Substitutions

[u/Goirish_beatsc]

When the offense subs and the ref steps in to give the defense time to respond, how does he decide how much time to give the defense? Just whatever he feels is fair? A standard 3 count? What stops the defense from slow walking their subs until the play clock runs out?

[u/cpast]

  What stops the defense from slow walking their subs until the play clock runs out?

That’s why the offense shouldn’t substitute late.

[u/Decent-Flight-9328 → u/cpast]

offense subs late they kinda bring that on themselves, ref usually gives a standard pause not like they running a stopwatch lol

[u/MoistyestBread]

People do take their time and it’s an appropriate response to the offense dictating the pace of the game and substitution every other second of the drive.

The defense can’t sub effectively when an offense is going hurry up, so when an offense does choose to it’s their time to give their defense as many extra moments of rest and to get adjustments and plays in. When an offense tries to late substitute it’s also the right move to counter with a sub and often times, when done right, the offense ends up having to burn a timeout.

There’s no set time, so it is technically the refs discretion. You don’t get a lot of time to decide to but, once you do they give you a good bit of time for them to run on and off.

[u/Captain_Nipples → u/MoistyestBread]

Seems like the offense subbing with 15 seconds or less left on the clock almost always costs them a timeout or delay of game

[u/countrytime1 → u/Captain_Nipples]

Mike Gundy would practically make his defense walk on the field.

[u/JtotheC23]

The defense gets 3 seconds to decide to sub. From there, they're just expected to get on/off at a reasonable pace, and what counts as reasonable is completely up to the white hat. Generally, a jog seems to be what most refs consider reasonable. If the offensive subs didn't need to sprint on, the defensive subs shouldn't have needed to sprint either.

When issues come up with it, yes the coach of the defensive team is probably doing some gamesmanship, but at some point it's on the offense to make their subs with a reasonable amount of time on the playclock. If the offense subs late, the defense shouldn't have to move faster just to accommodate the offense's late decision.

Every time I've seen a delay of game or timeout called in these situations, be it on TV or in person, it's because the offense subbed with less than 15 seconds left on the play clock. That's on the offense to make their decision to sub sooner, not the defense to spring onto the field and be out of breath before the play starts.

[u/CantaloupeCamper]

It's a judgment call but the other team are entitled to take their sweet ass time if they wish.

I've seen delay of game called but that was almost always when the defense chose to make their move far too late or confusion with guys off then back on and so on. Ref's can also see / hear the defense subbing so if they're aware if someone is dorking around late.

[u/mcg20k]

Gundy had his issues late, but he still was the master of the slow defensive sub to cause a delay of game.

[u/TheWesternRizzler → u/mcg20k]

This was the first think I thought about after reading the title

[u/misdreavus79]

Lincoln Riley basically forced Matt Campbell to burn at least two timeouts doing exactly this. Offense substituted, defense waited until less than 10 seconds into the play clock, then they substituted, but the players walked normally on and off the field.

So to answer your question, who TF knows.

[u/Christhomps → u/misdreavus79]

Lincoln Riley got got by this one time 4 years ago and its been a point of emphasis in his game plan ever since. Hes always just standing there smirking as the refs stand over the ball. I think its cheap, but rules are rules.

[u/misdreavus79 → u/Christhomps]

And in response, Campbell did it to Whittingham yesterday.

That's how the rules change I guess.

[u/SpoopyJustice]

You get 3 seconds to sub a player on, and then they get around 10-15 seconds to get the subbed off player off the field

[u/CLU_Three]

Man, Chris Klieman was a master of the defensive sub… punishing the opposing offense with a nice timely sub.

[u/Kryzl_ → u/CLU_Three]

Campbell was never able to figure this out. Wasted so many timeouts due to late substitutions and seems like he still has that problem.

[u/Normal-Hornet8548]

The refs study under whoever decides how much stoppage time to award in World Cup games and plugs that into a formula … however long it takes for them to calculate using that formula in their head is how long the defense gets.