Fake injuries has become a popular tactic in college football over the last handful of years for defenses to slow down up tempo offenses.
Few, if any, saw the epidemic more up close and personal than Tennessee football, especially in Josh Heupel’s first two seasons as head coach when its offense was running in overdrive. The Vols would get a couple first downs, have a defense on its heels and then a player would look to the sideline and fall to the ground before the snap, effectively earning a timeout for the defense to reset.
College football pundits have frequently talked about the issue and potential solutions in recent years. But on Thursday morning, the NCAA actually passed a rule to address it.
Under the new rule, if trainers come onto the field to evaluate an injured player after the ball is spotted for the officials for the next play then the team will be assessed either a timeout or a five-yard delay of game penalty.
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There’s still some limitations to the rule. A player could fake an injury but then slowly walk off the field, slowing down an offense but not earning a punishment. Or a team could be proactive, telling its players to fake an injury before the ball is spotted.
But almost any rule proposal has its issues and limitations. That’s one of the reasons it has taken so long for any rule to be passed and go into effect. One of the popular proposals in recent years was for injured players to have to sit out for a certain amount of time after an injury.
There were issues with that idea, however. It discouraged actual injured players from going down when injured. Teams could also get around the rule and having a backup player fake the injury instead of a key defensive player.
Tennessee’s offense hasn’t played at the same high tempo the last two years. With a new quarterback, we’ll see if the Vols’ offense can get back to that pace this fall.
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