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'The Mike Gundy rule' is now an NCAA rule

tlwwake

Moderator
Moderator
Oct 29, 2008
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DALLAS -- We now have the “Mike Gundy rule.”

That’s how Big 12 coordinator of officials Walt Anderson coined it Tuesday while discussing the various changes made by the NCAA Football Rules Committee for 2016.

The change — an amendment to the NCAA’s scrimmage kick formation rule — was spurred by a creative offensive set that Gundy and Oklahoma State unveiled last season in its 49-29 win over TCU. The new rule requires a player stand 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage — extended from 7 — and that it must be obvious a kick will be attempted for it to be a scrimmage kick formation.

The formation Oklahoma State used last season is one Anderson said went viral. If it wasn’t for a midseason reinterpretation of the rule, every college coach might have begun using it last season.

“That was pretty ingenious,” Anderson said of the formation Tuesday.

But what did OSU do to cause it?

Let’s backtrack to that game.

Early in the second quarter, as Oklahoma State began a new drive, J.W. Walsh trotted onto the field at quarterback.

Four receivers came with him, two on each side. A running back stood in the backfield. And tight end Zac Veatch entered at the right tackle position.

Walsh stood at the OSU 32-yard line, 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage.
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That’s about 2 yards deeper than where Mason Rudolph stood on the same drive.

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By standing 7 yards deep, the set was considered a “scrimmage kick formation” — the type of set that may result in a punt or a kick. Last year, the rule stated that for it to qualify as a scrimmage kick formation, “it must be obvious that a kick may be attempted.”

Well, the word “may” is hard to define. And Gundy and his coaching staff seized that word as a loophole in the rule.

In a scrimmage kick formation, any player on the field can become an eligible receiver by stepping on or off the line of scrimmage.

It’s a headache for the defense to try and keep track.

In OSU’s case, Veatch became an eligible receiver while David Glidden, in the slot, hung back and did not move from his position when the ball was snapped.

The result? Veatch streaked down the middle of the field unabated and Walsh hit him for a 25-yard completion. It’s the longest reception of Veatch’s career.

Take a look for yourself:

Oklahoma State kept the package on the field for the following two plays — an 11-yard run by Chris Carson and an incomplete pass.

Gundy said the idea came from running backs coach Marcus Arroyo, who had picked it up from a California high school coach.

It beared similarities to the infamous A-11 offense constructed by former California high school coaches Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries.

“The quarterback is 7½ yards deep and allows you to put an eligible receiver on the line of scrimmage,” Gundy said Monday. “There’s an entire offense that’s created with that. We looked it up and studied it and came up with the plays that we thought fit us based on using that system. It worked for us.”

Gundy called Anderson leading up to the game — Anderson said he talks to coaches all of the time about whether formations or plays are legal — and Anderson talked with Rogers Redding, the NCAA’s national coordinator of officiating.

They let Gundy run it as a legal interpretation of the scrimmage kick formation rule against TCU.

But the following Friday, the NCAA rules committee made a new interpretation, declaring that first and second down “cannot ever be considered as even remotely apparent that a scrimmage kick will be made,” Anderson said.

The formation could only be used on third and fourth downs.

"Some of the other coaches were already planning on using it the next week," Anderson said. "It went viral. I told them, 'Guys, don't set your game plan for being able to do this because I'm telling you, by Friday, there's going to be something that's going to come out on it.'"

That did not help Oklahoma State, which had planned to expand the formation's use. Gundy said OSU added four more plays in it for the Iowa State game and practiced them that week.

Anderson forwarded the new interpretation to the Big 12 teams Friday when it was published. Gundy said he did not learn of it until the team was already inside the stadium before the Iowa State game.

“We built a package next week when we were playing Iowa State and spent a considerable amount of time on it,” Gundy said, “because we had the right people to do it with."

Oklahoma State shelved the formation. It still won the game, 35-31.

The full changes were made this offseason, and they’ll effectively prevent teams from doing what OSU did to TCU. With the player forced to line up 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, rather than 7, most coaches won't trust their center to execute such a long snap.

But before that change was made in February, TCU actually used the formation to success themselves.

“We actually used it in the bowl game on a third down,” Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson said Monday.

Anderson said he gave Gundy kudos for coming up with it, but now he will just have to innovate something else.

Had what OSU did remained legal, it could have allowed the offensive concepts we know now to go out the window.

“If this rule (was) allowed to stand, everybody will quit recruiting linemen,” Anderson said. “They’re just going to put 11 receivers out there and then tell the defense, you figure out who’s eligible. I thought it was brilliant.”

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsext...cle_a18d4019-2aae-5f87-84fb-c12b32e3ba94.html
 
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