Nothing’s more frustrating than getting a good offensive flow going, playing with tempo, and hitting on all cylinders, when suddenly everything is undone by an injury that disrupts the vibe. Mind you, there’s plenty of other drive-killing nuisances, like bottles being thrown in the field, officials making off the book decisions to overturn penalties during critical moments, or practice squad players concussing referees in the special area reserved only for zebras. You know, shit that only seems to happen to teams whose name rhymes with Georgia Bulldogs.
Some people, however, are rule benders and unapologetic assholes loophole finders who will do whatever it takes to find an edge in a game. Some are also those who get fired on tarmacs and discuss openly that they want to avoid a conference championship game because their resume that includes a loss to Kentucky was a quality loss at the time and they’d rather rest for their inevitable run at a national championship. In 2029, maybe.
That “some person” is good ole Kiffikins. And now, he’ll possibly live forever in the anus annals of college football history with a rule revision.
Honestly, this is just another something that Kiffin would punch a hole in eventually. I could fully see him running a defender onto the field to sub in, only to roll his ankle on the way to his position, and stop the clock and drive. The guy would likely be a practice squad guy, anyway, who wasn’t going to play a meaningful snap and was on the sideline for this purpose and this purpose only. Missing the rest of the possession would matter little, and the drive is stopped regardless.
Real men of genius. We salute you, Joey Freshwater.
What’s your idea on this matter? How could the rule book be revised to prevent this…or should it be revised at all? Would a fine to the program’s collective resonate more with someone like Dan Mullen, Jr…and how would you prove the injury was fake in the first place?
I think it could be easily policed postgame viewing film and imposing gradations of fines, eventually suspensions for coaches and perhaps even forfeits. I resist doing it realtime because its too hard to know for sure and you don’t want guys playing hurt to avoid a misguided penalty. After the game, you can see it pretty clearly when its most egregious and act accordingly.
Agreed. There needs to be stiff penalties for coaches who do this. None of these $25K or $50K fines for first infraction. It needs to be in the hundreds of thousands and quickly escalate to suspension and then forfeit for recurring infractions. But to do that, the cases need to be clear cut. It’s easy to identify the player who is fine one second and drops like he was hit by a sniper the next.
Regardless, even if what I propose was implemented, coaches who want to do this would find more clever ways to fake injuries, so we’ll never truly stop it.
This will help, but like you said certain coaches will find a loophole and exploit it. Funny thing is Kiffikins claims he was doing this to make a point about the current rules around this tactic because he hated when it was done to them. It will be interesting to see if he “tries to pint out the flaws” in this new rule by abusing it also. For the good of the game, of course.
Understanding cramps, strains, contusions and fractures happen, when all 11 players (offense or defense) are on the field gathering themselves while looking at the sideline for direction, all of a sudden out no where a player goes down and goes down hard, there’s your faker, to justify this fake news, that player has to face time with mother or even grandma and tell them to their face whether they are faking or an actual injury occurred, if it’s a faker or a player being of the non truthful variety, when he sees his grandma again, she is gonna make that son of a gun go out in the yard and bring back the largest piece of wood he can find, cause she is fixing to wear out that behind…GO DAWGS!!
Oooooo… The old “I’ll give you something to cry about” routine! I like it!
It’s too bad Kirby didn’t tell one of the guys on that fake punt feint to go down, but I’m not sure I’ve seen a Georgia player in the Smart era fake an injury.
On the question, I don’t know what the solution is. Holding a player out for the remainder of the series is a good solution, but is that really fair to a team that has a legit reason to take a player out for a play?
While you’re at it, don’t forget the Bret Bielema slow walk substitution rule.
That’s totally on the officials. Coaches should have 5 seconds to get a player on as a substitution. If the coach takes longer or the player loafs on the field, get out of the way.
On the flip side, if you want to go fast, go fast by not substituting. Otherwise, you have to give the defense a chance to sub.
But I give you props for this tribute to my favorite paragon of integrity and honesty: The Kiffin Kancer.
Well, second favorite. But Corch retired . . . for now.
LK’s solution doesn’t really solve the problem of how to decide if the injury is fake. You can’t (without a polygraph.)
You can’t stop it really. To punish a player, coach, team for having an injury (fake or real) is putting dangerous pressure on kids to play hurt and risk further injury because they don’t want to be “that guy” that cost the team.
But if it is to be addressed here’s a suggestion.
The National Hockey League has the “Penalty Box” that requires a team to play shorthanded for a prescribed period after a foul.
Faked or not, if the team with the injured player was required to remove a player (that’s right..make them play with ten) for the next 2 downs (or so) it would defeat the cleverness of having a substitute take the dive. Meanwhile, the offense would have the option of pointing out which defensive player will be the one to sit out the penalty plays. It wouldn’t have to be the guy that took the dive or his sub. It could be their best defender. This would cause the players to resent and resist the call to take a dive.
Yes, this potentially makes a truly injured player a villain.
But so does missing a late FG or having a penalty called on you, etc.
Like the clock run off near the end of game offensive penalties or the clock reset after a defensive 12 men on field penalty (either can be an absolute game changer/ender).
Sadly extreme measures. But necessary because dishonesty (that’s what cheating is..dishonesty…trying to steal a win by cheating) is no longer rare or occasional, but rampant.
This is the obvious solution to this problem. If the player is hurt, he needs to sit out the rest of the drive for evaluation.
Players have been hiding injuries every since there were games to be played. This won’t increase the risk to players that are legitimately injured.
Oh, and if Kiffin pulls what you’re saying, just amend the rule to let the opposing coach identify the hurt player to be sidelined. 😉
Or like letting students let a squirrel on the field to stall games.
Charge the team with a timeout for a substitute player who goes down prior to the snap of the ball. Problem solved.
Once the ball is marked for play and the center puts his hand on the ball, I would agree with this. A player who goes down after that time costs his team a timeout.
In theory, but with some quick snap scenarios the defender may still be getting up. Adrenaline and muscle memory is a heckuva thing too.
I had proposed the same thing as Junior. Will it end it? No. I am sure someone will figure where they have depth and tell that guy to go down.
I am also believer in the law of unintended consequences, and changes will find a way to backfire.
My thought is something like FlyingPeak proposed but instead of taking a timeout, that player can’t play for the next quarter, this game or the next.
Agreed. One series is not nearly punitive enough.
Also, couldn’t Birmingham conduct a review in real time that doesn’t have to stop the game for an immediate decision by the on-field ref ? They see AT LEAST the same TV replay we all see a few minutes later where the entire sideline and player in question acts like they are trying out a Hollywood script. Disqualify him from the same office that reviews plays (i think) and just buzz the ref a few minutes later that #42 is disqualified. No need to add even more bullshit delay to these things.
Tell ESPN they can’t charge Aflac and Dr. Pepper for the commercials they run during injury timeouts. That’ll put an end to the game stoppage.
This might be a real solution.
https://giphy.com/gifs/editingandlayout-NEvPzZ8bd1V4Y
The penalty stated is the one I suggested when the Senator brought this up. Sadly someone here pointed out correctly too. Coaches would then just tell players to always collapse on the field prior to rotating out for regular rest. It will change not fix flopping around faking injuries. Directly fining the HC coaches for obvious flops might help.
With in-helmet communication, no sideline signal will be needed. They can just call in a brevity code from the booth while the scrum is clearing.