I use to coach hs football for 20 years. We ran a play off of our extra point team where the kicker followed through and missed the ball on purpose. The holder simultaneously threw the ball end over end in the air over the LOS looking like it was a bad kick. My ends would crash down and catch the ball for 2 points…it worked 90% of the time we ran it. I always talked to the officials ahead of time to give them the heads-up. Most crews thanked me and had no problem with it until I ran into a crew that said my holder could not pitch or pass the ball with his knee on the ground. Which makes sense because he is down. No different than taking a knee and passing it. So my question is when we faked the field goal, should that have been called down once we pitched it to our kicker because his knee was down. Just wondering if the rule has changed or even what the ruling is on this play. Thanks!!
Fake Field Goal Question
- Thread starter TDclones
- Start date
There is an exception rule for field goal/extra point holders. They are not considered down. At the high school level, the holder must get up from his knee to pass So that is likely what they were referring to.
There's an explicit carve out in the rules for holders on fakes, that crew was wrong
OP, do you by chance have any video of your play? I’m laughing at this. I want to see the holder down on one knee throwing the end-over-end pass. Sounds like it required some skill.
Did the holder yell “Kobe” before he blindly chucked it over the line?
All my film is on VHS not sure I have the ability to download and convert it to get footage on here. It is something we practiced a lot before practice started. Most of the time the two ends fought to catch the ball. We just told our holder to “shovel pass” it end-over-end right over the center and deep enough to get beyond the rushing LB’s who were trying to block the kick. As I said it was wide open and work majority of the time!
Solution could be to pop the tape in the vhs and then pull out your phone to record the TV
^ This is correct.
^ Nope, they were not. NFHS rules state that the holder may receive the snap while his knee is on the ground, but he MUST rise so that both knees are off the ground before passing.
(Disclaimer: I stopped officiating HS football in 2020, so there is a small change the rule changed after that time. But, as of 2020, that was the rule. Must rise before passing.)
If the holder were down, the field goal wouldn't count either right? Ball would be dead as an as the holder has possession.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
There is a technical difference between “ball is dead” and “holder must have both knees off the ground to pass.” They’re not exactly the same thing.
Would the holder need to get up to toss the ball backwards? I'm thinking about that LSU fake from years ago where the holder tossed it blindly over his head. Would that be illegal in HS?
I also helped coach High School football for 17 years and we where told the same thing. The head referee was on the iowa high school rules committee and has done multiple state championships and very well respected so I tend to believe him
yes as we tried this once and the referee,who has done multiple state championships,told us that holder must get up. Of course that was 7 years ago since I coached.
