After three decades, college football is following in the NFL’s steps to bring on the coach-to-player helmet. College football coaches have been pressing the officials for this for many years, and the NCAA Football Rules Committee has finally come up with a proposal. They are proposing to allow a singular player on their field to have direct communication with their respective coach through a speaker in the helmet. 

This proposal became more of a necessity when Jim Harbaugh was accused of allegedly stealing signs from other teams last season. This led the NCAA to suspend him for three games from the sidelines of the Michigan Wolverines. To avoid further similar complications, in-helmet communication is introduced with teams already trying out the technology, including Kalen DeBoer and Alabama. 

Kalen DeBoer shares his experience with helmet communication

Alabama’s new HC Kalen DeBoer just finished his first practice session with his players and dropped an interesting take on the new in-helmet communication. Bama Football on YouTube with Kyle Henderson recently uploaded a video of DeBoer’s press conference speech where he admitted that his team tested out the new helmet communication in their first practice. He said, “We had a couple of quarterbacks with that in. I haven’t heard any feedback yet.”

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DeBoer laid down his verdict on his experience with the technology saying, “Couple of times, it was maybe a little hard to hear one way or another. I don’t think it was because it was too soft. I think it was actually because it was too loud… But for the most part, it seemed pretty clean.” Could this new adaptation be beneficial for college football?

More about the NCAA helmet communication

According to the NCAA proposal regarding helmet communication in games involving FBS teams, one player will have the opportunity to use coach-to-player helmet communication for each school. The player in the subject would have a “green dot on the back midline of the player’s helmet. The communication from the coach to the player would be turned off with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.”

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As convenient as it seems, this isn’t standard yet. It will become official after the approval by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel which is due to take place on April 18. Despite it being yet to get approved, there is a high probability that this proposal will not be met with objection. The ACC is already hooking up with this new technology to start their experience during spring practice. 

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