Last week, the NCAA took a major step toward bringing headset-to-helmet communication to college football. The Football Rules Committee forwarded a proposal to the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which now has the opportunity to rubber-stamp helmet communication into existence for the 2024 season at its April 18 meeting.
And while the attempt is to modernize how the game is managed, one sentence from the NCAA's announcement led to a different question: Is the NCAA about to accidentally revolutionize the way the game is played?
The communication from the coach to the player would be turned off with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.
If the offensive coordinator can speak to the quarterback up to the 15-second mark on the play clock, then any offense quick enough to get to the line of scrimmage and snap the ball before :15 can have the OC read the defense and literally tell the quarterback where to throw the ball. And if that's the case, is the NCAA about to bring back the mid-2010s days of offenses moving as fast as possible?
"Oh yes," a Group of 5 head coach, already known for playing quickly on offense, told FootballScoop. "Faster than ever. Fired up about it."
"We will try to go even faster. Maybe (the NCAA Rules Committee) doesn't care about defense," a Power 4 head coach joked.
However, that opinion was not unanimous.
One coach polled by FootballScoop argued in-helmet communication will incentivize offenses to go slower. The coordinator can call a play, watch how the defense aligns, then make an adjustment with 16 or 17 seconds left on the play clock, forcing the defense to adjust to their adjustment without the defensive coordinator able to speak to the mike linebacker. "Slower teams have a different advantage because they can make formation adjustments after mics are killed forcing the defense to 'manually' adjust," said the senior Power 5 support staff member.
However, one opinion that was unanimous: signaling, and thus sign stealing, will not become obsolete with the adoption of helmet communication.
In fact, one Power 4 head coach thinks it will actually increase moving forward.
"The NFL is all huddle, so talking in one headset makes sense," he told FootballScoop. "We are no huddle. Having one person talking will not eliminate the need for signals. Sign stealing will be at an all-time high."
On that front, Texas Tech's Joey McGuire expressed frustration at what he viewed as a half-measure from the NCAA. His Red Raiders experimented in a pilot program against Cal in last season's Independence Bowl. They didn't signal at all in that game, because they had three players with radios in their helmets, not one.
"The current proposal will not fix the problems in college football," McGuire told FootballScoop. "We should not limit this technology to just one player on each side of the ball. We also shouldn't always compare our game to the NFL. Our game is special. Let's keep it that way and put together a proposal that gets it right the first time and not fix it years later."
However, one veteran college play-caller with NFL experience believes one radio per side of the ball is sufficient, even when going no-huddle. "The key is people will have to figure out how to communicate through the quarterback," he said. "The quarterback can literally yell the formation, which you can do even in loud environments on the road. So what if the defense hears you?"
Based on his internal charting, this coach believes a typical offense could get 25-to-30 snaps per game off before communication shuts off at 15 seconds. He also believes it could be just as big an advantage for the defense. "If we're in a 2x2 formation, all the (coordinator) would have to do is look at a sheet and tell (the linebacker), '80 percent run.'"
So, the expected changes will either benefit the offense or the defense. It will incentivize teams to go quickly, or reward teams who move more deliberately. It will either eliminate the use of signaling, and thus the practice of sign stealing and all that goes into it, or increase it. And one radio per side of the ball is either the right number, or not even close to the right number.
Sounds about right.