Why not kick the ball out of bounds?

[simplycanes]

Doug Flutie, that's why...

There's been more successful Hail Mary plays than Cal-Stanfords...

 

[canecat]

The last 2 weeks we have come back in dramatic fashion. We have only a few seconds left and have to kickoff. Given our last play heroics at Duke 2 years ago, why not just kick the ball out of bounds and make the offense take one last heave? At least you can defend that better than a bunch of laterals all across the field. Blows my mind.

I think the better question is.....why center up the ball between the hashes and call a timeout with 8 seconds left to kick it. Just call the TO with 3 seconds left and the FG ends the game.

Yes this is the right question. The OP's question is sorta silly.

 

[TheEye]

Why does the OP assume a kick return is more risky to defend than the triple option?

 

[DCane]

The last 2 weeks we have come back in dramatic fashion. We have only a few seconds left and have to kickoff. Given our last play heroics at Duke 2 years ago, why not just kick the ball out of bounds and make the offense take one last heave? At least you can defend that better than a bunch of laterals all across the field. Blows my mind.

I think the better question is.....why center up the ball between the hashes and call a timeout with 8 seconds left to kick it. Just call the TO with 3 seconds left and the FG ends the game.

Because you're on a wet sloppy field. If you get a bad snap, the 8 seconds gives you a chance to recover and still try the kick again. With 3 seconds it's game over. It's situational football.

And I'm not worried about a run back TD at the end of a game. There's a reason ESPN hyped our run back against Duke 2 years ago, it just doesn't happen normally. Hail Mary's for TDs on the other hand happen far more often.

For the final time. MIAMI called their final timeout with 8 seconds left. The ref called timeout GT then corrected it to Miami. The announcer misspoke and said GT, then corrected it too. Rosier clearly calls the TO as he's getting up. They didn't have any timeouts left. So if a bad snap occurs it's game over anyways.

Ok, I've looked at the play by play drive chart on ESPN. According to that chart, Miami only called two TO's (1:09 and :08) Miami still had one TO left. GT called one TO at 4:39. The game broadcast also showed Miami with one TO left.

So where are you seeing differently?