Homer Smith on Clock Management – The Spike

THE INTENTIONAL INCOMPLETE PASS, THE SPIKE

What does it do? Two things:

(1) After the 15 seconds that officials always take to get the ball ready for play, a spike stops the clock and allows 35 more seconds for initiating the next play. It puts 50 seconds of real time between two of your plays. With the clock moving, if you want to avoid wasting seconds, you would have only 15 seconds between them. It relieves pressure.
(2) When you are out of timeouts, it stops the clock to get fieldgoal personnel onto the field for an unhurried kick. When firstdown yardage is needed for the kick, it is packaged with a pass that will get a firstdown; when less yardage or only better ball position is needed, it is packaged with a 1st-down or 2nd-down running play.

When a spike is used to relieve pressure, it is costly. Why?

Two reasons: (1) It costs one of the four downs that a firstdown gives you, and you can almost never know that you will not need all four. (2) Even when there is not time to use all four downs and even if you can snap the ball for a regular play as fast as you can snap it for the spike, it consumes a second that might have otherwise allowed you an additional play.

The only time you can spike without cost is after a firstdown leaves 00:05, 00:04, or 00:03 on the temporarily-stopped clock. These times allow only one more play, and you could spike and still have that play. With 00:06, you might get off a quick incomplete pass and have a second play; with 00:02, the spike might leave 00:00.

In a span of five years, two Rose Bowl games ended with spike calls, without the ball getting to the endzone even though there was time to throw it there. In 2002 against Auburn, Georgia threw for the endzone four times and hit the fourth one for a touchdown and a victory. They scored with the down that so often gets used up with a spike. These experiences suggest how important this stuff is.

Can A Spike Ever Add Seconds?

If initiating a play takes more time than finishing a spike, time will be saved, although the fourth play in a series will still be lost. If the difference is six seconds and if the fourth play is not needed for a firstdown, the spike will have added six seconds.

The slower you are at initiating plays, the better off you are using a spike.

Getting The Ball-Ready Signal

Either the Umpire or the Referee declares the ball ready by dropping his hand and tooting his whistle. The hand is for the clock operator; the toot is for the players. The official is not responsible for being in the center’s or the QB’s field of vision when he drops his hand. And the toot can be drowned out by crowd noise. The solution is for the QB to be under the center, to know which official is giving the hand signal, to watch the official, to have his team ready, and to call for the snap as the hand-signal is given.

What If A Receiver Is Uncovered?

Should a spike play be able to do more than put the ball into the ground? What if you are spiking to relieve pressure and a deployed receiver is uncovered? Should the QB be able to throw to him? No. Why? Two reasons: (1) One kind of spike is enough – the kind that will predictably consume one second. (2) The easiest protection for a spike is cup protection, like for extra points and fieldgoals. The protection will leave end-of-line defenders unblocked and make it difficult to throw a quick pass to a deployed receiver.

Keeping Time From Expiring On a Spike

The QB does not want to take a snap for a spike unless the snap will have at least 00:03. If it will have only 00:02, he wants the ball to go to the endzone.

The solution is to have an endzone pass/spike package and, when you are concerned, to call for the endzone pass and let the QB go to the spike if he has 00:03 or more.

Bleeding The Clock, Then Spiking

To use a timeout, bleed down to 00:04. To call for the snap for a fieldgoal, do the same. But, to spike, call for the snap at 00:06.

Keeping From Spiking On 4th Down

How do you keep a QB from spiking on a 4th-down and, unintentionally, turning the ball over? You do not let him decide on using it. You think of it as being paired in the way a penultimate play and a final play are paired. You think of the pairs as 1st- and 2nd-down pairs only. You think of the 3rd-down as different. You learn to anticipate its use one play ahead of time and call it in a pair. You practice, together, executing a 3rd-down play to position the ball for a hurry-on fieldgoal personnel and executing a 2nd-down play before a 3rd-down spike. You teach other players to recognize a mistake. You test to ensure that an approach to a mistake will be arrested. You explain that football history has enough 4th-down spikes.

In Conclusion

Spiking is for getting fieldgoal personnel onto the field.. Discussion of when to use it for something else is academic. It can cost you a play.
Former Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator, Homer Smith, is an expert on clock management. For more on Clock Management and many other topics, visit his website http://www.homersmith.net.