First, is there a way to search the forums/blogs so that a question isn't repeated?
Second, (Possibly a repeat question - see #1), Read today that fair catch rules apply to an onside kick starting this season. How will teams handle this? As soon as the kicker kicks the ball can the opposing team wave their arm, and that's it? I don't understand how this could possibly work in a live ball situation like a kickoff (as opposed to punts).
From ESPN:
On onside kicks, any player on the receiving team is given the same kick-catch and fair-catch protection whether the ball is kicked directly off the tee or is immediately driven into the ground and bounces into the air.
Kickoffs always had fair catch rules just like punts. The difference was that you could only fair catch a ball that hadn't hit the ground on a kickoff (I think on a punt if you fair catch it but catch it on a bounce it's still a dead ball?), which is the reason onside kicks are done by driving the ball into the ground right away. This new rule with eliminate the need for that in order to protect the guy trying to catch the onside from getting crushed while he's looking up in the air at the ball, waiting for it to come down.
Interesting question on how to handle the onside kick with the new rule. Seems like another added advantage for the receiving team. Kicking team will have to be more deceptive about where they are kicking it. Or adopt my personal favorite strategy and just line drive it at the nearest receiving team player and hope you hit him and recover the ricochet. It creates mad chaos and is hilarious. I freely admit this strategy has a horrible success rate. But so do regular onsides.
When told OSU set school record for 50+ games this year, UFM said "That's good. We're gonna break that next year."
I like your "line drive" idea... I also remember a few years back when the buckeyes did a rolling onside kick in a non-conference game which was, I believe, recovered by the kicker.
That was against New Mexico State if I recall correctly.
Edit: Yep, found it: http://espn.go.com/ncf/playbyplay?gameId=293040194&period=2
^nice!