Set, Ready, Challenge: 11-Player Football Finals Challenges New in 2022
By
Jon Ross
MHSAA Director of Broadcast Properties
November 25, 2022
New this year at the MHSAA 11-Player Football Finals is the opportunity for head coaches to challenge a call.
In previous years, all potential scoring plays and potential turnovers were automatically reviewed. That process will continue and now, under a limited set of circumstances, the head coach can challenge calls.
To do so, the head coach must first call a timeout. If a team has no timeouts remaining, they are not able to challenge a call. Challenges must be presented to the officials immediately after the timeout is granted. If the challenge is successful, the team will get its timeout back and have the ability to challenge one more call during regulation. A second successful challenge will not result in the ability to challenge a third call.
The following plays are reviewable by challenge:
- Complete/incomplete passes
- Runner/receiver in/out of bounds
- Runner ruled not down
- Forward progress spot as it relates to the yard to gain
- First touching of a kick
- Recovery of a ball in/out of bounds
- Forward/backward pass
- Penalties called on the field only for:
- Illegal forward pass
- Targeting or illegal helmet contact
- Pass interference only as it relates to the pass being previously tipped
NOTE: All other penalties called on the field are not reviewable. These include, but are not limited to: illegal formation, ineligible receivers downfield, illegal participation, illegal substitution or delay of game. If a penalty is not called by the officials on the field, the play can never be reviewed to retroactively call a penalty.
In overtime, challenges – like timeouts – reset. Each team has the ability to challenge one call for the entirety of overtime, but must have a timeout to use to do so. A successful challenge in overtime will not result in the ability to challenge a second call.
If a play is overturned in regulation or overtime, the replay officials will correct all aspects of the play including time, position of the ball and whether the clock will be started on the RFP or snap. The game clock or play clock may be reviewed only as it directly relates to the overturning of a call on the field.
There is no change to the review of potential scoring and potential turnover plays. Those plays are automatically looked at by the replay official and replay assistant. If the replay official can confirm the ruling on the field without stopping play, the official will do so. If more time is needed to review the play, the on-field referee will announce that and then will announce the replay official’s decision. For a play to be reversed, there must be indisputable video evidence that shows the original call was incorrect. Every attempt will be made to complete the review process in 90 seconds or less.
The addition of the coach’s challenge was approved by the MHSAA’s Representative Council at its May 2022 meeting.
Superb Seniors Bringing Gladwin to Ford Field as 1st-Time Football Finalist
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 23, 2022
Nick Wheeler had a feeling growing up that he and his Gladwin classmates could have some success when it was their time to lead the Flying Gs varsity football program.
He just had no idea how much.
“I never saw the state championship,” the Gladwin senior quarterback and safety said. “I saw us winning the Jack Pine Conference, which was something that hadn’t been done in a while.”
Wheeler and his teammates have blown past those expectations and are now one win away from what once felt impossible.
Led by a strong senior class, Gladwin will play in an MHSAA Football Final for the first time Saturday. In Division 5, the Flying Gs will take on Frankenmuth, which is also seeking its first football title.
“This has been our dream since we’ve been in high school,” senior linebacker and running back Logan Kokotovich said. “We went down (to Ford Field) to watch games my freshman year, and it was amazing. Back before high school, we were blowing teams out of the water. Everyone thought we could be good, but we knew we had to really work hard to get there.”
Gladwin football was in a much different place when Wheeler, Kokotovich and their classmates entered high school. The program had won just six games total over the previous three seasons, and hadn’t been to the postseason since 2014.
“I remember going to games when I was young and we would always lose,” Kokotovich said. “I would tell my dad, ‘That’s not a surprise.’”
As the Class of 2023 entered the high school, the Flying Gs were getting new leadership. Marc Jarstfer took over as head coach in 2019 after being an assistant at his alma mater – and Gladwin’s arch rival – Clare.
“I had no idea of what was coming up,” Jarstfer said. “I didn’t really pay attention to the youth programs (at Gladwin) or that sort of thing. I was familiar with the current situation. I think in that first year our staff was here, we saw that group had pretty significant potential. They went undefeated on JV with two freshmen playing on varsity. We figured if they continue to work hard and do the right things, they could be very good.”
Kokotovich and receiver/safety Kaden McDonald both played varsity as freshmen, and 10 members of the Class of 2023 played varsity as sophomores.
It was during that 2020 season that the turnaround started to feel more like reality. Gladwin went 4-4, but its three regular-season losses were by a combined 24 points. It also had a win against Division 2 Dexter, which featured multiple college prospects.
“That’s when I started noticing it,” Wheeler said. “We were in close games with teams that we were never close with before, like Clare and Beaverton. And we were just young sophomores.”
The following year was a true breakthrough, as Gladwin went 9-0, claiming its first Jack Pine title in 20 years and winning it outright for the first time ever. Gladwin got there by defeating Clare for the first time in 40 years.
Then, in the first round of the playoffs, the Flying Gs’ season came to an abrupt halt, with a loss to that same Clare team.
It was humbling, but also motivating.
“We just thought we were the best,” Wheeler said. “That really put us down and made us work even harder for next season to achieve our goal. The coaches, they put pictures right in front of our squat rack of Clare beating us. So that’s looking at us every time we lift.”
The motivation clearly worked, as Gladwin repeated its 9-0 regular season, winning a second-straight Jack Pine title. This time, however, the Flying Gs were even more dominant. They outscored their regular-season opponents by a combined 444-48, with 27 of those points allowed coming in their 33-27 win at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.
But nothing Gladwin accomplished could compare to its 28-21 Semifinal win against Grand Rapids Catholic Central. The Cougars had won Finals titles in four of the past five seasons, including the past two Division 5 titles. It was the first postseason loss for Catholic Central since 2018.
“Everybody doubted us going into that game,” Wheeler said. “Grand Rapids Catholic Central, everybody thinks they’re just the best, but we just took it as they were another team. We didn’t think of them any differently. Everybody (on the team) believed. It was probably the best feeling of my life.”
The Flying Gs are now one win away from an even better feeling. But no matter what happens at Ford Field on Saturday, they’ve already established themselves as the group that turned the program around.
That’s a feeling that’s made even more special by the fact they’ve been able to do it with their lifelong friends.
“It is definitely going to be something I remember for the rest of my life,” Kokotovich said. “This group of guys is everything. We’ve pushed each other so much, and it’s all just falling together. This is awesome.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gladwin's Logan Kokotovich (12) holds onto the ball during Saturday's Semifinal win over Grand Rapids Catholic Central. (Middle) Senior Lincoln McKinnon works to shed a blocker and get to the GRCC quarterback. (Below) Earl Esiline keeps his feet on the icy turf. (Photos by Mike Kolleth.)