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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL KICKOFF

July 18, 2018

Dennis Hennigan

Charlotte, North Carolina

DENNIS HENNIGAN: Good afternoon. I am Dennis Hennigan, and I am the supervisor of football officials, and I'm here to discuss everyone's favorite topic: Officiating.

What I thought I would do for you is first of all review some information about the 2017 season and then I will go into the rules changes that will be coming into play for the 2018 season. So first of all in terms of the 2017 season, just in review.

Just to point out a couple of things to you. First of all, the average number of plays per game. Last year in the ACC it was 179 plays per game, and it was down just four plays from the 2016 season, and you can see that we were right at the national average of 179. I think the game across the country that had the most plays last year had 240 or 250 plays in a game. But, again, we stayed right about the same at 179.

Now, there is always a lot of talk about the length of games and in the ACC we were at an average of 3:14 last year, which was below the average of 3:20 for the Power Five schools, and we were the lowest among the Power Five, and it's something that we want to continue to have our officials work at to keep the pace of the game going and try to eliminate as much dead time in the game as we can.

Now the next figure you see up here is the average fouls per game, and you can see our average was 12 and a half a game and the national average was just under 14. Again, we had the fewest fouls per game among the Power Five conferences. Now, going to some information on replay. Our reversal rate was 38%, which is right about what the national average was of 39%, so four out of ten times, when a play goes to review, we're reversing it.

The collaborative replay system that we have set up, where we have the video center in Greensboro has really paid dividends in terms of replay. We've really gotten consistent in our replay reviews, which was one of the goals of going to the collaborative replay.

You can see that our replay review time is just a couple of seconds under the national average. I think all across the country we're doing a better job of getting in and out of replay reviews quicker, and the average time has gone down by a few seconds I think each of the last few years.

Next, just some information on fouls. You can see the three fouls that occur most often, false start, the offensive holding and the defensive interference and it remains the same every year. These are the fouls that are called most often and in this order, and it's really the same in every conference across the country. The percentages differ a little bit year-to-year but they're basically about the same every year and, again, these are the three that by far are the fouls that are called most often.

So that's 2017. I thought from an officiating standpoint, including instant replay, we had a solid year in 2017. There were some things we can do better, and we will do better this year.

Now on to the 2018 rule changes. And just so you know, the way the NCAA rules process works, it's on a two-year cycle. In year one, which we are in this year, all rules can be looked at to be changed or amended. In year two of a two-year cycle, only player safety rules can be addressed.

So with us being this year in year one of that two-year cycle, there are some rule changes this year. The first one, and the one that people notice the most has to do with kickoffs. The rule this year is going to be if a member of the receiving team fair catches a kickoff inside his 25 yard line, they will next snap the ball at the 25 yard line.

This is obviously an attempt by the Rules Committee to reduce the number of kickoff returns. I think their data shows that -- not that there's more fouls on kickoffs than other plays, but that there are more significant fouls, if you will, on kickoffs than on other plays. So the Rules Committee thought let's take this one step this year, see what the data shows at the end of the year and then decide what, if any, additional changes will be made. So you fair catch a kickoff inside the 25, you get the ball at the 25. Now, some situations that may arise.

Fullback signals for a fair catch at the 30 yard line, and the deep receiver catches the ball at the ten yard line. You do not get the benefit of this new rule. It will be your ball at the ten yard line. Only a player who in the terms of the rule book "makes a fair catch, "gets the benefit of this new rule. In order to make a fair catch you have to have signaled.

So if one player signals a player who did not signal catches the ball it would be the receiving team's ball at the spot where the ball is caught. Now, it's perfectly legal for more than one player to signal for a fair catch on a play. You could have all 11 players signal for a fair catch, that's not a foul. Again, if a player catches the ball who did not signal, then you don't get the benefit of this rule and it will just be your ball where the ball was caught.

So we will keep the data all season, every conference will, about the number of plays where this rule comes into play and during next year's off-season, the Rules Committee will take a look at all that and decide if this rule had the desired affect and what if any additional changes need to be made. So that's the one rule change you're going to notice the most.

Now on to the rule that remains the most difficult to explain, to coach and to officiate and that's the blocking below the waist rule. There were some changes made to the rule this year in order to make it a little bit easier for all of us and I think those are good changes. The general rule now is that all blocks below the waist have to be from the front. In other words, the player being blocked has to be able to see the player who is coming at him to block him. That's what it means from the front. So that's the general rule.

Now the exception to that is for the five offensive linemen. They can block below the waist from the side, inside the tackle box, so long as the ball is inside the tackle box. Where we typically see this, say a play is run to the left, the right guard or the right tackle will reach, block, and cut the defensive lineman from the side, and that's perfectly legal. Again, inside the tackle box, the ball is inside the tackle box.

What that offensive lineman can't do is go and block a linebacker low from the side. So, again, same play you're running it from the left side, and the right tackle's job is to get to that linebacker and cut off pursuit. He cannot go and block that linebacker low from the side.

Now, that's not new this year. It was new a couple of years ago. You cannot go out and cut that linebacker from the side. A significant change in this rule is the next point. There is no blocking below the waist five yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage, even if it's from the front, even if the player being blocked sees the blocker coming. It's just a blanket prohibition on any blocks below the waist five yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage. One other change has to do with what has been known as a crackback block. A player on the outside coming back toward the ball and cutting a player, cutting a defensive player.

Last year the rule was you could do that once the ball carrier had crossed the line of scrimmage, and provided that block was from the front. Now you can't do it. There is no blocking below the waist back toward the ball even if the block is from the front.

Again, I think it makes it a little bit easier to officiate and perhaps to coach as well. The third change is that a player in motion at the snap can't block below the waist back toward the ball, even if from the front.

So it's a complicated rule, but if you keep in mind all blocks below the waist have to be in front, and there is no blocking five yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage, I think you will get the major portion of this rule.

I talked a little bit about the length of games and the pace of play. There are two rules that were put in place this season that address that issue, and they have to do with the play clock, the 40-second play clock.

The first one is that at the end of a kickoff, the play clock operator is going to start the 40-second play clock just as he would at the end of any other play. In the past, the kickoff would end, we would spot the ball, the officials would stand there and hopefully the teams would be coming out and the referee would blow his whistle and start the 40-second play clock. Now, kickoff ends, the play clock operator will wait a beat or two, and then he or she will start the 40-second play clock.

So what we are trying to do is eliminate that dead time where the teams are standing on the sideline and playing a cat and mouse game of who is going to come on first. The same substitution rules apply. The defense has to be given an opportunity to match-up. So as that play clock is running, if the offense decides they're going to stand on the sideline, until there is 10 seconds on the play clock, they come out and get over the ball, what you will see is an official come up and stand over the ball and give the defense an opportunity to respond, to get the personnel out there that they want out there.

So you could have a delay of game penalty on the offense. Again, that play clock will start after the end of a kickoff. There is a similar change at the end of a play that results in a touchdown. Team scores, again, the play clock operator will wait a minute or two, and he or she is going to start the 40-second play clock. There is no waiting for the extra point team to get out there, no waiting for any sort of celebration to end. We're going to start that play clock right away.

Now, every touchdown of course is reviewed upstairs by the replay officials, and if that review takes longer than fifteen seconds, the play clock will be stopped or reset to 25 seconds so that when the replay ends, they make a decision to, say, confirm the touchdown, the extra point team will have 25 seconds at that time on the play clock. So, again, two situations where we're going to start the play clock, where we haven't started it in the past, one being the end of kickoff says and one being at the end of a play that results in a touchdown.

We have some emphasis this year on trying to clean up the look of the game. There was a rule that was passed in 2017. They postponed the effectiveness of the rule until 2018, and the rule is that pants and knee pads must cover the knee. In conjunction with that, if a player is wearing a tee shirt that is longer than his jersey, or wearing a half shirt or a shirt tucked up, all of those uniform looks will result in the player being told to leave the game until his equipment and uniform is legal. So as I say, there is an effort to improve the appearance of the game, and so one of the steps this year is to have the pants and the knee pads cover the knee.

Again, if you have illegal equipment you can't play. You have to leave the game. So let's say an offensive receiver comes out and his pants are -- he is wearing shorts. The play clock is running. The officials send him off the field, while the play clock keeps running. When the offense sends in a player to replace him, now the defense gets an opportunity to match-up on that substitution. So the play clock continues to run, now they've substituted for this wide receiver, the official comes over the ball to give the defense a chance to match-up, and the offense runs the risk of a delay of game.

We're not going to stop the play clock in that situation, while the offense is substituting for the player with the illegal equipment. The next point here, number 6, you know the rule in the past was that if you scored a touchdown on the last play of the game, and as a result you are now winning by one or two points, you had to attempt the extra point, because there was a possibility of the defense scoring on that play. Well, they've eliminated that.

Now you have the option of saying we do not want to try the extra point. The game is over. So we will just not have the extra point. I think the Rules Committee wants to avoid the situation where the fans come on the field, they see the game is over, the game clock is at 0, the team has scored. If we force the extra point, now we have to clear the field. Players may have left the field. Obviously all the offense would do in that situation is take a knee, and that could lead to some ill will between the teams, the defense knows they've lost the game.

So in order to avoid those situations, they've put in this rule that says in this type of situation if you don't want to attempt the extra point, you do not need to.

Some rule changes on leaping on kicks. You remember a couple of years ago there were some players who actually hurdled the offensive line. Well, you can't do that. But what you also can't do now is you can't get a running start and attempt to leap directly over an opponent. So you can't on an extra point or field goal start six or seven yards behind the defensive line, get a running start and attempt to leap over an offensive lineman in an attempt to block the kick.

In conjunction with that on punt plays, you know, it's typical for college teams to run a spread punt formation, and they have the shield in the back usually with three pretty good sized players back there. You cannot attempt to leap directly over one of those players. You can go in the gap between players, but if you come running up and you attempt to leap over one of those players, it's a foul. What they want to avoid, of course, is the player who does that, in getting flipped, landing on his head. The risk of injury is pretty good in those types of situations, so, again, you attempt to leap directly over a player on the shield, it's going to be a foul.

Now, let me just address instant replay. There are no changes, no additions for the first time in a while, no additions to what plays are reviewable by instant replay. But the Rules Committee did add a 10-second runoff situation that I will do my best to explain. If there is less than one minute and a half, and we have a ruling on the field that stops the clock, replay looks at it, says the ruling on the field was incorrect, and the clock shouldn't have stopped, then we're going to have a 10-second runoff, and the easiest way is to give you an example, and I've got it up here opinion.

Fifteen seconds left in the fourth quarter, first and goal from the nine yard line, and team A, the offense is out of time outs. They throw a pass down to the five yard line. Ruling on the field is an incomplete pass. Okay? Clock stops, with 9 seconds left. Replay looks at it, says that was a completed pass, he caught the ball. Well if the ruling on the field had been correct, if they would have ruled that he caught the ball, the game clock would not have stopped. It wasn't a first down, the offense is out of timeouts, the clock would have kept running.

So in this instance, the 10-second runoff rule would apply. Replay says he caught the ball at the five yard line, there is 9 seconds left, referee, run 10 seconds off the game clock, the game is over.

It's certainly something we want to avoid, but the idea is if the play had been officiated correctly on the field, the game clock would not have stopped. Therefore, when we reverse and replay and make the correct decision and replay of a completed pass, we're going to run 10 seconds off the game clock. Hopefully we don't run into that at all this year.

Couple changes or things I think you ought to be aware of that I didn't put on the slides here. The first is targeting. No changes to the targeting rule this year. It's exactly as it was last year. Replay, again, has the ability to consider all aspects of the play when looking at targeting. I think that our players and coaches are doing a terrific job in their attempts to get targeting out of the game. We had the fewest targeting fouls in the country last year, and I think in large part that's due to our coaching.

Our coaches do a great job of getting the players to avoid those types of situations. The second really interpretation that you ought to be aware of is last year you probably saw across the country situations where there is an altercation on the field and the bench is emptied. At the end of it the referee announced that he was assessing an unsportsmanlike conduct foul against every player on both teams.

What the Rules Committee said this year is they've given their blessing to that, okay? So that means whether you came on the field or not, you now have an unsportsmanlike conduct foul. If you already have one in the game, you're disqualified from the game. It's for those rare situations where the officials -- again, there is just an emptying of the benches on the field and the officials, it's impossible to tell who the guilty parties are and who aren't, so the referee does have the ability and the authority to assess an unsportsmanlike conduct foul against everybody.

The last one I want to mention it, and it goes back to a game last year where at the end of the game the defense is winning, and to attempt to cause the offense to take a lot of time running the play, they would tackle every receiver. That generated some ill will among players, as you might imagine, and what the Rules Committee has said is if the team commits obvious intentional fouls to gain a clock advantage, what we're going to do is penalize those fouls as unsportsmanlike conduct fouls, so a 15-yard penalty is enforced. We're going to replay the down, we're going to reset the game clock to where it was at the start of the play, and we're not going to start the game clock until the snap.

Obviously we want to avoid those situations where it really -- not only does it generate ill will, but it attacks the integrity of the game where teams commit obvious intentional fouls. To gain a clock advantage. So that's how we will address that.

Now my last point has to do with back in 2017 there were two points of emphasis that will remain in effect for 2018. If you were at games you will notice that we started the halftime clock immediately upon the end of the first half last year, and we will do that again year. That did save a couple minutes per game. We will enforce sideline management as we did last year. Our coaches were great in this conference. We didn't have coaches coming out on the field to complain about officiating situations, and I'm certain we won't have any issues this year, but we will continue to enforce that as we did in 2017.

So that's it from me. I will be glad to answer any questions that any of you might have.

Q. Dennis, in addition to the play clock stuff, going forward, what other areas are we looking at for pace of play? What would you like to examine in terms of trying to speed things up that haven't been done yet?
DENNIS HENNIGAN: I think one area that we want our officials to address is penalty administration. Our officials, and officials certainly in every Power Five conference, are now equipped with wireless communication on the field. So a point of emphasis is for us to get away from the old look of when I throw a flag I have to run up to the referee and explain to him what it was. We want to use this communication system in an effort to streamline that process, so that's one thing.

I talked about the play clock after kickoffs and certainly after timeouts. We're continually trying to get the teams out there quicker at the end of timeouts. The effort is to eliminate the dead time as much as we can without changing the playing rules, and I think we're doing a good job of that.

I'm happy with our average of 3:14. If we can keep our average under 3:15, I think we're doing a pretty good job.

Q. Just a clarification on the fair catch rule. If player A calls a fair catch and player B makes the fair catch but didn't signal, it's not like it's a live ball, it's just dead wherever he catches it, am I understanding that correctly?
DENNIS HENNIGAN: You are. Whenever a player on a receiving team, whether it's a punt or kickoff, if any player signals for a fair catch the affect of that is that the receiving team is giving up the ability to return the ball, so you're right. You can't return it. It will be your ball at the spot where the ball is caught. Anything else? Okay. Thank you.

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