Kick off questions

[onlylabs]

Couple questions on rules as they are regarding these scenarios related to free kick plays.

1: free kick (kick off) is bouncing around near sideline. Receiving team member purposely bats the ball out of bounds to prevent kicking team from recovering it. Legal or penalty? Ruling?

2: kick off, say pooch type kick bouncing again for sideline. Receiving team member touches ball, which is still in bounds, though he is physically out of bounds. Ruling?

thanks!!

 

[VAHSFootballFan]

Couple questions on rules as they are regarding these scenarios related to free kick plays.

1: free kick (kick off) is bouncing around near sideline. Receiving team member purposely bats the ball out of bounds to prevent kicking team from recovering it. Legal or penalty? Ruling?

2: kick off, say pooch type kick bouncing again for sideline. Receiving team member touches ball, which is still in bounds, though he is physically out of bounds. Ruling?

thanks!!

Great questions. I saw #2 happen in the Tech game. Ty Montgomery famously did the same thing for the Packers. I wasn't sure if the rule was the same in college. I am curious also about high school.

 

[White hat]

Couple questions on rules as they are regarding these scenarios related to free kick plays.

1: free kick (kick off) is bouncing around near sideline. Receiving team member purposely bats the ball out of bounds to prevent kicking team from recovering it. Legal or penalty? Ruling?

2: kick off, say pooch type kick bouncing again for sideline. Receiving team member touches ball, which is still in bounds, though he is physically out of bounds. Ruling?

thanks!!

1. Illegal batting. 10 yards for K and rekick, which is better than K recovering. Because it happened during a loose ball on a free kick, that's the option for penalty enforcement. There is no foul for free kick out of bounds if a member of R touches the ball while inbounds.

2. This is a kickoff out of bounds if the first player on R that it touches is a player who is out of bounds. Yes. Tech pulled off this play at Notre Dame. It would work in high school, but I've never seen it tried.