This is an interesting event. The chain crew member on the side of the field Quick ran towards and was knocked out of bounds on incorrectly placed where the first down marker should have been.

 

There’s supposed to be a line-to-gain indicator six feet from the sideline, and that orange painted area is six fee wide

 As the article notes chain crew members are not apart of the conference and are brought on the school and usually are local high school refs. 

The marker is supposed to be “approximately” six feet from the sideline, per NCAA rules, which is part of why the field is surrounded by six feet of painted turf. 

Some crews place the ends of their mats at the six-foot line; others place the start of their mats at the six-foot line. Those all fall unde the category of “approximately” six feet. Pretty much every crew makes sure some part of the mat is on the edge of the six-foot painted area.

And then there’s the Clemson 4th-and-12, where the end of the mat is almost a yard from that edge.

 As the end of the article says Quick should have known where the first down was but the marker not being where it should have been possibly made Quick alter his path. I can't believe that the chain crew is not done by the conference or the ncaa, I'm surprised we don't see this kind of problem more often.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/10/2/13136970/louisville-c...