on-side kick

[Ham]

The rules expert gave a very good explanation of the interference call on NI attempt. The next day, I watched Auburn do the same thing with no call. Both kicks were game changers. Were the MAC officials right or were the SEC guys right?

[GP1]

I couldn't hear the announcers where I was watching the game, but weren't there two flags. One for interference and one for off sides? The offside ruling was taken because it was dead ball and forced NIU to kick again?.?.

[LZIp]

I couldn't hear the announcers where I was watching the game, but weren't there two flags. One for interference and one for off sides? The offside ruling was taken because it was dead ball and forced NIU to kick again?.?.

Pretty sure they took the kick-catch interference penalty. 15 yarder.

[Dave in Green]

The official play-by-play said that NIU was both offside and guilty of an illegal block, and that the 5-yard offside penalty was declined and the 5-yard illegal block penalty was accepted, resulting in no play. The freeze frame replay shown at the end of halftime clearly showed an NIU player's body past the ball just before the ball was kicked as well as an NIU player blocking a BGSU player before the ball went 10 yards.

An interesting sidelight is that the onside kick rule was changed by the NCAA last season to add a fair catch option on a "hard spike" kick where the kicker drives the ball into the ground and it takes a big, high bounce. If the receiving team calls a fair catch, players are free to catch the ball without interference as long as the ball doesn't take a second bounce. That was the type of kick that NIU used, but I don't believe that BGSU tried to call a fair catch.