I seem to recall, a few years ago there was a great deal of momentum for high schools to adopt rules more similar to the college game. I haven't heard anything about this over the last couple of years. Are any of you guys hearing about that or any other rule changes coming to HS football in Alabama?
Play clocks were changed this year to match that of college football. It did affect us somewhat in our playcalling. I felt like the 40-second clock might have shortened the actual time in between plays where the ref would be spotting the ball and then blow in the 25-second play clock. that.
Play clocks were changed this year to match that of college football. It did affect us somewhat in our playcalling. I felt like the 40-second clock might have shortened the actual time in between plays where the ref would be spotting the ball and then blow in the 25-second play clock. that.
Jonathan McGill
As a coach, would you like to see more rules gravitate that way or would you like to see it stay the same?
For me I think it should move more toward college football. For example the offside/encroachment rule. I can't stand the high school version. 1. Because it is not officiated consistently 2. Because when they get to college they can legally get back if they don't make contact/cause the offensive lineman to move. I can't understand why the rule is different other than "that's just how it has always been"
I think the main reason for the play clock rule change was to speed up the time it takes to play a game. I believe it worked. I have been to a few Fyffe playoff games that ended right at 9 PM and that used to be almost unheard of. As far as college rules vs. high school rules, I think changing the offside rule would be fine. The way it is probably makes defense be a little more disciplined. You also can consider certain rules like cut blocking that colleges can do and high schools can't, except high schools and Texas can. In Alabama, a cut block can only be done by linemen and it has to be their initial movement and they have to come from a 3-point or 4-point stance. Texas and Colleges can cut anytime. That would change the game significantly for high schools if they could cut like that anytime. I think it would bring more teams back to option-type offenses. I think the fair-catch inside the 20 rule might be a rule worth looking into just for safety reasons, and maybe even changing a high school touchback to the 25.
Alabama follows the NFHS rulebook with a few differences. I liked the 40 second clock. It took it out of the referees hands and sped up the games. Before at the end of each half the referee would look at the clock and hold starting the play clock and not give another punt or series to the trailing team. It also might speed up implementation of a shot clock in basketball. They didn't do it there for fears of cost maybe this will show it could work. I also agree that closer rules to college would help.Targeting should be an unsportsmanlike not an automatic ejection. It doesn't get called enough, and the ejection might make officials wary of making the call. This ones a gripe of mine since NFHS changed it a few years ago.No automatic first downs. It seems crazy to me that a personal foul or unsportsmanlike conduct is not an automatic first down. I've never heard a defense of this rule. I could see an argument for pass interferences or defensive holding, I think they should be too, but not the others.
I agree with both of you guys. My son is a lineman. He has mostly played offense until this year. Until this year he only had to worry about doing the cutting. I don?t think enough emphasis is put on learning how to play off a cut in general. I think the rule pushes the teaching down the line in priority a bit. Not blaming coaches because most schools are short staffed and limited on time.
As far as targeting you are 100% right. If we don?t do all we can to get head shots out of the game we aren?t going to have a game to get them out of. While I?m on my soapbox I think if a kid gets kicked out for fighting it should cost them the next game as well. I?ve seen several times where a kid loses his mind and then playing the next week.
Rule Changes?
Posted - 12/03/2019 : 08:59:37
