Green dots.
That's the new terminology suddenly omnipresent in college football.
What does it mean?
Well, it's the new lingo to designate which players are going to have in-helmet communication for the coming season, as college football joins the NFL some 30 years after the latter introduced on-field, in-helmet conversations between coaches and a designated player.
Offensively, it's the quarterback and one or two backup quarterbacks who will have a helmet with the new technology and the accompanying green-dot sticker on the back of their helmets to signify they're talking to their coaches.
Defensively? Many programs are using their Mike linebackers, though some are choosing their veteran-most player -- a different linebacker or a safety who acts as the de facto center-fielder of the defense.
Lane Kiffin, an elite offensive mind who still greatly influences Ole Miss's offensive play-calling, is sharing the Rebels's plans for incorporating headset huddles.
"You just fall back to signaling," Kiffin said when asked about the Ole Miss contingency plan in case of a malfunction or other issue. "I guess to explain it to you, an easy way to think of it is at 15 seconds (on the offensive play-clock), you're going to have to have all of your old stuff, anyway, because at 15 seconds you've got no communication [the rules stipulate the headset feed is halted at that point].
"You better have your whole system in place before signaling, as if this didn't exist."
Kiffin believes the need to be able to fully function without the in-helmet communication is both a preventative measure and also a strategic one.
"One, because that's going to happen at times, even for us offensively," Kiffin said of helmet communications being halted before a play is snapped. "And defensively, that may happen a number of times if the (opposing) team is going slow.
"So, you still need to have, in my opinion, your whole system that you had before."
The Rebels, preseason No. 6 in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25, open their season of great expectations Aug. 31 at home against FCS powerhouse Furman, which is coming off another postseason FCS Playoffs run under veteran coach Clay Hendrix.