After Oregon football coach Dan Lanning used a loophole in the sport’s penalty for too many men on the field to drain critical seconds from the clock during his Ducks’ defense of an attempted Ohio State comeback in what became an Oregon win, the NCAA this week rushed to update its rule book.
Now, teams on the other side of that penalty can get their 5 free yards in addition to lost time back.
Problem solved.
Unfortunately, fixing the more common trend of rule exploitation once again marring the game won’t be so easy.
Give Lanning at least a little credit for figuring out a crafty way to give his team an edge.
His maneuver can be respected even while it was clear the rule should be adjusted.
Nothing commendable can be said, however, about the coaches — and it’s not just Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss, although he has become the who-me face of it this time around — who continue to instruct players to fake injuries.
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Because you can’t polygraph a supposedly injured player in real time and because asking officials to make a call on whether a player is truly hurt is a terrible idea, coaches like Kiffin (and others) continue to ask their players to do something unethical to give their teams an edge. Flops stall opponents’ momentum. They create mini timeouts. They’re obvious. But nothing has been done to stop them.
Oklahoma has been accused of it. Former Mizzou coach Barry Odom’s UNLV, too. Kansas State as well. Others have gotten away with it without social media scorn.
I feel bad for the players who are put in this position; they have to act unethically or defy their coach, which are both bad options.
I feel a sense of anger when I see it but not nearly as much as the coaches who are seeing it used against them or the broadcasters who see it happen live and feel like they have to ignore what seems obvious. Good on those who are done ignoring.
“I mean, coaches, all the time, we hear it all the time — molder of young men, accountability, discipline, do the right thing all the time,†Rece Davis said on a recent “College GameDay†Podcast. “All these things are very good values and things that should be adhered to — by the coaches too. You don’t want these fake injuries? Stop doing it. Stop doing it.â€
Davis wasn’t done.
“Coaches — you’re the ones preaching accountability,†he added. “Stop doing it. Stop it already, you know. You can stop it.â€
Davis, Alabama legend turned TV commentator Nick Saban and other opinion-shapers in the sport should be commended for calling out the football version of basketball flopping, which got so bad recently hoops did institute a way for officials to penalize the fakers.
It’s a lot harder of a fix in football, though, where a sudden leg cramp or delayed injury from a hit a few plays earlier really can suddenly pop up — and the fakers are even taught to mimic cramping symptoms, muddying the water. You can’t have officials attempting to measure injury seriousness in real time. That’s a recipe for disaster. The fakers capitalize on deceit.
The trend is getting talked about more this season, but unfortunately, it’s not new. Back when I covered Wyoming in 2012, former Mizzou offensive coordinator turned Cowboys head coach Dave Christensen went on a about Air Force coach Troy Calhoun instructing his players to intentionally collapse in order to slow down Christensen’s speedy offense. In hindsight, Christensen calling Calhoun “fly boy†on Military Appreciation Night was not a good choice of words, but his anger was understandable.
Anyone who watched the game with unbiased eyes saw what Air Force was doing and how it helped the Falcons win the game. Christensen caught a suspension and a fine. Calhoun sneered and shrugged.
You can see why others coaches keep doing it. And as Saban has reminded TV viewers, any player who is taking a fake dive is being instructed by the sideline to do so.
Calhoun then, Kiffin now and any other coach who plays this card should be ashamed. Finding a rule glitch and exploiting it is one thing. Gamesmanship exists in any sport. Asking players to misrepresent their health in a violent sport is not that.
It’s poor sportsmanship. Period.
When a player takes off or loses his helmet during play, he has to sit out the next play unless the helmet came off as a result of a foul or unless his team calls a timeout. The rule is designed to make guys think twice about being properly protected with tightened chin straps.
Maybe a similar rule should be enacted to punish fake injuries. If a player goes down in a way that stalls the game, maybe he has to miss the rest of that series and the next one, too. Harsh, sure. But it would give coaches something to think about before drawing up the fake. Something beyond public shaming is needed.
Steve Shaw, the national coordinator for football officiating, has had to talk specifically with Ole Miss about the pattern that’s showed up in the Rebels’ games against Kentucky and South Carolina. Talking will only get so far.
Consequences will have to come, or nothing will change. Remember, teams were given a stern warning about this exact issue before the 2022 season. It didn’t help with some, clearly.
“The Art of Faking Injuries in College Football,†was an ESPN headline in 2020. This is not some new thing, but it does seem to be becoming an even more common thing.
“It’s fascinating to me to see how many injuries occur for them after the opposing offense makes a first down or makes a big play,†Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer said after losing to Ole Miss.
“The timing on some of the injuries,†he added, “it’s a really bad look for college football.â€
Kiffin isn’t the only culprit.
He would, though, make a notable example now that it’s beyond time to crack down.
What Lanning did against Ohio State was creative. What injury fakers are doing is pathetic.