legally block downfield before the ball is caught.
Let’s now look at A13’s block. Is this demonstrated restriction, at the point of attack, that impacts the play? In my judgment, this is an obvious hold. Even if we don’t have the takedown you see in the video, it’s a foul. A13 gets his arm outside the defender’s torso and restricts him from moving inside to make the tackle. In my judgment, this is a foul that “screams.”
9 – In this video, I’ve merged two Hudl clips into one continuous clip. We’ll first witness the foul, then we’ll view penalty reporting and enforcement.
This formation is strong to the line judge’s side, so the back judge has the outside receiver on the that side, and the line judge has the inside receiver. The head linesman has the tight end who is beside the left tackle. This is a reminder to the wings to look at the formation and identify the tight end’s location. He’s an eligible receiver and someone needs to keep an eye on him.
At the snap, three receivers run downfield. Notice both wings are looking into the offensive backfield. That leaves only the back judge to view the three receivers. Who is looking for restriction as the receivers run their routes? The back judge can’t simultaneously look at his initial responsibility, the outside receiver on the line judge’s side, AND the tight end.
I will keep preaching this every week. The wings need to identify their passing play initial responsibilities, or keys, pre-snap and then they need to actually watch those players as they run their pass routes. We can’t have three sets of eyes looking at the quarterback. Wings, keep your eyes out of the backfield. I’ve posted a passing play keys video in the mechanics folder on the art of officiating website. If you are a wing or back judge, I recommend you watch the video.
Now we’ll focus on A1, the tailback in this formation. He clearly blocks the defender below the waist. The head linesman throws his flag. This is an example of the wrong official making the right call. The referee should have this flag, not the head linesman, because the linesman should be looking downfield at his passing play key.
Now let’s watch the rest of the clip. I like how the referee hustles to the linesman to hear his foul report. The linesman could hustle a little more to reach the referee.
After the explanation, the referee gives the blocking below the waist signal, which is signal 40. The hands should be above the knees. I like to give the signal in the middle of the thighs. The referee then has further discussion with the linesman and gives a second preliminary signal.
It’s interesting Team A’s coach is complaining about the flag. This is as obvious a block below the waist as I’ve seen.
He then checks with Team B’s head coach to determine if he wants to enforce the penalty for the blocking below the waist foul, or if he wants to decline the penalty and take the result of the play.
He then signals the foul to the press box. Now watch the penalty enforcement. The crew marks off 10 yards instead of 15. Penalty enforcement is a crew responsibility, and everyone needs to 1) pay attention, and 2) know the enforcement yardages.
Finally, the line judge needs to stay at the spot where enforcement begins until enforcement is complete. If someone realizes they should have marched off 15 yards instead of 10, if and when the box moves, could the crew recover? I suppose they could just add five yards to the initial ten.
10 – There are multiple teaching points in this video.
You can probably guess the first one. It’s an eye-discipline principle. The formation is balanced, so the head linesman’s passing play initial responsibilities, or keys, are the two receivers on his side.
At the snap, the linesman looks into the backfield and doesn’t track the two receivers who are now 10 yards downfield. The back judge’s passing play initial responsibility was A6 on the line judge’s side, so he’s not observing the two receivers on the opposite side of the field.
It’s very difficult for the head linesman to officiate this play. It is a limitation of having only five officials on the field. The wing has the QB running at him while his key(s) are running routes downfield. He must keep track of both his passing play key(s) and the QB. He must focus primarily on his passing play keys, but he must also glance back at the QB to keep track of the QB’s position and proximity to the sideline and LOS so he doesn’t get run over.
The wing doesn’t have QB responsibility until he crosses the LOS. If/when the QB crosses the LOS, the wing can pick him up. The wing will also have help from the referee who (hopefully) has run toward the sideline and is able to help if the QB runs out of bounds beyond the line of scrimmage. If the QB runs OOB, that FP spot is not as important as the LTG (if the QB throws a legal forward pass and the receiver catches the ball at/near the LTG).
And that’s exactly what happens.
The catch is at the B-41-1/2 (beyond the LTG). The HL marks FP at the B-42-1/2 (short of the LTG).
The LJ’s initial responsibility (A4) runs toward the HL’s side giving the LJ a clear look at the catch on the opposite sideline. If the LJ thinks he can help, he should square off at the B-41-1/2 and sell that FP spot.
As I said before, this is a tough one for the head linesman, and we don’t employ video review. In college or the NFL, maybe this play is reviewed and the ruling changed. We don’t have that luxury in high school.
11 – The crew is prepared for an onside kick. Two officials are on the K-40, and two officials are at midfield. All officials should have a beanbag in hand to prepare to mark the spot of first touching.
This is not a pop-up kick. Rule 2-24-10 says a pop-up kick is a free kick in which the kicker drives the ball immediately into the ground, the ball strikes the ground once and goes into the air in the manner of a ball kicked directly off the tee. The kicker drives the ball into the ground, but the ball does not go into the air in the manner of a ball kicked directly off the tee. After the first bounce, the ball’s height is below head level. On the second bounce, the ball goes high in the air. This is a perfectly executed onside kick.
Now let’s look at two blocks. The first is by a team K player. Rule 9-3-7 says no member of the kicking team shall initiate contact to an opponent on a free kick until the legal kick has traveled 10 yards, the kicking team is eligible to recover a free-kicked ball, or the receiving team initiates a block within the neutral zone. The ball has touched the ground, but it has not yet traveled 10 yards, so Team K cannot block Team R. K33’s block is a foul.
Let’s rewind and look at a second block. Is R7’s block a foul? In my judgment, the answer is yes. Rule 2-3-10 says a blindside block is a block against an opponent other than the runner, who does not see the blocker approaching. Rule 9-4-3n says it is illegal personal contact to execute a blindside block outside of the free-blocking zone with forceful contact unless initiated with open hands. In my judgment, this block was not initiated with open hands, and it appears R7 strikes K25 with the top of his helmet. I have the benefit of running this video in slow motion, so I can see the helmet contact. I would still flag this for a blindside block.
Now let’s look at the officiating crew. For some reason, the official at midfield gives up his position on the important money line. He’s not staring straight down the line, so he can no longer determine if the ball traveled the requisite 10 yards.
It’s hard to tell, but does the ball strike the white of the 50 yard line or does it bounce just short of the 50?
K15 recovers the ball, and Team K next snaps the ball from the K-49, so the covering official must have decided the ball did strike the 50-yard line and bounce back. I’d love to have him remain on the 50-yard line to add credibility to his ruling.
Hypothetically, if the crew had tossed a flag for both blocks, how would we enforce the fouls? For the referees, the signal for the illegal block by K33 is signal 43, the same signal you use for an illegal block in the back. This is not a scrimmage kick, so R cannot decline K’s foul and enforce their own. And the clean hands rule does not apply. So the fouls would offset and K would rekick the ball.
12 – I must apologize for the quality of this final clip but it has an important teaching point. We’re back to the 8-man game. A5 shifts and sets. The player in the slot on the head linesman’s side makes a slight adjustment and is not set for 1 second before the snap. By rule, this is a foul, but I don’t think it’s worthy of a flag. The player did not simulate a snap, and he did not gain an unfair advantage with his forward movement. We flag elephants, not ants.
Let’s evaluate B10’s contact on the receiver. Rule 2-32-16 identifies a receiver attempting to catch a pass as a defenseless player. It says a player who initiates contact against a defenseless player is responsible for making legal contact. Rule 9-4-3p provides clarity on what is legal contact. Forceful contact against a defenseless receiver must be: incidental contact as a result of making a play on the ball, initiated with open hands, or an attempt to tackle by wrapping arms around the receiver.
What is your judgment on this play? Does B10’s contact satisfy any of the three caveats or is he just delivering a blow? In my judgment, this is a foul. Defenders are no longer allowed to slam into a receiver to try to break up a pass. They must make a play on the ball, use open hands, or wrap arms around the receiver. With anything else, consider a flag for illegal personal contact.
That’s your weekly dozen for games through September 6, 2025. Thanks for watching!
If you encounter any interesting plays during your season, I’d love to see them. You can send them to me at contact@artofofficiating.com.