Rules review video: Injury timeouts, fair catch off a bounce, and invalid fair catch signals

2025 Media Videos #1 and #2

National coordinator of football officials Steve Shaw posted his first two videos of the season breaking down rules and interpretations from Weeks 0 and 1 of the college football season.

In week 0, there were no targeting fouls enforced. Shaw also noted that scoring was up 2.5 points from last season through week 1, which is fairly normal for the start of the season.

Video #1 (Week 0)

• Injury timeouts. Two separate plays were shown where players went down for injuries after the ball was spotted. While both of these were legitimate injuries, the teams were still charged a team timeout with the new rule. The rule change was made in the offseason because teams were taking advantage of injury timeouts to slow the game down.
• Eligibility rules. An offensive lineman caught a pass that was deflected by a defender at the line of scrimmage. This catch was legal because the rule states that once a pass is touched by a defender (or official) all members of the offense become eligible receivers.
• Replay terminology. On a 4th and short play, the runner was spotted short of the line to gain. Replay looked at the play and could not find any evidence to overturn the call on the field, so the ruling was upheld. Going forward, stands and confirmed will not be used by replay, as they are no longer required to differentiate between the two.
• Targeting. A play was flagged for targeting. After review, it was overturned because not all aspects of targeting were clearly present. While the receiver was defenseless and there was forcible contact to the head of the player, the defender stayed upright and didn’t lead with his head, so there was no indicator of targeting.
• Fair catch off a bounce. On a kickoff, the receiver signaled for a fair catch after the ball had bounced. This is an invalid fair catch, so the receiving team loses the ability to advance the ball after gaining control, and the ball is spotted at the recovery spot, but is not awarded a fair catch.
• Field goal attempt. This play from last year’s postseason was a field goal attempt that was tipped by a defender. This caused the ball to bounce in the end zone and subsequently go over the crossbar and through the uprights. The field goal was correctly ruled no good because the ball cannot hit the ground and then go through for a score.

Video #2 (Week 1)

• Invalid fair catch. New this year, the “T” signal by a return team player is considered an invalid fair catch signal (as shown in the image at the top). As discussed in the fair catch off a bounce play, a team cannot advance the ball after an invalid fair catch signal and the ball is dead at the receiving or recovery spot.
• Out of bounds kicks. Two plays were shown where receivers caught kicks out of bounds. On the first play, the receiver is out of bounds before touching the ball, so an illegal kick out of bounds is correctly called. On the second play, the receiver touches the ball before contacting the sideline. The ball is placed where the receiver went out of bounds in situations like this (in this instance, the receiver gave a valid fair catch signal so the ball was spotted at the 25 yard line).
• No touch on a punt. A punt bounces and nearly touches a member of the receiving team who is blocking. The kicking team recovered the ball saying that the receiving team had touched the ball. Replay looked at the play and could not find any evidence to overturn the call on the field that there was no touch. Had the ball touched any part of the receiving team player (including equipment, towel, anything else worn by the player), the call would have been overturned.
• Illegal motion. A receiver on the line of scrimmage goes into and stays in motion prior to and through the snap. By rule, a receiver cannot do this if they are lined up on the line of scrimmage. There was an additional illegal formation infraction on this play because this motion resulted in five players in the backfield during the snap, with the limit being four.
• Maintaining control. On a deep pass, the receiver makes a catch near the pylon and is marked out of bounds at the 1-yard line. Replay steps in because it was clear the receiver stayed inside the pylon and broke the plane of the goal line. Upon further review, it’s determined the receiver did not maintain control, as the ball hit the ground and was briefly jarred loose. The rule states that if a player goes to the ground while making a catch, they must maintain complete control of the ball throughout the process of hitting the ground.
• Ineligible receiver downfield. Though it appears at first glance that an ineligible receiver was downfield on this screen play, Shaw clarifies that the rule states ineligible receivers must be within 3 yards of the neutral zone when the pass is released. The offensive lineman involved in the play were in a legal spot when the pass was thrown, so the play stood.