The College Football Index

Time keeping In Kansas State-Ohio State

Much was made - by Bill Snyder, by ABC's booth team and by the KState fans in the bar I watched the game at - of the 10-15 seconds the ACC crew cost the Wildcats in the final minutes with poor clock discipline, starting the gameclock after first-downs when the chains weren't set.
Yet no one said a word when the refs gave away almost 30 precious seconds 2 minutes earlier as Ohio State tried to run out the clock.
That, or i'm really dumb. Can you tell me?
Here's what I saw - please follow me through Ohio State’s last possession:
- They got the ball with the clock stopped at 2:47.
- Clock starts on the snap, run up the middle (Joe) for no gain.
- Gameclock keeps ticking, since it was a running play.
- Krenzel wisely drains the playclock to :01, which coincides with exactly 2:00 on the game clock (broken down: 17 seconds for the first-down play and the spot, 25 seconds of playclock, all very reasonable times)
- At :01 on the playclock, an OSU lineman jumps, for an offsides penalty.

Here’s where the refs blew it and KSU let the game slip away by not noticing or I'm an idiot.

- Refs assess the penalty (5 yards) for a new 2nd-down spot, reset and restart a new 25 second playclock and START THE GAMECLOCK.

Huh? That can’t be right, can it?

- Krenzel AGAIN smartly drains that playclock to :01, with the gameclock running, then hands-off for a dive for no gain, and KSU immediately calls time-out – at 1:26.
- So if that dive play and getting the TO took 4 seconds, that means OSU snapped the ball with 1:30 to go – 77 seconds of gametime since the previous snap, which included a penalty. What?

Check the play-by-play on ESPN.com and you’ll see the key downs and times.

On the next play – 3rd down – Ross rushed out of bounds to stop the clock, and OSU punted, but Roberson - missing 30 vital seconds, plus the 10 or so they stole on the chain move, didn’t have enough time to comeback.

Is it me? Is that rule correct and I’m the only one who didn’t get it? Do you crank the gameclock after a penalty on the offense?
Because if you could, then Ohio State played it dumb – they could have run that second play clock down to :01 and the gameclock to 1:05, then jumped offsides AGAIN for still ANOTHER new playclock, ran that one down to the :40 second mark, and then do it two more times to end the game without so much as a snap.

Am I nuts?

matt

ps - here's the play-by-play from Ohio State's website


O 1-10 K36 OHIO STATE drive start at 02:47 (4th).
O 1-10 K36 Joe,Brandon rush for no gain to the KSU36 (Lavender, Louis;Sims, Ted).
O 2-10 K36 PENALTY OSU false start 5 yards to the KSU41.
O 2-15 K41 Joe,Brandon rush for loss of 1 yard to the KSU42 (Hickman, Bryan;Tetuan,
Jesse).
O 3-16 K42 Timeout Kansas State, clock 01:26.
O 3-16 K42 Ross,Lydell rush for 7 yards to the KSU35, out-of-bounds (Sims, Ted).
O 4-9 K35 PENALTY OSU delay of game 5 yards to the KSU40.
O 4-14 K40 J. Sander,B punt 30 yards to the KSU10, Sproles, Darren return 0 yards to
the KSU10 (Allen,Will).
--------------- 3 plays, minus 4 yards, TOP 01:35