Anthony Wilson
College football will finally add helmet communication to all Football Bowl Subdivision games starting this fall, following the NCAA approved a rule change in April. The monumental change comes after years of lobbying and conversations about costs and liabilities, and will radically change the game moving forward.
The rules for college football helmet communication largely mirror the NFL, which first brought the technology to the field in 1994. Only one player on each side of the ball will be allowed to have a radio in their helmet, signaled to referees by a green Point . Communication will end with 15 seconds remaining on the game clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.
“There are a lot of unique opportunities with the headset,” Nebraska coach Matt Rhule told CBS Sports. “And what I love about this is you’re preparing guys on offense for the NFL because they’re going to use this in the NFL.”
CBS Sports spoke with college football coaches and former players to understand how teams can use helmet communication in the fall, including Rhule, the former NFL head coach of the Carolina Panthers. While the rules may be similar, differences between college football and the NFL mean their implementation can look drastically different.
The offensive question: group up or use rhythm?
Over the past 20 years, the traditional huddle has largely disappeared from college football. Some teams still get together to slow down the game and set up a play, but most of the communication now comes from behind the scenes via hand signals.
Ultimately, the offense faces a fork in the road with the introduction of helmet communication. Slowing down the game and moving towards grouping allows teams to increase complexity and become more difficult to defend. On the contrary, executing uncrowded concepts with helmet communication allows teams to be even more efficient.
“I think you’ll see some teams come back into the huddle,” Rhule said. “I’ve talked to some coaches who say they’re going to go faster than ever because the defense won’t be able to use the headsets themselves. I think different teams are going to look at this in different ways.”
For tempo offenses, a quick call can go to the quarterback, who can then yell or signal a play within seconds before the defense actually has time to react. However, fast playback calls limit complexity. Returning to the huddle allows teams to be highly specific with safeguards and checks.
In 2023, Power Five teams averaged 26.1 seconds per play. Nineteen of those teams were under 25 seconds per snap, meaning the average snap occurred before the play clock reached 15 seconds, which will be the timeout for incoming calls. Among them were fast-paced offenses like Tennessee, TCU and Colorado. However, 14 teams managed 28 seconds per snap. Among them were Alabama (29.82) and Georgia (29.2). In fact, no team in last season’s final top 10 averaged a snap count under 25 seconds. Closest: Texas at 25.5 seconds.
The biggest defender on the board was national champion Michigan. The Wolverines were the only power conference team to get 30 seconds per snap. During a miserable 2-4 2020 campaign that led to sweeping changes, Michigan averaged 24.9 seconds between plays, a total difference of six seconds. Since Sherrone Moore was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2021, Michigan has slowed down the game and used the extra time to establish movement and misdirection. The results: a 40-3 record with three Big Ten titles. Moore was promoted to head coach in January.
“I’m about [helmet comms]”, Moore told Detroit News in December. “I think it would be easy for the coordinator to communicate with the quarterback and it wouldn’t create external problems.”
Lakota East High School (Ohio) coach Jon Kitna spent nearly two decades in the NFL, primarily as a player but most recently as quarterbacks coach for the Dallas Cowboys in 2019. Although he acknowledges that helmet communication technology has evolved greatly Since making his NFL debut in 1996, Kitna has seen his greatest value as a tool for grading and putting players in the right space to get into a play – especially younger players.
“Just being able to leave a little nugget for the quarterback,” Kitna told CBS Sports, “a reminder ‘Here’s third-and-9, but we don’t need to bring it all back here. room for 3.’ You can just put the quarterback at ease.”
The increase in non-crowding offenses largely coincided with the spread of simplified language and corresponding concepts. Former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn played in a much more complex, NFL-style offense with the Fighting Irish. Like many of these offenses, the Fighting Irish often used wristbands to set play calls.
With in-helmet communication, Quinn is optimistic that many teams will diversify their offensive calls and become even more difficult to cover. Having experience and consistency as a quarterback in a transfer portal world becomes even more of an advantage.
“Hopefully, you’ll see the quarterbacks get paid more,” said Quinn, who now works as an analyst at CBS Sports headquarters. “I think that’s the hard part for a former quarterback, when you’re running an NFL offense in college, you can have the responsibility and control to prepare for the next level with certain run checks and pass checks and everything like that. of coaches will put the responsibility on these quarterbacks, especially since the guys played four or five, or in some cases, six years.
“These guys are experienced. It’s not like they haven’t seen a lot of the ball. I think they’re capable of doing it.”
Finding Counters on Defense
While in-helmet communications could be a major innovation for the offense, many in college football are skeptical that it will be the primary play-calling tool for many defenses; The pace of college offenses dramatically impacts how communication occurs on the other side of the ball.
“Because he’s only on one defensive player’s helmet, it’s difficult in that regard,” an SEC defensive coordinator told CBS Sports. “You’re not going to have a defensive huddle because you don’t know what the offense is going to do. You’re still going to have to signal your defensive signals…it’s going to be a process.”
Without a huddle, defensive coaches can’t communicate plays as easily through a single player. Instead, signaling from the sideline – a place where all 11 players can see – may actually be more efficient. Ultimately, helmet communication systems may be more useful for checks and adjustments rather than replacing existing systems.
Playing top-notch defense is a chess game that forces coaches to provide counters to an offense’s moves, but complications can arise if offenses prepare adjustments that defensive coaches cannot respond to. One concern that came up several times: quarterbacks waiting in line for their helmet microphones to go off at the 15-second mark on the play clock and then checking a completely new play or formation.
Some defenses will try the same thing, with plans to mix up coverages on the quarterback after the play clock hits 15. This is still a more difficult maneuver, however, especially knowing that the ball could pop at any moment. Of course, playing slower attacks would allow defenses to better utilize technology, but each unit must be ready to play at a disadvantage.
“Defenses need to be prepared,” Quinn said. “They need to have automatic calls to blitz, they need to have automatic calls to get back to play safely in coverage, they need to have all those things built in. They just need to be extremely organized.”
Another complication is the relative transience of defensive personnel during the game. On offense, the same quarterback will almost always have the green dot on his helmet. If that quarterback is benched, it will be easy for the equipment staff to prepare any backup quarterback with helmet communication.
While some players spend the vast majority of snaps on the field defensively, there is no offensive equivalent. Even MIKE linebackers can be substituted in certain packages, which can leave the defense without a connected player on the field. Most coaches told CBS Sports that a linebacker would likely use the system because of its access to the first (defensive line) and third (secondary) levels of the defense. The spring has been an opportunity for many programs to experiment with different plans.
“Some games, it will be something that we can use a lot [defensively]but in other games it will be something we won’t be able to use much,” Rhule said. “It just depends on the rhythm of the opposing team.”
The future has arrived
Helmet communication has been a topic on the NCAA’s agenda for years, but the timing of its approval fits well as cue signaling has become a contentious issue in the sport. Defending national champion Michigan is still under NCAA investigation for illegal sign stealing, which led to former Big Ten coach Jim Harbaugh’s three-game suspension at the end of the 2023 regular season. teams to test helmet communication during select bowl games.
Analog signal stealing remains completely legal in college football, and some teams are known for doing exceptionally well. Despite the rule change, many are still skeptical that it will ultimately eliminate sign theft.
“I think this idea that helmet communication will limit signal input, which will limit signal stealing, is completely wrong,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. told reporters in March. “The ability to talk to a guy is not going to eliminate his ability to signal on offensive and defensive plays.”
One defensive coach suggested the NCAA could allow each player to have a headset on their helmet to better streamline communication. In their eyes, this is the most surefire way to completely eliminate license plate theft. Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who sits on the NCAA rules committee, had a similar idea. However, such a rule would be unprecedented in football. Furthermore, connecting a complete team would be much more expensive and laborious.
So who benefits most from helmet communication? At first glance, it looks like it will help many of the same groups that have benefited most from the game’s evolution in recent years: defenders and offensive players. Ultimately, the 2024 season is a laboratory experiment. While not all FBS programs choose to use helmet communication, 134 employees have a chance to find their own advantage with it…or if it will work for their program.
“I’m excited to see what happens,” Kitna said. “I think it’s good that it happened and probably should have happened 10 years ago. I mean, they’ve been making billions of dollars for a long time. athletics.”
