An admittedly stupid question regarding snapping the ball in a hurry up situation.

[blacklistedbully]

Here's the scenario, Team A is down, needing a score to win, clock is ticking away, only seconds remaining. Previous play resulted in a tackle of your guy in-bounds, your center is several yards away as the clock ticks toward zero.

Any chance your OG , OT, or any player not the Center who happens to be right next to the ball, quickly lines up as center to at least give your QB a chance to snap quickly and spike? Has it ever actually happened in a game?

[Big4Dawg]

The center would have to be in position, not just running towards the LOS, right?

[CJDAWG85]

As long as your line is set before the ball is snapped, I don't think it really matters. Also, you have to snap it with more than :02 left.

[ckDOG]

Here's the scenario, Team A is down, needing a score to win, clock is ticking away, only seconds remaining. Previous play resulted in a tackle of your guy in-bounds, your center is several yards away as the clock ticks toward zero.

Any chance your OG , OT, or any player not the Center who happens to be right next to the ball, quickly lines up as center to at least give your QB a chance to snap quickly and spike? Has it ever actually happened in a game?

All players must be set for a period of time before the ball can be snapped. I believe it's 1 second. Could be 2. With the hurry up spread, the time between "set" and snap could get tougher scrutiny in the future and I believe some teams are pushing the limits of the rule. Ole Miss comes to mind.

[TheRef]

Here's the scenario, Team A is down, needing a score to win, clock is ticking away, only seconds remaining. Previous play resulted in a tackle of your guy in-bounds, your center is several yards away as the clock ticks toward zero.

Any chance your OG , OT, or any player not the Center who happens to be right next to the ball, quickly lines up as center to at least give your QB a chance to snap quickly and spike? Has it ever actually happened in a game?

As far as I know, that has not happened. The only problem is that you must have 7 players at the line of scrimmage and they must all be set for at least 1 second. Also, snapping the ball is an art more so than anything. I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's highly unlikely that your guard or tackle will just run in and snap the ball.

[smootness]

I think it just comes down to practice time and what you can reasonably prepare your team to do. I think it's reasonable to think of that in a desperation situation, but if your team isn't ready for it, it's tough to tell them to do it in the moment.

So you would have to practice for it, and 1) is it really worth the practice time anyway, given that it's limited; and 2) would it risk confusing the team too much for something that will rarely, if ever, be called on?

Again, I think it would be a good idea in a certain situation, but I don't think a coach can prepare his team well enough for every single possibility for it to ever be a viable option.

[blacklistedbully]

I've wondered before if it's anything a staff might coach, just in case. It's not all that unusual to have no timeouts, possession of the ball and the clock running out. Has happened to LSU under Miles at least a couple of times, including that mud-bowl game versus Penn State where the PSU LB, jumped on the pile on the tackeld LSU runner, blatantly refusing to move off the pile. An LSU O-lineman physically pulled him off, and LSU got penalized for it.

I remember seeing a few LSU linemen lined up, ready to snap, waiting for the official to clear the pile and let them snap. I believe the LSU center was either stuck at the bottom of the pile, or a few yards away as the clock ticked below 5 seconds. I suggested on a message board one of the LSU lineman already there could have lined up at center, recognizing there was no way his center could make it back in time, but this got some asshole on the board jumping on my case like it was the stupidest thing ever said, and that nothing like that ever could, or would happen.

But I don't see why not? In fact, it seems to me it would make sense to tell your guys, "Hey, if we need to spike the ball with a couple of ticks left to get one more shot, then just line up wherever you are, and whoever is closest to the ball, just snap it to the QB for a spike". Why in the world would that be a stupid thing to do?

[blacklistedbully]

I think it just comes down to practice time and what you can reasonably prepare your team to do. I think it's reasonable to think of that in a desperation situation, but if your team isn't ready for it, it's tough to tell them to do it in the moment.

So you would have to practice for it, and 1) is it really worth the practice time anyway, given that it's limited; and 2) would it risk confusing the team too much for something that will rarely, if ever, be called on?

Again, I think it would be a good idea in a certain situation, but I don't think a coach can prepare his team well enough for every single possibility for it to ever be a viable option.


Yeah, I get all that, but all we're talking about here is just having the guy on the ball snapping the ball to anybody who can spike it. Everybody else just has to line up wherever they are at the time and stay frozen. So, if the center is the last to get to the line, he just lines up on whichever end he is closest to as a tackle. Or if he's way behind, let him line up in the backfield as an RB, etc, etc.

All you want to do is snap the ball and spike it, and you don't have time to get everybody in their specific position.

[ckDOG]

I've wondered before if it's anything a staff might coach, just in case. It's not all that unusual to have no timeouts, possession of the ball and the clock running out. Has happened to LSU under Miles at least a couple of times, including that mud-bowl game versus Penn State where the PSU LB, jumped on the pile on the tackeld LSU runner, blatantly refusing to move off the pile. An LSU O-lineman physically pulled him off, and LSU got penalized for it.

I remember seeing a few LSU linemen lined up, ready to snap, waiting for the official to clear the pile and let them snap. I believe the LSU center was either stuck at the bottom of the pile, or a few yards away as the clock ticked below 5 seconds. I suggested on a message board one of the LSU lineman already there could have lined up at center, recognizing there was no way his center could make it back in time, but this got some asshole on the board jumping on my case like it was the stupidest thing ever said, and that nothing like that ever could, or would happen.

But I don't see why not? In fact, it seems to me it would make sense to tell your guys, "Hey, if we need to spike the ball with a couple of ticks left to get one more shot, then just line up wherever you are, and whoever is closest to the ball, just snap it to the QB for a spike". Why in the world would that be a stupid thing to do?

I believe any lineman from any legal formation is allowed to snap the ball from any location on the line. What you are suggesting is legal and possible but highly unlikely. Getting in a legal set formation on the fly based on where players are located on the field and where the ball is at any given moment would be almost impossible to execute when time is running low.

[TheRef]

Linemen run off of pure instinct and training. As my HS coach always said to us, "Dance. Don't count the steps." You can always tell when a lineman is counting the steps instead of dancing because he is more insecure about his actions instead of just rolling with the play. So I think that in a low-clock situation it's only reasonable to let the linemen stay where they are and just dance.

[Todd4State]

As far as I know, that has not happened. The only problem is that you must have 7 players at the line of scrimmage and they must all be set for at least 1 second. Also, snapping the ball is an art more so than anything. I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's highly unlikely that your guard or tackle will just run in and snap the ball.

This is kind of my thought to. You would have to be really heads up to let your receivers know to be on the LOS so that you have seven on hte LOS if the center is presumably stuck in the backfield somewhere.