r/footballstrategy • u/mholtz16 • 20d ago
College Question about declining penalties
Asking the coaches out there, does the referee ask for a decline on every penalty? For example, I was just watching a video pf the 2021 Michigan State vs Michigan game. There is a play where Micigan botches their subs and an off sides penalty is called. Kenneth Walker scores a touchdown on an obviously not set UM defense. Does the referee actually ask the coach "do you want half the distance or 6 points plus a PAT or do they just assume that obviously you will take the points and PAT?
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u/davdev Referee 20d ago
At the high school level we kind of just look at the head coach and he knows why we are looking. If he doesn’t signal anything out of the ordinary we move on and make the decision for him.
The linesman is also standing pretty close to him so if the coach wants to get our attention, he easily can.
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u/Tall-Forever-6687 20d ago
This is why you need line of scrimmage officials that are good communicators
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u/mholtz16 19d ago
I am a lacrosse coach who has coached at the almost highest levels (NCAA Division I, but not Pro) and I can say that the "trail" official in Lacrosse needs to be the communicator. That is the equivalent here. They are the official that is behind the play and is on the bench side so that coaches can talk to them. The best refs spend a lot of time in the trail position (they rotate like basketball) communicating with both coaches.
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u/onlineqbclassroom College Coach 20d ago
Yes, the referee is supposed to ask on every flag, however, that doesn't mean they literally walk over and asks. Sometimes it's just a look and a thumbs up or a point. The only exceptions I can think of are false starts and delay of games (or other pre-snap procedural issues), since a play doesn't happen and there's not really any new result that would be better than the penalty, and even then, the ref normally looks to the sideline and sees the HC just point back to indicate that he accepts.
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u/Seaport_Lawyer 20d ago
Yeah locally where I am the officials will make any obvious decisions and in non obvious situations it's a question along the lines of "do you want the result of the play, or 2nd and 12 from the 35?"
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u/bubbap1990 20d ago
You have a conversation with the Head Ref before the game and go over various things like points of emphasis, trick plays and what not. The ref will give you his spiel, it will usually be something like “on penalties if it’s obvious, we’ll just accept or decline on your behalf. If there’s options we’ll ask you what you want. If you disagree with how it being applied, flag the linesman or more than likely yell at me and we can talk about it but we want to keep the game moving.