The start of the high school football season is just two days away and every year it feels like the opening Friday night kickoff sneaks up on us faster and faster.

Throughout this week, the Times News will be flooding readers with everything high school football, so our area gridiron aficionados are well versed on what to expect from our nine Times News area teams entering Week One.

This afternoon, we will take a look at some important rule changes that will certainly impact play this season. Earlier this week, I was able to sit down and talk with PIAA football official Dan Rossino, who is in his 29th season in the black and white stripes, to go over some of the more influential rule changes that will affect play this season.

The most notable rule change in 2022 is one that was a long time coming and, quite frankly, is a common sense change that will better prepare players if they move on to compete at the collegiate level. In prior seasons, a pass was deemed an illegal forward pass if the eligible passer intentionally threw the ball into an area with no eligible receiver, or the passer intentionally threw the ball away to save yardage or time.

This season, if the eligible passer gets outside the tackle box and the pass gets back to the line of scrimmage, the eligible passer can throw the ball away to either avoid a tackle for loss or save time. There is no longer a requirement for an eligible offensive receiver to be in the area if both of those conditions are met. This is a rule change that mirrors the rules at both the collegiate and professional ranks.

“The goal here with this rule change was to be more consistent with the rules and codes that are at the next level of the game. I think this is also a good change to protect everyone involved in these types of plays as well,” said Rossino. “It gives an eligible passer the chance to just throw the ball away, which also can prevent injury in some circumstances, whether to an offensive or defensive player. What I think you’re going to see, though, especially in our area here, with a lot of five-man official crews, is it’s going to take some time to interpret the rule in real game time on some occasions, just because we only have five guys out there. With a seven-man crew, it’s going to be much easier to see the play right away and make the call.”

Another notable rule change for the 2022 season is the redefinition of a chop block. A chop block will now be flagged as an illegal combination block where contact is made above and below the waist. The prior rule was defined as mostly a high-low blocking situation where now a low and high combination while the blocker is engaged will be flagged as a chop block.

A team’s player box may now be extended beyond the 25-yard line this season, extending as far as the 10-yard line. This rule was implemented with bigger schools – which have bigger rosters in mind – so that players would have more room to spread out on the sideline.

Lastly, the numbers “0” and “00” are now legal numbers, and once again this rule change was put in place to help the schools with bigger rosters by adding a few more numbers to the fold.

Continue to follow Times News content this week and for the entirety of the fall sports season for all your local high school football action. Friday night lights is officially back!