No one expected Oklahoma and Kansas to play a good game today, yet here we are. It’s a pretty excellent game. And it’s coming down to the wire.
Each and every play has been crucial in it, which is exactly why this play from Caleb Williams has college football fans so confused.
So Williams hands the ball off to his running back, Kennedy Brooks, on a read option play and it’s clear he was stopped in the backfield for a loss by Kansas. Yet, not only did the play keep going, but the Sooners got the first down.
That’s because Williams came up and actually took the ball out of Brooks hands and ran for the first down himself. It was the strangest thing you’re going to see on a football field today.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 23, 2021
That…doesn’t really look legal. Even the guy who brought Williams down was pretty confused by the play.
It feels like forward progress was stopped and the play should’ve been blown dead. But, uh, apparently not. This was a legal forward handoff. It’s in the rule book, apparently.
the rulebook actually goes into great detail about forward handoffs. doesn't come up a lot pic.twitter.com/WIZKVleQRE
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) October 23, 2021
The key part is this:
“Team A back may hand the ball forward to another back only if both are behind the scrimmage line and the player handing the ball forward has not had their entire body beyond the neutral zone.”
That…makes things a bit more confusing but also clears them up a bit. So this is legal so long as but players are behind the line of scrimmage and the initial back who was carrying the ball has not crossed through the neutral zone threshold.
That seems to be the correct way to read that but it’s still kind of unclear. Fans everywhere are just confused while also being impressed.