Illegal touching on punt

#1
illvol

illvol

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#1
Did I hear that correctly last night? When Brooks shanked the punt that smacked our gunner in the back why would that be illegal touching? Or am I imagining it? Maybe it wasn’t a penalty but I thought I heard the ref say that after.
 
#3
#3
illvol said:
Did I hear that correctly last night? When Brooks shanked the punt that smacked our gunner in the back why would that be illegal touching? Or am I imagining it? Maybe it wasn’t a penalty but I thought I heard the ref say that after.
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If the kicking team touches a punt before anyone on the receiving team, then it's illegal touching. The receiving team has the choice to take the result of the play, or they can take the ball at the spot of the illegal touch.
 
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#5
#5
illvol said:
Then is it illegal touching anytime the kicking team fields it to pin the receiving team deep? The kicking team touches it all the time to prevent it from bouncing the wrong way or to stop it from going into the end zone and being a touchback.
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Agreed. I get what you are saying.

It shouldn't be a penalty. The ball should just be spotted where it touched the kicking team.
 
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#6
#6
illvol said:
Then is it illegal touching anytime the kicking team fields it to pin the receiving team deep? The kicking team touches it all the time to prevent it from bouncing the wrong way or to stop it from going into the end zone and being a touchback.
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Yes. Illegal touching is not a tracked foul because it doesn't carry any assessed penalty.
 
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#7
#7
illvol said:
Then is it illegal touching anytime the kicking team fields it to pin the receiving team deep? The kicking team touches it all the time to prevent it from bouncing the wrong way or to stop it from going into the end zone and being a touchback.
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Yes, technically it is a penalty but there is no yardage assessed for it. A punt and a kickoff that hasn't traveled 10 yards are essentially the same.
 
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#8
#8
Ahhhh. Ok. They just generally don’t vocalize it. I was confused by it. Should have just spotted the ball and not said anything. Thanks for the clarification.
 
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#9
#9
illvol said:
Ahhhh. Ok. They just generally don’t vocalize it. I was confused by it. Should have just spotted the ball and not said anything. Thanks for the clarification.
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Usually the ref will only broadcast the penalty if it's a situation where there is more play after the illegal touch. If a punt is downed by the kicking team, there's no further play and thus no reason to discuss it.

If there was a situation where the punt hit the gunner, and the receiving team scooped it up, ran for 10 yards, then lost a fumble, it would be necessary for the ref to broadcast the touching penalty, because the receiving team would obviously want to accept it.
 
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#10
#10
bamawriter said:
Usually the ref will only broadcast the penalty if it's a situation where there is more play after the illegal touch. If a punt is downed by the kicking team, there's no further play and thus no reason to discuss it.

If there was a situation where the punt hit the gunner, and the receiving team scooped it up, ran for 10 yards, then lost a fumble, it would be necessary for the ref to broadcast the touching penalty, because the receiving team would obviously want to accept it.
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#11
#11
In this case I believe the punt touched a Tenn player and continued to go a few yards and then bounce out of bounds....I think the Ref was clarifying why they did not mark it where it went out of bounds, but where it touched a Tenn player.
 
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#12
#12
bamawriter said:
If the kicking team touches a punt before anyone on the receiving team, then it's illegal touching. The receiving team has the choice to take the result of the play, or they can take the ball at the spot of the illegal touch.
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The ball is not dead and can be advanced by receiving team at no risk. They can muff or possess it and fumble it and still elect to take the ball where the ball was touched. So best to cover it if it does not go out of bounds. What we routinely call downing a punt is in fact ending the play by illegal touching with control of ball. It of course can also just roll to a dead ball status touched or not.
 
#14
#14
bamawriter said:
If the kicking team touches a punt before anyone on the receiving team, then it's illegal touching. The receiving team has the choice to take the result of the play, or they can take the ball at the spot of the illegal touch.
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Then would a team be able to catch a punt on the 1 and it not be illegal touching?
 
#16
#16
bamawriter said:
If the kicking team touches a punt before anyone on the receiving team, then it's illegal touching. The receiving team has the choice to take the result of the play, or they can take the ball at the spot of the illegal touch.
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Yep... if they can get to it, the return team should always try and scoop it and return it no matter what once they see the ref throw the beanbag
 
#17
#17
bamawriter said:
If the kicking team touches a punt before anyone on the receiving team, then it's illegal touching. The receiving team has the choice to take the result of the play, or they can take the ball at the spot of the illegal touch.
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I will add that I believe this only applies if the ball has passed the line of scrimmage. If a punt does not pass the line of scrimmage I believe the offensive team can pick it up and run for a first down or if tackled before first down it is the opposing teams ball.
 
#19
#19
Vol865 said:
Literally never seen a flag thrown in that instance
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It’s not really a penalty. The bean bag gets thrown and it’s either the return team’s ball at the spot or they can take the result of the play if they gain possession and advance it.
 
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#20
#20
Also of note, in the this case the punt hitting the kicking team, (us in this case) an IU player could pick up the ball and gain yardage as normal AND if they were to fumble the ball, at any point during the play, it would go back to the point at which the kicking team touched it. In this case the recieving team would accept the illegal touching to maintain possession of the ball.
 
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#21
#21
tenor.gif
 
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