End of Game Strategy

The other team can elect to not have a 10-second runoff.

Here’s how football’s 10-second runoff rule works

 

Fine with the safety, but the mistake was on first down. Had we run around on first down, we wouldn't have had to have kicked. Nearly a really costly mistake by the staff, you have to know with 3 TOs and a chance to get the ball back they were gonna use them. I also wish they had just run a toss sweep to the wide side so as not to lose as many yards, if anyone got close just go down. but all’s well that ends well.

 

Was it just me, but after GM ran around on first down before taking a knee Shane Beamer uses his first time out. The camera caught an expression on CBN's face when he heard that SC was going to use their time outs. I'm wondering if CBN thought Beamer would just call it quits and let the game clock run to its natural ending. If he had been aware that South Carolina would try to save clock for a desperate hail mary at the end of the game I wonder if he wouldn't have run those three plays. Of course, you always risk a fumble in that situation.

 

Whether the benches clear or not is irrelevant. We don't want to cause a fight with an illegal strategy. It's moot. We won and looked smart doing it.

 

I completely disagree with any kind of handoff or pitch.
The odds of a turnover go up exponentially- though still very low of course.
CBN played it well, except for the first play as others have mentioned.

If not for the home cooking from the clock operator it would have been perfect with the clock expiring at zero.

 

He didn’t run around on first down. Dropped straight to his knee thus only 2 seconds being run off the clock.

 

How is it an illegal strategy?

 

Fun to imagine someone doing this to the special team in the conference, by Monday there would be a new rule outlawing such deceit.

 

It would be very difficult to legislate against it, but I bet Sanky and Co would find a way.

 

Holding is illegal.

A dumb idea all around. Glad our coach knows better.

 

You’d hate to let the sec refs give some unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and put back time on the clock. Who knows how they’d react.

 

Seems like a Richt move.

 

Each "run around" took ≈ 10 yards & ≈ 6 seconds. We started at ≈ 30 yard-line. For a margin of safety , we probably needed to kneel on 1st down. If the timekeeper had taken 2 seconds on 1st down instead of 1 second & Mertz wasn't overly cautious running out of the endzone, he should've been able to run out the clock with a safety.

 

UF would be intentionally using the rules to their advantage, no different then grabbing a WR to prevent a TD. I provided a video of it being successfully executed and it was a brilliant move by John Harbaugh, quite the opposite of dumb.

 

Also took yards away from our offensive stats.

 

It was the right call given Rattler was their QB. We controlled the opportunity because SC really wasn't sure what we were doing on 4th down. Given Napier's past 4th down calls, as an opposing coach you have to know he could actually go for it.

But, this scenario actually backfired in an Alabama 7A title game a few years ago. An ending for the ages, may never be eclipsed in our lifetime. Auburn vs Thompson with Auburn leading by 9 with 25 seconds remaining and they have the ball. Their fans are chanting the Hey-Hey-Goodbye tune while Thompson's senior class are consoling each other on the sidelines. Auburn's coach decided to do what Napier did and lost about 20 yards 1st - 3rd down by having the QB take enough time off the clock and take a knee, setting up a 4th and California with about 25 seconds left and they go to punt and it's blocked and Thompson takes it back for a TD and kicks the PAT. Then onsides kick, which was superb and Thompson's kicker comes out and kicks the game winning FG with 5 seconds left. That folks could have been our tale had we attempted to punt and either got it blocked or shanked it or returned.

 

I have to chuckle. In Chump's best season, we needed a miracle punt block to beat ULL at home.

 

I wonder why everyone punts after a safety, when you could simply treat it like every other kickoff. It's just like kicking off after a personal foul, 15yds deeper than normal. I assume it's a kick height/coverage thing? Seems like there'd be less chance of a shank.

Free Kick ARTICLE 5.

• a. A free kick is a kick by a player of the team in possession made under restrictions specified in Rules 4-1-4, 6-1-1 and 6-1-2.
• b. A free kick after a safety may be a punt, drop kick or place kick.

 

See post #41 above.

All of this talk of deliberately holding or running all over the field like kids playing sandlot football is just plain silly. Bad things can happen. See Cristobal and the Cocanes.

We had two choices: punt straightaway and hope for the best, or take the safety. I wouldn't have faulted Napier for either choice, but the one he chose worked, which is all that matters. Maybe the other one wouldn't have.

 

This is on point. We screwed up first down by not taking more time off but everything else was exactly correct. A safety punt with no rush versus a punt vs Beamer rush? R U kidding?