Welcome to Ask the Official, a weekly blog series from USA Football. We’ve teamed up with Bill LeMonnier, USA Football rules editor, who’s served as a college football referee and also works with ESPN as a rules analyst. Look for LeMonnier’s blog every week during football season, as we take reader-submitted questions or revisit a controversial play that took place the previous weekend. See below for information on how to submit your questions. Here’s this week’s topic:

Q: Team A attempts a game-winning field goal with about 30 seconds to play, on second down. Team B blocks the kick, but Team A recovers the ball after the block, but does not advance the ball. Team B celebrates on the field, assuming it has won the game, forcing the officials to stop the clock and provide an explanation of the applicable rules to both teams. Who gets the ball after the block, and when does the clock start?

A: Since Team A attempted the kick on second down and recovered the block, they keep the ball. The officials typically should not stop the clock after this play, unless Team B recovered or if the offense recovered and ran for a first down or out of bounds.

Since the officials did shut things down after the play, the referee should make an announcement about the result of the play being third down for the offense, and the clock would start on the official’s ready-for-play signal. Because of this unique interruption, I would recommend an explanation to the coaches and then allow the teams to get set for the next play.  

Watch this play, where a similar situation occurred, but the kicking team recovered the ball and ran for a touchdown:

USA Football Rules Editor Bill LeMonnier is a former college referee who currently serves as an ESPN NCAA rules analyst. Click here to ask Bill a question. Make sure to put “Ask the Official” in the subject line.