Is Holding Now Legal?

[billybud]

I have noticed that some ref crews are staring at blatant holds all game long and not calling penalties.

The Mountain West crew let FSU's defensive linemen get tackled, held by the back of the jersey, etc...all night long. Just blatant holding by BYU on about every play. On one play, the FSU defensive end was charging the QB with the BYU guy being towed behind him hanging on for dear life.

I have now watched the Iowa game which I had recorded...Iowa's defenders were getting held, play after play. No calls.

Are they phasing out holding calls?

[Spence]

You could call holding on every play, but I agree, it has been bad for over ten years. Guys holding on to loose jerseys and also holding outside the shoulders which is generally the standard by which you call holding. Anything inside the shoulders usually is not considered holding.

[WoVeU]

I think CFB is at an impasse with this or something akin to it. It is far worse in college than the Pros. (A huge reason being an NFL QB is so hard 2-3 seconds is all you get, if you are lucky.) I think if holding was called in college the scores would drop to 13-6 and the such (well, offensive scoring at least). (The problem in College is the O-line are the big boys, many of whom will never have good foot work or feet for that matter. And when you split out 3 to 5 guys they just can't cover guys 70 pounds lighter who are real athletes, benching about what they bench and often times more...those 720 pound squats do little for you when the guy is looping around you.) But what kills me, the better the Defense, the worse the ignored holding gets.

When WVU played Oklahoma, there would be 2 Mountaineers headed towards Bradford and they had Sooners using their jersey's for reins. It was bad again this weekend, the more WVU cranked it up in the second half the more it was ignored. WVU held bad on about 10 plays against FSU last year that went uncalled, they cracked me up when they really didn't hold against Marshall. And if they haven't played much, they need to, pretty much every pass play.

I have seen several Miami and FSU teams that would have had 25+ sacks and 12+ tackles for losses (I know other teams were good, like OSU and Nebraska, but the hold shuts down the DEs most). WVU 3 years ago and (perhaps) this year could get 18 sacks and 20 tackles for losses with only 3 guys if they really called holding! But this really started getting bad in the 90's, this isn't going anywhere, I think they just need to change the rules, it the "big O" is what they want.

{And the worst I recall seeing is the Texas Tech Line from a few years ago. Held every play, like 3 or 4 of them, not the worst hold ever, they'd let go when the Defender was at about at their side, with their arms 2/3s extended (this appeared to be taught.) They got away with this at more than a 95% clip!}

[Dossenator]

It was terrible in the Ark vs Georgia game. On Georgia's last TD drive they were bear hugging the Ark defensive lineman (literally) and no flags. The announcers talked about it several times. Very frustrating no calls when it is so obvious.