College football could be on the brink of a major rule change following Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.
According to a report from The Athletic, the NCAA Football Rules Committee will meet later in February to decide on whether helmet communication and sideline tablets should be introduced to the college game next season.
Multiple teams tested the technology out during bowl games last season, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
“We practiced with it four times going into the game, and it was probably one of our cleanest operations when it comes to the sideline and communication,” Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire revealed.
Northern Illinois HC Thomas Hammock also swears by the tech, noting it was very helpful.
“We’re a huddle team, so talking to the quarterback, we were able to put in more offense, more motions and shifts, make sure everyone was right,” he explained “It really helped us out. We didn’t have any procedural penalties. We did a lot of offense and stayed clean, a lot of that due to helmet communication.”
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Butch Jones, the Arkansas State head coach, admitted it helped but pointed out that there was still a need for hand signals.
“We still signaled in because receivers gotta get them,” he said. “We wanted to keep as minimal change as possible for the flow of the game (and) we have a system in place of what we do, and with a limited amount of time, we didn’t want to disrupt that.”
College football coaching staffs will have an advantage where the NFL does not as the professional teams can only view images on their tabs. The NCAA will allow programs to watch actual video while communications will remain open until the snap, unlike in the league, where comms shut off with 15 seconds left on the clock.
