Nick Saban is calling for a massive rule change in college football.
Ole Miss has been at the center of the controversy over fake injuries after their 27-3 win over South Carolina on Oct. 5 involved several players appearing to feign being hurt, likely in a move to slow the game down.
Saban, the ex-Alabama coach, addressed the issue on ESPN’s “College GameDay” on Saturday.
“This is the integrity of the game,” said Saban. “And there’s no player that flops in a game that doesn’t get a signal from the coach to do it — to slow the game down. There’s a history to all of this because, in the old days, you used to have to run off the field if you got injured. I mean, I broke my leg, and I gotta run off the field. Well, fastball came along, so everybody said, ‘If you’re getting injured, stay down — don’t get up. We can’t substitute fast enough.’
“So, now people are taking advantage of this rule. But I think until there’s some penalty for doing it, and I know it’s a very sensitive subject for an official to make a determination about is a player injured or not — but there should be a flop rule. And if a guy actually gets up, runs down, and right before the play starts, flops, maybe it should be a charged timeout for that team because it’s pretty obvious in these situations where guys are flopping, and they’re not injured.”
Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer questioned the 11 pauses in the game in the postgame press conference last weekend.
“I hope they’re OK… It’s fascinating to me how many injuries occur for them after the opposing offense makes a first down or has a big play…” he said. “The timing of some of the injuries, it’s a really bad look for college football and it’s not what this game is about.”
Saban’s “GameDay” colleague, Kirk Herbstreit, also took issue with the injury trend, taking aim at Oklahoma after the team appeared to fake an injury in the first quarter of their eventual 25-15 loss to Tennessee on Sept. 21.
“It’s unethical,” Herbstreit said. “It’s not breaking a rule, but it’s unethical.”
According to “GameDay” host Rece Davis, Craig Bohl, the president of the American Football Coaches Association, stated that addressing the feigned injuries is a top priority ahead of the upcoming season.
However, he mentioned that teams don’t have to wait for new rules to take effect and can take matters into their own hands by ending the tactic.
“I think there’s several solutions here, but it’s going to start with the coaches and the integrity of the game,” Saban added. “And I think we all should respect the integrity of the game because there’s so much passion for our game and so much people and so much fan interest, and when you hear people booing constantly because of this, that’s a problem.”
Ole Miss, for its part, released a statement ahead of Saturday’s game against LSU, addressing the topic.
“Feigned injuries has become a notable topic in college football, and we realize our program has been part of that discussion,” the school said, per the Clarion Ledger. “We have been in communication with the National Coordinator for Football Officiating and provided relevant medical information for his review to answer questions about recent injuries.
“We have also updated the SEC office, and our head coach will communicate with our coaches and players to ensure we conduct ourselves properly and are compliant in this matter.”