In April, an NCAA rules panel approved a proposal that would allow college football teams to use wireless communication with players on the field through their helmet.
The move was a long time coming, but it was accelerated by the massive Michigan sign-stealing scandal where coaches studied opposing teams’ sideline signals to gain an advantage.
Now, those play calls will be transmitted not by yells or funny signs or hand signals from the sideline, but by headset.
The NFL has allowed coaches to communicate with their quarterback wirelessly since 1994 and started allowing one defensive player to have a headset in 2008.
College football, however, has lagged behind, so much so that quarterbacks often arrive in the NFL with trouble remembering and communicating lengthy play calls.
The issue with implementing the rule was always financial. In February, Steve Shaw, the NCAA rules committee’s secretary-editor, estimated it might cost as much as $40,000 per school, money-smaller schools might not have to spare.
Head coach Brian Kelly expressed his support for the rule to ESPN in October, saying not having headset communication was “silly.”
“We have too many smart people that have looked at this and said we should be doing it and we haven’t taken the time to actually move it forward,” Kelly said to ESPN.
The NCAA went through headset trial runs in more than a dozen bowl games this past year with several different configurations (including matchups where three players per side had headsets).
Now that the rule is in place, college football has taken a step into the future that will benefit its future pro athletes and potentially quicken the pace of the game.
Coaches can only communicate with one player on the field, and when 15 seconds remain on the play clock, communication cuts off.
How does LSU plan on utilizing the system?
“It just adds a different dimension,” offensive coordinator Joe Sloan said of the new headsets on Wednesday.
The prospect of instant communication means offenses can take the hurry-up offense to another level, forcing defenses to communicate at a breakneck pace where they might give something away or make a mistake the offense can capitalize on.
“What we’re going to use it for is to where we can attack people in different ways, at different tempos,” Sloan said. “Attack the defense operationally.”
So what happens at 15 seconds if the play isn’t in?
Sloan said LSU will have a contingency plan. The team has already practiced for the possibility; for some sessions, Sloan says the coaches will turn off helmet communication so the team doesn’t become too reliant on it.
In that sense, LSU and other teams will have to marry their existing systems with the new technology; the old signaling system needs to be in place for those final 15 second scenarios.
LSU is in a uniquely advantageous position to navigate these situations where communication breaks down because redshirt junior quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is so experienced with the team’s system.
“He’s played a lot of football and been here for a long time,” Sloan said. “He’s been used to getting plays in in that manner.”
Teams across the college football world are all starting at ground zero and innovating how they’ll utilize the new system.
Sloan said LSU will be looking at what others do and generally leaning into the evolution of the concept as teams across the country find new ideas.
Other new rules for this college football season include allowing tablets for instant video review on the sideline and a two-minute warning at the end of each half.
Sloan said coaches will use the tablets to reinforce their coaching principles where they see mistakes, but not to the point where it takes away from the intense gameday atmosphere. He was clear that LSU wanted to avoid “paralysis by analysis.”
As far as time management with the two-minute warnings, Sloan said he’d be deferring to Kelly on that.
“He’s awesome at that stuff, so I’ll let him figure that out,” Sloan said with a laugh.
