Rule changes in Louisiana high school football

Written by Darryl Richardelle, who is a Louisiana high school football official, free-lance writer, & occasional contributor to the Abbeville Meridional.

Rule changes occur every year in high school football. Most of the time these changes concern things like penalty enforcement and uniform requirements which aren’t noticeable to most fans. This year, however, there are three significant changes that fans will notice.
Onside kicks, blocking techniques, and intentional grounding are all being affected by the 2017 rules adjustments.
Before I explain these changes, it’s important to remember that all rules and penalties exist primarily for a couple of reasons: to keep someone from getting an unfair advantage over his opponent and to keep anyone from getting injured.

Pop-Up Kicks are now Illegal

We’ve all seen onside kicks where the kicker kicks the top of the ball driving it off of the tee and immediately into the ground. This would cause the ball to fly high into the air in hopes that the kicking team will catch or recover it once it has gone the required ten yards. In an effort to protect members of the receiving team who would be waiting for the ball to come down, this type of kick is now illegal. If the kicking team executes this type of kick, the ball will be immediately blown dead; they will be penalized five yards and have to re-kick.
If the kicking team wishes to attempt an onside kick, the ball must be kicked along the ground. The bouncing motion combined with the shape of the ball and its pointed ends may cause the ball to bounce up, but it will not go nearly as high. The rule change is designed to eliminate the extremely high pop-up kicks coming directly off of the tee which pose a risk to the receiving team.

Blind Side Blocks are now illegal

In the past, a defensive player who would be pursuing the ball carrier in the open field would be susceptible to full-speed hits he may not see coming. For example, a defensive player who’s chasing the ball carrier to his forward-right with his focus of attention to his forward-right would not be able to see a blocker coming from his forward left, so he would not be able to brace himself for the impact. That blocker would then be able to lay a shoulder into that defensive player knocking him to the ground and drawing “Ooohs” and “Aaahs” from the crowd. That block will now draw a fifteen-yard personal foul penalty assessed against the offense from what is called the basic spot which is the spot of the foul or where the run ends, whichever is further back.
Because of the rule change, that blocker will now have to extend his arms out and make initial contact with his hands. This will lessen the impact on the defender and reduce the number of high speed collisions in the open field.

Out-of-Pocket Protection for Quarterbacks

If you watch football on television, you’ll often hear announcers say something like, “He was out of the pocket when he threw that one away. No intentional grounding.” This stipulation has never applied to high school quarterbacks. If a prep QB threw the ball into an area unoccupied by an eligible receiver, he was flagged for intentional grounding, no matter where he was on the field.
Beginning this year in Louisiana, quarterbacks may throw the ball away to avoid being sacked as long as two stipulations are met.
The first stipulation is that he is out of the tackle box, more commonly referred to as “the pocket.” This is an imaginary box that runs along the offensive line from tackle to tackle, and backwards towards the quarterback’s own end zone. If he is out of this imaginary box, he may throw the ball away without penalty.
The second stipulation is that the thrown ball must reach the line of scrimmage or the line where the ball was snapped. It doesn’t matter if the ball is inbounds or out of bounds, so long as it flies to at least the line of scrimmage.
If either of these stipulations are not met, the offensive team will be penalized five yards from where the quarterback threw the ball and suffer a loss of down.
This “out-of-pocket” rule is being tested only in Louisiana for 2017. At the end of the season, evaluations regarding this rule will take place, and a decision will be made as to whether or not the rest of the country will join in or if Louisiana will revert back to the previous rule.
Other, less noticeable rules changes for 2017 include:
• the ban of commercial advertising on footballs.
• the jersey of the home team shall be a dark color clearly contrasting to the white jersey required for the visiting team. (mandatory by 2021)
• the offended team has the option to start the clock on the snap for an accepted penalty inside the last two minutes of either half.
All rules are set forth by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). The NFHS is the rules governing body of scholastic sports across America.