We experts in The Cave were in a quandary about the clock starting “early” on an out of bounds play in the UCF game. ????? ??????? I looked at the rule book to clear it up. And it turns out that the officials were right.

The rulebook (3-3-2-e-3) states that the clock starts on the referee’s signal (i.e., when the ball is spotted) after out-of-bounds plays except within two minutes of the end of each half. During those two minute periods, the clock starts on the snap. ???? ??????

The play in question was at 2:42. O’Brien went ballistic when the clock started. ???? ????? ????? O’Brien was wrong.

I guess the rules change happened without consulting our expert asses whenever the hell it took place. Nevertheless, it seems like it was a reasonable move to speed up games (which are slowed down enough by the rules permitting TV and radio to control timeouts) and yet preserve the strategic flair of the two-minute offense.