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Game and Play Clock question

wallycock

Well-Known Member
Oct 11, 2001
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Re: the game and play clock operation during the last 2 plays of the game. Are these 2 clocks operated separately by 2 people? I don't have the ability to freeze the video and advance it screen shot by screen shot, but just watching the clocks side-by-side, it appears that 2 more seconds tick off of the play clock once the game clock hits 1 second. It's also hard to watch for when the officials blow the play dead.

Sawyer knocked the pass down, but all of the officials aren't calling incomplete pass and blowing the play dead simultaneously. So, which official does the clock operator watch to stop and start the game and play clocks in accordance with the rules?

Who can explain why the game clock stopped at 1 second while the play clock continued to run for 2 more seconds before it stopped and then reset to 40 secs.
 
From watching the replay the game clock goes from 17 secs to 13, so it's a one sec difference from what I saw.

No doubt the play clock operator stopped the clock with 1 sec to give UT one more play.
 
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From watching the replay the game clock goes from 17 secs to 13, so it's a one sec difference from what I saw.

No doubt the play clock operator stopped the clock with 1 sec to give UT one more play.
Even the ESPN commentators today observed that "Tennessee had a friendly clock operator" there at the end. The other added "well they were in Neyland Stadium".
 
3rd play from the end of the game the clock stopped and the ball still carried 10 yards out the back of the end zone. Shouldn't have been 4 SEC or 1 SEC left
 
Even the ESPN commentators today observed that "Tennessee had a friendly clock operator" there at the end. The other added "well they were in Neyland Stadium".
Tuberville, whom I like very much as a color commentator, said that. I hope he doesn't get in trouble for it because he was exactly correct.
 
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I think only 2 seconds came off when we kicked the FG, and it was a very quick finger every play thereafter.
 
To the original question: Yes, there are two separate clock operators. One on the game clock. One on the play clock. Even in HS League games, an on-field play clock requires a 2nd operator (although most don't use one and have the ref keep a count). Typically, the play clock keeps running after a play starts for several seconds before the operator re-sets it to 40.

Now, no question the game clock operator had a quick finger on the incomplete pass.
 
The whole sequence on the goal line UT was a mess. They probably should have spiked it on first down. I thought Boom made a mistake calling timeout since UT looked thoroughly discombobulated. However, he proved me wrong. The clock operator bailed out UT by giving them an extra play or there have been more discussion of Butch Jones' poor clock management at the end.
 
I got the idea of counting 1001, 1002, 1003 from a poster on here after ball was snapped and, honestly, it seems that 1 sec remaining is possible. Should never have been in that position in the first place. Isn't Tenn AD gonna have a press conference today? I guess Butch is gone.
I recorded the game. I timed it with the stopwatch on my phone. 2.85 seconds
 
If you watch the last 5 minutes, the clock operator began screwing us with 4 plus minutes to go...Someone should be fired..It was an obvious attempt to give the home team more snaps...Not even an NFL team can get off 3 plays in 9 seconds...It was a disgrace
 
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I think football should adopt the same clock as basketball which switches from mins + secs to secs + 100th's of a sec when inside of 1 minute to play in each half.
 
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The whole sequence on the goal line UT was a mess. They probably should have spiked it on first down. I thought Boom made a mistake calling timeout since UT looked thoroughly discombobulated. However, he proved me wrong. The clock operator bailed out UT by giving them an extra play or there have been more discussion of Butch Jones' poor clock management at the end.
I think he saw something in their alignment and wanted to make sure the players were ready for it. Great defense down there, especially on the pick play.
 
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