High school football rules question

[MetEdDawg]

I teach and coach (not football) at a 5A school in Alabama. So we have a big regional game last night and I saw something I had never seen or heard of before until last night. So my school has 4th and goal from the 9 yard line. We throw a pass to a guy that gets interfered with around the 3 yard line. Ref throws the flag and the defense gets called for pass interference. Should be half the distance to the goal and a new set of downs correct? Well according to our coaches, AHSAA implemented a new rule this year (which they had completely forgotten about) that says that pass interference on any goal to go situation would not result in a new set of downs. Instead they will mark the half the distance as usual, but the down will be replayed. So we had to run a 4th and goal from the 4 play instead of having a new set of downs. Has anyone ever heard of that before? Do they have a similar rule in Mississippi?

To me it's absolutely insane not to give a new set of downs on a pass interference call, especially in a goal to go situation. You can just pass interfere all day until you finally get one play where the refs don't call it or you play good enough defense to stop the other team. We ended up missing the 4th down, but we came back and scored 13 points in the last 4 minutes of the game with a fumble recovery that led to a TD, an onside kick recovery that let to a TD and a pick on a hail mary to end the game, so it ended up not hurting us. But damn that just seems like a really stupid rule. Anyone agree?

[Westdawg]

The state I am in is the same way. There are some states that allow for the 1st , but our rule is that it will be a 15 yd penalty if far downfield and the 1st if the penalty distnace goes beyond the marker. If it is that close to the goal it is half the distance and replay the down.

[FFF]

I teach and coach (not football) at a 5A school in Alabama. So we have a big regional game last night and I saw something I had never seen or heard of before until last night. So my school has 4th and goal from the 9 yard line. We throw a pass to a guy that gets interfered with around the 3 yard line. Ref throws the flag and the defense gets called for pass interference. Should be half the distance to the goal and a new set of downs correct? Well according to our coaches, AHSAA implemented a new rule this year (which they had completely forgotten about) that says that pass interference on any goal to go situation would not result in a new set of downs. Instead they will mark the half the distance as usual, but the down will be replayed. So we had to run a 4th and goal from the 4 play instead of having a new set of downs. Has anyone ever heard of that before? Do they have a similar rule in Mississippi?

To me it's absolutely insane not to give a new set of downs on a pass interference call, especially in a goal to go situation. You can just pass interfere all day until you finally get one play where the refs don't call it or you play good enough defense to stop the other team. We ended up missing the 4th down, but we came back and scored 13 points in the last 4 minutes of the game with a fumble recovery that led to a TD, an onside kick recovery that let to a TD and a pick on a hail mary to end the game, so it ended up not hurting us. But damn that just seems like a really stupid rule. Anyone agree?

Maybe it's a statewide notation? I thought Alabama played by NFHS rules.

Defensive PI and your three roughing calls (passer, kicker/holder, snapper) result in automatic first downs. The rest must reach the line to gain to result in a first down.

[aceofdawgs]

NFHS rule changes for 2013 included removing automatic first down for a DPI foul and removed loss of down for OPI. Both are both are 15 yd penalty from previous spot.

They failed to accurately edit the rules book and automatic first down and loss of down are still listed in articles 6 and 7 of rule 10 "enforcement of penalties".