OaktownBear;842283910 said:
In order to see whether my claim that Cal's offense won't be impacted is correct, considering that the statement was made that Cal wasn't really running hurry up most of the year the way they want, I went back and looked at the LaTech - aTm game with an eye on the play clock. I got through 3 quarters before deciding it was enough. LaTech was playing fast, very fast at times. They usually were snapping in with the clock in the low 20's. They only beat 29 seconds three times - one time on a spike. The other two times were after very short plays. I'd encourage people to watch some of it. It is very hard to beat 29 on the play clock unless you are spiking the ball. This rule is just not going to slow down the offense.
I haven't gone back to look at any recent games, hurry up offense or no, to see how long it takes the officials to spot the ball. In ancient times before the 40 second clock, the 25 second clock started when the ball was marked ready for play. I didn't pay a lot of attention except when a team was trying to run out the clock at the end of the game. Even with pretty short running plays and the officials moving really fast, the best they would usually do is about 7 seconds. Based on crude observation in those days, 10 seconds was about average, 12 seconds wasn't unusual.
Do officials do this job a lot faster now with the 40 second clock? Did officials act slower in the old days when it only affected when the 25 second clock started? Forget about how long it takes the offense to get set again, the officials also need to get the ball ready for play, another reason why the ball will rarely be snapped with 30 or more seconds left on the play clock.
Rather than this new rule, however, I would like it better if the officials just waited until play clock shows whatever it is they want it to show before they indicated ready for play. Forget about a delay of game penalty, don't give the hurry up offense one more thing to think about. It is already a delay of game penalty if the offense snaps the ball before the officials have given the go ahead for the snap, why not just continue that? If the offense is subbing in players, the referee indicates to hold the snap until the defense has a chance to sub in. Why not also hold the snap until there are 30 seconds left on the clock? Or 29? Or whatever time makes sense? Make things the same as they are now in terms of what can cause the offense to be called for delay of game for snapping too quickly.
If there is anything about the new rule that really bugs me, it is that it hasn't really been well thought out. This isn't a competition committee type thing, where someone has looked at how the game is played and came up with a way to make the game better, more fair, less BS gamesmanship, whatever. If that was the issue, then a lot of different solutions could be looked at and analyzed, including the Oaktown solution of "no looking to the sidelines once lined up."
Instead, it is purported to be a safety thing, with no real basis to say it improves safety other than the "common sense" argument which seems pretty bogus, given that this rule seems backed by those who play a slower pace and opposed by those who play a faster pace. Safety seems to be a load of crap in this discussion. Fake injuries? That should be an issue, but I haven't seen anyone from the committee discussing that issue.
I think it would be good to have new rules that would get rid of all the BS gamesmanship that goes on in connection with the hurry up offense, but some proposed new rule hastily put together by coaches who like to go slow is just more BS gamesmanship. Get people who are sincerely focused on allowing the fast paced offense but getting rid of gamesmanship and looking at safety, and I'll bet that they could come up with a new rule that most fans of college football would support regardless of what offense their team runs. Maybe the proposed rule is OK, but I suspect there are better alternatives, and I know the process by which the new proposed rule was arrived at was BS.
