the "9-yard first down" and decided to go back and look at the tape. Ends up that the error occurred because the clip man forgot to move the clip. The "clip" is attached to the chain at one of the yard lines (i.e. 20, 25, 30, and so on). Its sole purpose is to correctly reposition the rods in the event they get displaced (or taken out on the field to do a measurement). There is a "clip man" whose job is to correctly move the clip each time there is a first down and the chain is moved downfield. Well ... he forgot to do so; and therefore we only had to go 9 yards to get the first down. Here's how it happened: - After a touchback Tech takes possession of the ball at the 25. - The next play Tuten runs down the sideline for 41 yards. You can see him run right past the clip which is correctly attached at the 30-yard line (the clip has an orange flag attached so you can usually see it when a play occurs along the sideline). - The chain is moved downfield. The "rear rod" is on the 34 and the "forward rod" is at the 24. - The next play is a pass to the tight end who is tackled along the sideline displacing the chain/rods and he also moved the mat a bit as well. If you watch the play closely you can see the TE run past the clip which is at the 29 !!!. It was not properly moved to the yard line closest to the rear rod which should have been the 30-yard line; it was left midway between the poles and therefore was incorrectly located at the 29. - After the play the chain crew picks up the chain/rods and you can actually see the clip man looking at the clip a little confused and probably wondering if he had forgotten to move it as he should had. In any event they end up resetting the rods based on the clip; so now Tech only needs to get to the 25 for a first down. Thus only 9 yards were needed to pick up the first down. ** Edited by 86TechHokie at 10/28/2024, 11:21:06 AM