Rules review video: Replay, coach to player communication, and line of scrimmage actions

2025 Media Video #5

National coordinator of football officials Steve Shaw posted his fifth media video of the season, breaking down rules and interpretations from Week 4 of the college football season.

Prior to going through plays, Shaw shared that 9 games so far in FBS have gone to overtime (3%). Of those 9 games, 6 were decided in the first OT. The other 3 were decided in 2OT. No games have gone past a second overtime.

• Replay. A sideline catch was ruled incomplete on the field. Replay took a look at all angles they have access to (as seen in the image) and determined there was not enough to overturn the call on the field. While the crowd was shown an angle that could have shown enough to overturn (video taken by a home team camera operator who did not work for the broadcast company), replay only has access to the broadcast angles, and are only allowed to use those to make a decision.
• Coach-to-player rules. Shaw described the new (to FCS, 2nd year for FBS), coach to player communication system. This allows coaches to communicate with one player on the field at a time, with the system automatically being shut off at 15 seconds left on the play clock or the start of the snap, whichever is first.
• Line of scrimmage action. A defender on the offense’s right side jumped into the neutral zone but did not make contact with an offensive player. A split second after that, the left tackle (the other side of the line) moved early before the snap. By rule, this is a false start since the defensive player didn’t make contact with an offensive player, and the offensive player that went early was not in front of or adjacent to the defensive player that jumped early.
• Kickoff. 2 plays were shown describing various kickoff rules. On the first play, the ball fell off the tee during a kick. Even though the kicker still made contact with the ball, it was blown dead and they re-kicked. On the second play, the kicking team elected to go with a drop kick instead of a usual place kick.
• Running into the punter. A 4th down punt was initially flagged for running into the kicker, but was picked up after discussion because the punter was hit outside the tackle box. As long as you are trying to block a punt and the punter is outside the tackle box, contact is legal.
• Targeting. A slant over the middle led to a big hit on a defenseless receiver. Both an indicator of targeting (leading with the head, in this case) and forcible contact to the head were confirmed, leading to the disqualification of the defender. Though there was also some shoulder to shoulder contact, there was still forcible contact to the head of a defenseless receiver so targeting was properly upheld.