Expect something to go wrong.
New technology. New Rules. New problems.
For at least one program, a critical new member to its college football travel roster: Information Technology Consultant.
College football, decades after the NFL first introduced in-helmet communications in the mid-1990s, is poised for widespread coach-to-player, in-helmet direct conversations for the coming 2024 season.
Offense, defense and special teams.
The NCAA formally passed the measure April 19, after numerous teams already had concluded their spring camps but had started the process along the journey of their 15 allowed practices.
Kickoff for the coming season is 100 days from today, when new ACC resident SMU travels to Nevada while Florida State and Georgia Tech kick off in Dublin, Ireland, among a handful of Week 0 contests on August 24.
The time to prepare is now.
One director of football operations at a Group of Five program with previous power-conference experience who’s emerged as a leader in his field explained his program’s proactive approach earlier this month during national meetings at The Star in Frisco, Texas, site of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters.
“We’re hiring an IT consultant to travel with the team, a university IT person to travel with us,” he said. “Somebody with more knowledge about fiberoptics and copper in the stadium.”
However, old habits die hard; hand-signals won’t be abandoned – not this season, anyway.
“We’ll be doing both (in-helmet communications and signals) until we’re absolutely comfortable with it,” he added, an approach echoed by dozens of attendees at the National Football Operations Organization’s annual conference.
Added another G-5 DFO, whose head coach also has extensive experience at the power conference level, about his program’s ongoing preparations for the new technology:
“I’m going to be heavily reliant on my video guy to translate (issues), to put it in English,” he said. “We want to try to get ahead of as many problems as possible before Game 1 arrives, when a tablet goes down or headset doesn’t work.”
The introduction of electronic tablets – think iPads or similar devices – also passed earlier this spring. Programs can utilize up to 18 tablets on gamedays to review the action, essentially as the game unfolds.
The allowable video feeds to the tablets include the respective TV broadcast as well as the respective “coach’s sideline and coach’s end zone.”
The tablets are prohibited from being used to project images onto a larger surface – in other words, a sideline dry erase board cannot be converted into a de facto film screen – and they also cannot be utilized to access various data points, such as analytics.
While that implementation appears, for now, anyway, relatively straightforward, the in-helmet devices have varied approaches based on programs’ respective conference affiliations – or, in the case of Notre Dame, its independent residency plus its ongoing Atlantic Coast Conference schedule alignment.
The ACC, a source with direct knowledge told FootballScoop this week, will allow its programs to outfit 15 units (helmets) with in-helmet communication devices.
Multiple other conferences have established a 10-helmet approach, at least to open the season.
Regardless of the number of helmets outfitted with the new equipment, only one player can wear the device onto the field at any given time and those players with the technology will be designated by a mandatory green sticker applied to the back-centerline of their helmets.
IF a team happens to line up in formation with more than one player on the field with the green helmet-sticker that denotes the presence of the in-helmet communication, that team will be flagged a dead-ball, 5-yard illegal procedure penalty.
FootballScoop spoke with more than 30 programs, all of whom said the obvious offensive player will be the quarterback – and the backup quarterback on the sideline in order to maintain a knowledgeable grasp of the in-game flow between coordinator and starter.
Defensively, the situation gets a little dicier.
“We’re going to put it in our Mike,” an ACC assistant coach said, “but he’s not on the field as much on third down. So, we’ll probably have it in our safety’s helmet as well.
“Either way, those guys are gonna have to have two helmets.”
Added another source, “There will have to be a lot of second helmets involved to switch out at a moment’s notice.”
Perhaps the biggest wild-card in all of the in-helmet communication remains how programs handle the special teams component.
“Special teams is gonna be a nightmare,” one person said. “Special teams is going to be a nightmare.
“Equipment people will really have to be on it.”
Added another person briefed on the situation and familiar with ongoing discussions, “With all the complaining about the special teams rule, I think the rule will change from one to more than one on the field. Not this year, but it’s already in motion so that more people can have more than one at a time [at least for special teams].”
As outlined by the NCAA, the in-helmet communications will be switched off by a third-party controller at the 15-second mark on the offensive play-clock – or as soon as the offensive team snaps the football.
After some limited use in this past bowls season, college football programs this spring were more widespread as they began to implement the in-helmet communications devices. Already last fall, LSU coach Brian Kelly, former Alabama coach Nick Saban and Nebraska’s Matt Rhule were among myriad coaches who vocally supported college football’s implementation of the communications devices, which will be supplied this season on the collegiate level by a pair of communications companies.
Under third-year coach Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame began last December to implement in-helmet communications as it prepared to face Oregon State in the Sun Bowl – though the Beavers elected not to use in-helmet communications for that game, meaning neither team could try out the technology in the contest dominated by the Fighting Irish.
Mike Denbrock, FootballScoop’s 2023 Offensive Coordinator of the Year as voted by his peers, explained the Irish’s approach earlier this spring – even as Denbrock as had initiated the installment of his offense in his return to Notre Dame.
“The kids like it because it keeps me from yelling at everybody else because I’ve got to talk to the quarterback,” Denbrock said two weeks before Notre Dame wrapped up its spring camp. “I think it’s got some advantages to it, some quick reminders to the quarterback once you get the play-call in, provided I’m not stuttering into the headset too much, I think helps them.
“Especially young quarterbacks. [Saying] ‘Hey, based on game plan let’s keep our eyes on the weakside’ or whatever it happens to be. Give them a little something to help them in their journey of getting the play executed the right way. I think that’s helpful, and I think getting them the play and the information as early as you can in the play-clock gives them the chance to settle in and get everybody else lined up.”
Howard, an FCS program that has been resurgent under Larry Scott and played for what is widely considered the HBCU national championship in the Cricket Celebration Bowl last December, already played a game with in-helmet communications. The Bison and Alabama State utilized the technology in their recent MEAC/SWAC Challenge.
For the coming season, FCS programs who play against FBS programs will be allowed to use in-helmet communication for that contest(s), if they elect to do so.
In 2025, FCS is projected to be eligible to implement in-helmet communication devices throughout the division.