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The Onside Kick

Re: Question about onside kicks

BamainBoston said:
Don't think so. If anyone had been there, then you have to give him the opportunity to catch the ball, since the onside kick didn't touch the ground first (think that's what the op is confused about). But there was no one there, and I think there would be some rule of reason for the refs making that call.
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Wait, what??:)
 
bamamc1 said:
Who in the crap was trying to fair catch the ball?
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It looks like #1 for them could have called a fair catch but he was too busy chasing Humphrey and didn't think to do it. Too bad for them. I don't think many players would be smart enough to think about calling a fair catch unless the coaches reminded them right before the kick-off. If this had been an obvious onsides situation then the play would not have worked because the Clemson guys would have been coached up right beforehand and they would have fair caught the kick.
 
Re: Question about onside kicks

tidefan23 said:
Next question - must an onside kick hit the ground before it may be recovered by kicking team? Clemson fan raised the quesiton.
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This is from "Touching and recovery of a free kick


  1. It touches a team b player (Exception: Rules 6-1-4 and 6-5-1-b);
  2. It breaks the plane of and remains beyond team b’s restraining line (Exception: Rule 6-4-1) (A.R. 2-12-5-I); or
  3. It touches any player, the ground, an official or anything beyond team b’s restraining line.
Thereafter, all players of team a become eligible to touch, recover or catch the kick.

Rule 3. is what applies. The "restraining line" is ten yards from where the ball is kicked. Notice that there is no mention of the necessity of the ball touching the ground first. "Any player" was Humphrey. There is nothing saying in 3. that it must be a "team B" player. (Receiving team.)
 
Re: Question about onside kicks

I'm too lazy to look it up and I'm at work but - what's this whole thing with 'a fair catch?'

Seems to me if that's the case no team could ever recover an onside kick - just call a fair catch.

Elaboration from you smarter folks please?


(I didn't get what Swinney was upset about...besides being beat at his own game)
 
Re: Question about onside kicks

Calling for a fair catch just means the other team can't touch you. You forego the ability to run the ball back in exchange for an easier chance to field the catch.

That doesn't mean the kicking team can't go for the ball, as long as they don't touch the fair catch signaller.

Usually with onside kicks, the ball bounces on the ground, which would eliminate fair catch as an option. In the case last night, the ball hadn't bounced yet, so they theoretically could have called fair catch. But even if their nearest player has signaled FC, our player caught it without touching him.
 
Even if a Clemson player called for a fair catch it would not have changed the outcome of the play. Calling a fair catch doesn't mean that the other team has to back off and let you freely field the ball, just means they can't impede the catch or hit you after the catch. Bama didn't touch a Clemson player, the closest one was about 3 yards away from Humphrey when he caught it. Calling a fair catch means nothing if you are 3 yards away from where the ball comes down.
 
Re: Question about onside kicks

G-VilleTider said:
Anybody know what Dabo was screaming at the officials over on that play?
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During his post game presser, he said they did the same thing last year against South Carolina but were told they had to give the South Carolina player a chance to field the ball.
 
Re: Question about onside kicks

RTR91 said:
During his post game presser, he said they did the same thing last year against South Carolina but were told they had to give the South Carolina player a chance to field the ball.
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Do we know if Clemson touched the player who was trying to catch the ball?
 
I mean, it felt like every time someone almost had that slippery son of a gun cornered, one of their OLs got a fistful of jersey to give Watson the one tick he needs to get free.


As that game went on, the refs mostly choked the whistle and only called the egregious penalties. For example, Hump got leveled with a "you can call that but a no call would be just as right there" DPI in the first half but Calvin had a similar kind of situation go uncalled for us in the second half. The only questionable DPI was hard to fault greatly; tough only because we didn't get the friendly flag toss later in the game in a similar sort of contact circumstance. The holding calls all went against us (2 in a row, 1 declined) and both were obvious; which is only tough because I felt like Clemson had a few hands to the face and interior holds that were totally missed and could have killed some of their drives. If anything, I think Clemson got a slightly favorable whistle but it didn't impact the game greatly at all. For a Pac-12 crew, they did a pretty good job of just not becoming the storyline.
 
Re: Question about onside kicks

Tide1986 said:
Do we know if Clemson touched the player who was trying to catch the ball?
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I was at that game (at Clemson) and there was a USC player in the vicinity with a chance to field the kick, but clemson came in and got the ball and did not allow him the opportunity. I do not recall if they touched the USC player or not, but I believe if the player is in the area and the ball is kicked in the air the kicking team must give him a chance to field it. The refs called catch interference on clemson and gave the ball to the Gamecocks. Last night there was no clemson player in the same zip code, much less in the area of the kick. The refs got the call right in both games.
 
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