There\’s only one other thing that can get the crowd fired up as much as an interception in high school football. The dreaded (or beloved) fumble recovery. It\’s right there at the top of the list of what makes us love prep football. Next time a fumble occurs, take a quick look around at the fans. People jump up as if they\’ll be able to see who got the ball better. Jaws drop and there\’s a collective gasp from both sides because no one really knows how it\’s going to end up and that\’s why we love it and want to make sure to take account for it\’s existence in our fantasy league action. Let\’s take a closer look at the fumble recovery and how we weight it at prepsportfantasy.com

For those of you new to the planet (or maybe the U.S.), the fumble is when an offensive player drops or has the ball stripped from his grasp. If it\’s a running play or a legitimate catch has been made and the ball comes lose or is knocked lose, the ball then becomes fair game to whomever picks it up. The offense can keep possession at the point the ball was recovered or the defense can gain possession of the ball at that point on the field. The player may even be able to continue running forward with the fumble recovered ball. This leads us to the best part of the fumble recovery. The sheer chaos that takes place on the field is completely different from the methodic playmaking and structure of the high school football game. Let\’s go right to the heart of what drives this mayhem.

They just had to make the football an oblong shape. Most balls are round but football has an oblong, spherical shape. This allows for the spiral and ease of catching the football. It has completely the opposite effect when loose on the ground following a fumble. Who knows where the ball will go once it hits the ground. That\’s when the mad scrabble comes in with both players attempting to jump on a ball with completely irratic motion and behavior. Adding to suspense is the inevitable dog pile that occurs. Players from both teams jump onto the spot where they think the ball has landed. The ref usually has to come over and slowly peel back the players to see who actually came up with the ball. This also feeds into the crowds excitement as everyone goes quiet as they wait for the final deliberation of the ref. It\’s like a little mini court case and judge comes back with the final verdict.

The fumble recovery is incredibly important to prep football defense. For one, it\’s the ultimate reflection for their entire goal in a football game…stop the offense and get the ball back for the defense. It just comes with a little punctuation mark following a fumble recovery. It can also be one of the few ways that a high school football defense can actually throw points on the board. If the fumble is recovered and ran back to the end zone, the team gets a touchdown and there\’s nothing more exciting (or demoralizing if you\’re the offense) than a defense putting points on the board. In light of this, we included the fumble recovery with weighted points in our high school football fantasy league action. A shout out to the defense.

Author Bio: Dennis Jarvis writes about the world of Prep Sports including high school sports such as high school football, basketball, and baseball.

Category: Sports
Keywords: fumble recovery, high school football, prep football, high school sports, prep sports