College football coaches discussing fake injury rules: report
A massive new rule change regarding player injuries could come to college football if coaches have their way, according to a new report.
Members of the American Football Coaches Association are discussing a rule that they hope will stop or at least reduce the number of what appear to be fake injuries in the sport, according to Yahoo Sports.
The new rule would force injured players to sit out for the rest of their team’s specific drive, preventing them from simply falling to the ground with the same injury to multiple plays in an effort to artificially stop the clock and give their team more time to stop play.
Coaches could use a timeout to allow their injured player to be reinstated back onto the field during the drive, according to the reported proposal.
This isn’t the first time that college football’s decision makers have attempted to curb what appeared to be an effort by teams to have their players fake injuries to stall opponents’ momentum.
Back in November, the SEC announced it would begin implementing a punishment for teams that are believed to have their players fake an injury.
“I’m glad,” said Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, whose team was accused by commentators of employing the strategy at times this past season.
Kiffin added: “I know some people say, okay, that sounds weird coming from me. We’re a tempo offense. I’ve been saying this for years, okay, that faking an injury hurts us more than anybody, us and Tennessee, probably more than anybody in America.”
One prominent case of an apparently faked injury came when Ole Miss running back Matt Jones fell to the ground during a game in September.
At the time, college football rules analyst Matt Austin confirmed that the NCAA’s rule book doesn’t proscribe fake injuries directly, leaving officials without recourse to punish the act.
“There’s actually nothing in the rule book that says you cannot do that,” Austin said on the broadcast.
“There is very strong wording about being unethical to fake an injury at any time during the game. I know the rules-makers have talked about it several times, but as of right now, there’s nothing you in the book can do about it.”
Kirk Herbstreit also recently called out the practice of apparently faking injuries “unethical as hell.”
“This is college football. It drives me crazy,” Herbstreit said during the game.
“They look over after a big play, and all of a sudden, he looks over and he just goes down. It’s not necessarily against the rules, but it’s unethical as hell. When you see this all over against these tempo offenses, guys just go down with the quote-unquote ‘injury.’”
Now, coaches are hoping to find a solution to a problem that college football wants an answer to before the kickoff of the 2025 season.
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