Oklahoma State player smartly exploits NCAA fair catch rule to ruin a Texas Tech onside kick
Oklahoma State’s Demarco Jones had one of the most heads-up plays of 2022 early in his team’s game against Texas Tech. And he may set off a wave of copycats over the second half of the season.
Texas Tech got the ball first and scored a TD on its opening drive. The Red Raiders then tried to surprise Oklahoma State with an onside kick. And it worked. Texas Tech executed it perfectly and got the ball back.
Or so it appeared. Watch Jones at the bottom of your screen. He’s No. 22. Look at him wave his right arm.
Officials caught Jones waving his arm for a fair catch. And his action was a great utilization of the wording in the college football rule book.
Once Jones called for the fair catch as the ball was bouncing toward him, Texas Tech was immediately prevented from recovering the kick since Jones is allowed an opportunity to possess the ball. And since Tech recovered the kick, the Red Raiders were actually penalized for kick catch interference. Oklahoma State ended up getting 10 free yards along with the ball and started its drive on the Tech 34.
According to the NCAA rule book, “a fair catch of a free kick is a catch by a Team B player who has made a valid signal during an untouched free kick.” Additionally, the rule book states that “during a free kick, a player of the receiving team in position to receive the ball has the same kick-catch and fair-catch protection whether the ball is kicked directly off the tee or is immediately driven to the ground, strikes the ground once and goes into the air in the manner of the ball kicked directly off the tee.”
What Jones did is genius. And it should be copied by teams in late-game situations for the rest of the season. All receiving teams holding onto a lead late in a game should instruct their players to call for a fair catch as soon as an onside kick one-hops toward them since the fair catch signal deprives the kicking team of the opportunity to recover the kick.
But we’re not sure the rule should stay as it is currently written. The onside kick is hard enough to recover as is. Receiving teams calling for fair catches off the bounce with regularity will only make it harder for teams to get the ball back off a kickoff. There should be some sort of clarification to the rule going forward. Especially if what Jones did on Saturday becomes commonplace.
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