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)

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.