Friday Night Stripes

Mike Johnson joins to talk about spring football, the girls lacrosse podcast that he has co-started, and other oddities of the fall of 2020.

Mike Johnson joins to talk about spring football, the girls lacrosse podcast that he has co-started, and other oddities of the fall of 2020.

A pregame episode about substitutions and the rules surrounding it.

Review of 8-2-5 and how it defines force, safety, touchback, and the momentum exception

The fall of 2020 will bring new challenges to us. Be prepared for differences ahead of time in order to put your best foot forward.

I cover the why of 1) HL staying on LOS on punts, 2) working only your zone, 3) wings keying on inside WR while BJ keys on outside, and 4) why BJ has whistle on FG and R has whistle on tries (depending on your crew/association)

Beanbags - The Mystery Solved

Dr Bruce Maurer, Director of Officiating Development for Ohio High School Athletic Association, discusses the origins of the Gold Book and what benefits it brings to officials in Ohio

Zooom has put together officiating course for football and baseball, and are working on softball, basketball, and volleyball.

A quick rundown of the 2020 rule changes. Overall, a fairly easy year for changes.

Dave Purvis, Tony Rieck, and Rick Miller talk about starting virtual meetings for their association and inviting others outside the association for other perspectives

George Demetriou, author of The Redding Study Guide to NFHS Football, talks about trick plays and the principles and rules around them.

Michael Ryckman from the Sunshine Football Officials Association discusses their move to virtual meetings to train new officials and to hold board meetings and other trainings

Chad Young, creator of the Official's Journal, talks about logging games to help officials improve

Tim Kiefer with MIBT Online discusses the training offered there, including training for Illinois state certification and the annual Bill Lemonnier video.

Five play scenarios, answered and explained by the listeners, including kicking, out of bounds, sideline interference and more.

Mike Johnson from the Berks County chapter in Pennsylvania talks about deep wings and how they manage their six-man crew.

Andrew McGrath from GACFOC talks about what the goal of the GACFOC is and also talks a bit about NCAA and NFL replay

David Sheldon from Zebra Books, LLC discusses what officials should think about when tax season comes and what they should be tracking during the year

LD and Mike from southern Oklahoma talk about headset and the information they use it for as well as the radio show they have during the season discussing rule questions from the public

Jeff Grainger from CFOA talks about the umpire position and the different approach to the game that it entails.

With the year starting off, it's time to review a number of ways you can keep sharp in the offseason - no matter what type of learner you are.

Light summary of differences for the LJ and HL with 7-man mechanics and whether playoffs are officiated differently than the regular season

Ryan Walters and Andy Hamilton talk about the off-season training meetings they have set up in Dayton and, next year, in Cincinnati.

We break down some definitions with Rule 2 that may be different from how you remember them - block in the back, clipping, invalid fair catch signal, force, and out of bounds

We play a couple of responses to the Des Moines episode and go over why we use a precise indicator like chains when all the actions up to that point, from setting the initial line to gain to spotting the ball, are imprecise.

A bonus episode portraying my thoughts regarding current incidents in Des Moines and West Memphis

Three scenarios: tack-on fouls, how the neutral zone matters for illegal forward passes and ineligible downfield players, and inadvertent whistles.

A pregame covering the primary responsibilities of the back judge with some play scenarios mixed in

Joey Garrison from Georgia joins to talk about when strange situations happen on routine plays

Review of the passing game and all of the elements within it

Review of a muffed kick with other shenanigans involved, multiple fouls when one occurs at the goal line, and principles on clock watching and hurdling

Overview of basic spots, all-but-one principle, running vs loose-ball plays, special enforcements - hopefully anything that involves fouls and penalties

Short discussion around the two types of calls that we make - those that are absolutes that we should all call the same and those that we all have varying concepts of

For this pregame episode, step into the thought process of a head linesman and a line judge during two plays.

Review of play scenarios including post-game recovery, horse-collar tackles (or not), fair catches that aren't, false starts that might be, and options on a couple of different penalty scenarios.

Pregame episodes take a single topic and dive into them. This episode is solely on free kicks.

Kicking off the start of football season with the first of many review episodes. Topics include players making themselves legal by going between the numbers between downs, goal line crashing by the wings, wings disagreeing on spots, getting turned around on punts when reporting fouls, unseen DPIs, and taking notes after games.

Andy from ZOOOM joins to talk about their video platform and how it is specifically designed for officials

Ron Wright joins from North Dakota to talk about rationale in when to throw a flag, safety fouls, and patience.

Brad and TJ from WMOA discuss changes they've made to evaluate and rate officials for assigning to games and how training plays into all of that as well

I break down the new rule change regarding the play clock including about 10 play scenarios and how to treat each one.

Lessons learned from the Sioux Empire Football Officials Clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Prior to heading to Sioux Empire Football Officials Clinic, I share some thoughts on how I'm preparing for the season and what some goals might be.

A blown situation leads to re-reading of the rule book and time to dig into game clock handling

Quick run through of the various formation rules and how some of the odd formations we see out there cause us to think through the rules.

Review of the new rule changes for 2019 - all except the 40-second play clock, which we'll cover in a future episode

Ken talks about the benefits of NASO membership from Referee magazine, liability insurance, an annual Sports Officiating Summit, and many other great assets.

Author Rick Hartzell and Editor Dave Simon talk about their book Whistle in a Haystack and how officiating can bring life lessons.

Tackling scenarios are the subject of the day regarding horse-collar, face tackling, and spearing.

Tyler Spear talks about free kick positioning and some momentum and onside kick scenarios

Mark Bradley joins to discuss punts and the various situations that can happen during a punt.

Dan Johnson joins to talk about some of the calls that a referee is responsible for and how to start thinking about those situations as a newer referee

This is a short episode transitioning to a slightly new format where we'll focus more on breaking down play scenarios packaged together.

Jeff Carnes from Gadsden, AL discusses importance of the definitions in Rule 2 and how they impact the rest of the rulebook.

Jason Carroll returns to talk about how he approached playoffs as a referee for a crew that went to a state championship game.

Scott Hanson talks about working in the Phoenix area, pick plays, safety, sportsmanship, and two books he has authored about Arizona history related to sports.

Josh Canales from Bakersfield, CA talks about the pregames he's been in and those he's run, what is important to cover, and whether having pop quizzes during the pregame is useful. Starting this week, each podcast will contain about 10 minutes of reading from the rule book at the end, just in case you want another way to consume the rule book. In this episode, we start with Rule 2.

Will Prewitt, a high school official of 22 years and commissioner of the Great American Conference, talks about his time with the NCAA rules committee. We also talk about the mindset of how to handle officiating controversy in public.

Tim Kiefer, founder of MIBTOnline.com, describes how the virtual association within MIBTOnline reviews plays on a weekly basis during the season and helps with preparation in the offseason.

Orrin Anderson, Director of the Sioux Empire Football Officials Clinic, comes by to talk about the Clinic, held June 24th and 25th, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Mike Bezner with the Big Sky Conference and Portland Football Officials Association discusses various stages of training they go through in their association and we talk officiating philosophies.

Hosts of the Rule 11 podcast, Tyler and Dwayne, join to talk about their start as officials, how they got their podcast started, and camps to consider.

Greg Reeder from the EPFOA talks about his first two years as an official and how he learned the mechanics and rules needed to succeed.

Time to look back across the season and gather thoughts about how the year went and various situations that arose

There are a number of different ways you can increase the number of plays you see as an official as well as see and hear how other officials work through situations. This episode covers a lot of them.

Quick solo episode recapping some of the rules I've run into during the season

Jake Rosiek from the South Carolina Football Officials Association talks about working with a central state association split into districts as well as use of different pipelines for recruiting new officials.

SGFOA President John Mantica shares his experiences in state championships, football in Dublin, and working with the FHSAA to bring about change.

Kevin Bowersox comes on to talk about gaining respect through communication, not through throwing flags, starting his officiating career while in high school, and flag football.

Sean McCue, president of the GCFOA, joined the podcast to talk about use of video for officials training, 7-man mechanics, and physical prep on the day of a game.

Andy Patterson from central Florida joins the podcast to talk about field clinics, changes in the game emphasizing safety, and how to handle feedback from others.

Jason Carroll from central Florida joins the podcast to talk about new officials, preparing for the start of the season, the 2018 new rules, and the mindset to take into each game.