A surprise onside kick in the 4th quarter of a tied national championship. It was probably one of the biggest play call decisions in recent CFB history. Not only was it a great play call, it was executed to perfection. But where one Nick Saban saw perfection, Dabo Swinney saw an infraction. After Alabama's Adam Griffith pooched the kickoff toward the sideline and Marlon Humphrey made the over the shoulder coach, the Clemson sideline exploded expecting a flag. And if this game were being played under NFHS rules that govern most high school games, they would have been correct. But under NCAA rules, this was a perfectly legal play. After the game, many raised the question of whether or not Clemson could have given a fair catch signal to prevent Alabama from making a play on the ball. Unfortunately for the Tigers, even a valid fair catch signal could not have made this play illegal.
Rule 6-4: Opportunity to Catch a Kick
There two relevant points within 6-4 that cover this play. Those two paragraphs can be found in 6-4-1-a and 6-1-4-f.
First, paragraph a says that a player of the receiving team who is attempting to catch a kick and so located that he could do so must be given an unimpeded opportunity to catch the kick. This rule protects against a potential kick receiver being blocked before he can play the ball as well as the kicking team touching the ball before that receiving team player has had a chance to play the ball. It's important to note the opportunity to catch the kick belongs to the individual players, not the team itself. This is the part that disqualifies Swinney's argument that Clemson was guaranteed a chance to catch the ball. His team as a whole has no such guarantee, only a player in position to and attempting to catch the kick would have been guaranteed that chance. Clemson's Trevion Thompson was the closest receiving team player to the ball, but was not in position to make the catch nor was he even making an attempt to catch the kick. Thompson's eyes were fixed on Humphrey the entire time and never tracked the flight of the ball. Because he was not located where he could catch the kick and was not making a play on the ball, he has no opportunity of a catch to impede. That means there cannot be a foul for Kick Catch Interference. In order to have a flag on this catch, Thompson would have had to have been closer to the ball and actually attempting to make the catch. Simply being in the general area of the kick does not guarantee him anything.
Paragraph f did not come into play in this specific play, but there was plenty of talk about it, so I'll address this part as well. Generally, once a kick has bounced, there cannot be a foul for Kick Catch Interference and a receiving team player cannot call for a fair catch. This is due to the fact that the term "catch" in football refers to gaining possession of a live ball in flight. Once the ball has hit the ground it is no longer in flight and therefore can not be caught, only recovered. However, paragraph f has an exception for free kicks. (A free kick is any kickoff or a kick after a safety.) Paragraph f says that if the ball is driven immediately into the ground and pops up in the same manner as a ball kicked directly off the tee, a player retains the same kick catch protection as well as his ability to call a fair catch. So it was irrelevant whether Griffith popped the kick straight up off the tee or drove the ball directly into the ground to get a big hop. 6-4-1-f would not have applied to Clemson's onside attempt at the end of the game, though. Because the ball bounced a second time and the big hop it took at the end was not the result of being driven immediately into the ground, the exception would not be applicable.
Rule 6-5: Fair Catch
After the video of this play was posted, many people said that all Thompson had to do was give a valid fair catch signal and it would have made Humphrey's catch illegal. But with two minor exceptions, a fair catch signal only affects what can happen after the ball has been caught by the receiving team.
If you read Rule 6-5, you'll find that there is only one mention of Kick Catch Interference. That is 6-5-1-b and is one of the two exceptions mentioned above. Paragraph b says that a player who gives a valid FC signal retains his opportunity to complete the catch even if he muffs the kick until the kick touches the ground or until he can no longer possibly complete the catch. Without a signal, his KCI protection would end as soon as he muffed the kick. So in the championship game, Thompson would have gained no extra protection by signalling. All 11 of the Clemson players could have given valid fair catch signals and it wouldn't have made one bit of difference.
The other way a fair catch signal can affect play before being touched by the receiving team could have actually played against Clemson if Thompson had tried to give a signal. Any receiving team player who gives a fair catch signal cannot block an opponent unless he has touched the ball first. This is a fifteen yard penalty. So if Thompson had given a signal and Humphrey had misplayed the ball, Thompson could not have legally blocked Humphrey or any other Tide player to prevent them from recovering the kick.
It's not often that I break out the rule book to explain a no-call, but this is one that needed it. While many in orange may think they should have been given the ball, the PAC 12 crew made the correct the decision to let Alabama keep it. As a bit of a side note, they also did a good job killing the play as soon as Alabama caught the ball and not allowing the following advance. Even though their catch was legal, it was still a kick and could not be advanced by the kicking team (6-1-6-a).
