Bizarre college football play - need a ruling

Team A lines up to punt from own 40. Ball goes over punter's head. Team B is all over the ball, and it ends up the end zone. Team B recovers, but Team B is called for an illegal batting the ball forward at the 5.

What is the proper ruling here?

 

Penalty should be assessed from the LOS and Team A maintains possession, since from what you described Team B never had possession.

First down!

 

I always thought illegal batting was a spot foul, marched off from where it occurred. Figuring the team is punting on fourth down, wouldn't it be marched off from the 5?

 

Just guessing, I'd say the ball is dead at the spot where the batting occurred. Team B penalized 5 yards from that spot. Possession goes to the team that had possession last. Replay the down. Fourth and a gazillion from the Team A 10-yard line.

 

That's what the call was. It was one of those plays and calls that left me stunned because I had never seen it before. I'm not sure what the logic is behind assessing the penalty from the previous spot, though.

 

Had one of the most bizarre plays I've seen tonight. Kicker blew his knee out on his plant leg on a kickoff. As he fell to the ground in agony, his kicking foot touched the ball. It went maybe a half-foot. One of the guys on the team I cover recovered it at tee and advanced it a few yards.

Insult to injury? The kicker was penalized five yards for an illegal kick added to the end of the return!

 

I'm curious what made it an illegal kick. A bad kick, yes. But if his foot hit the ball once, while it was on the tee, what made it illegal?

 

The defense committed a penalty on the play before any change of possession. So it's treated as any other defensive penalty, and walked off from the LOS.

 

For the most part, football penalties are enforced to the best benefit to the offended team. Since the spot of the foul was behind the previous spot, that becomes the basic spot for enforcement.

Now, I also think there could have been a touchback ruled on the play as well, since the force that put the ball into the endzone was from the defense, but I think the offense would have had to recover for that.

 

Didn't go 10 yards.

 

It's only illegal if the kicking team touches it before it goes 10 yards. Receiving team can touch it at any point, at which point it becomes a live ball.

 

My junior year in high school our team opened up against our big rivals. It rained cats and dogs until about an hour before the game, which was started on time. On the opening kick, our kicker runs up, slips and then trips a few feet before the ball. He wound up sliding headfirst into it, doing nothing more than knocking it off the tee.

He never was allowed to kick again.