IHSA Football Focus - Complete & Incomplete Passes

welcome to the ihsa's football focus i'm sam knox an assistant executive director and the football administrator at the ihsa i hope you've had an opportunity to view previous episodes of football focus if you have you know that we use rule book language and videos to educate coaches officials players and fans about the rules that govern the high school game watching videos is a great way for all of us to learn even when we see errors penalties or missed calls we won't ever embarrass teams players coaches or officials now let's take a look at today's topic complete and incomplete passes rule 754 says a forward pass legal or illegal is complete and the ball may be advanced when caught by any player of team a or b if a forward pass is caught simultaneously by two opponents the ball becomes dead and belongs to the passing team rule 755 says a forward pass legal or illegal is incomplete and the ball becomes dead when the pass touches the ground or goes out of bounds it is also incomplete when a player in the air possesses the pass and alights so that his first contact with the ground or with anything other than a player or game official is on or outside a boundary our first place shows a pass near the sideline the receiver catches the pass and the line judge is in perfect position to see that he lands inbounds the replay shows the receiver's left foot was in bounds when he caught the pass in high school football a receiver is only required to have one foot in bounds on a play like this this pass is complete this play is similar in that the receiver catches the ball close to the sideline was he in bounce the replay shows the line judge is right where he is supposed to be and he can see that the receiver caught the ball and took two steps inbounds before he is pushed out of bounds this pass is complete here the receiver catches the ball near the sideline the defender pushes the receiver almost simultaneously with the catch the replay shows the receiver's right foot left knee and left leg landed in bounds after he caught the ball this pass is complete if the receiver had caught the ball and the defender had pushed the receiver so that he landed out of bounds this pass would have been incomplete this place shows another pass near the sideline the receiver catches the ball and the linesman is in perfect position to see that number 19's right foot is inbounds the replay clearly shows that this was a correct call in high school football a receiver is only required to have one foot inbounds this pass is complete this place shows what i just referenced the receiver's feet are initially inbounds however his leaning effort to catch the ball combined with a well-timed push from number 22 show us that his feet were not in bounds when he caught the ball the replay also shows the receiver didn't clearly catch the ball before it hit the ground the line judge had a great view and correctly ruled this an incomplete pass this play reminds officials of the importance of watching an entire play to the end before determining if the receiver caught the pass from this view it looks as if number three battles two defenders and makes a spectacular catch the replay gives us a better look as number 43 and number 22 both make outstanding efforts to break up the pass there is no pass interference on this play the ball eventually falls incomplete here we see a pass into the end zone the defensive back makes a great play to knock the ball away at the last second the back judge is focused on the action the entire time and correctly comes out with a strong signal for an incomplete pass on this play the quarterback throws a deep pass that turns into a jump ball number 21 makes a fantastic attempt to catch it and number nine makes a solid play and does not commit pass interference the line judge watches the play the entire time and correctly rules this an incomplete pass remember the last sentence of rule 754 that says if a forward pass is caught simultaneously by two opponents the ball becomes dead and belongs to the passing team we'll see that situation in this play both the receiver and the defensive back make tremendous efforts to catch the ball in this case simultaneous possession results in a complete pass and a first down for the offense our last play is a unique one watch the receiver in motion as he turns up field the defender forces him out of bounds the receiver comes back inbounds and catches the pass is this a legal play is this a complete pass since the receiver was forced out of bounds and came back inbounds at his earliest opportunity this is a legal play and a complete pass our number one objective with football focus is to help coaches players and officials understand the rules of the high school game in our next video we'll examine the kicking game thanks for watching we'll see you next time on the ihsa's football focus