Not only will there be new systems for Alabama players to learn under head coach Kalen DeBoer, but there will also be a new line of communication from the field to the coaching staff this fall.
The NCAA Football Rules Committee issued some new proposals that would go into effect for the 2024 season which include the ability for teams to utilize helmet communications. Although the process is due to be finalized on April 18, the Crimson Tide is already experimenting with the helmet microphones with its quarterbacks.
“We were doing it today. So we had it out there,” DeBoer said to the media on Monday. “With supply and demand across the country, we aren’t able to have as many as what the max would be. But we had a couple of quarterbacks with that in.”
Under the proposal, coach-to-player communications would be allowed between one player on each team who would be identified by a green dot on their helmet with communications being cut off upon the snap of the ball or with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock.
Of course, not everything was perfectly tuned on day one, but DeBoer and the staff is confident it will be sorted out before the season.
“I haven’t heard any feedback yet. I think early on there were a couple of times it was hard to hear, one way or another,” DeBoer said. “I don’t think it was too soft. I think it was actually because it was too loud. But I’m sure that will get tested in our stadium at some point.”
The change better aligns college quarterbacks to NFL standards as professional quarterbacks have been utilizing the technology for 30 years.
The new rule also comes following Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing scandal which resulted in the firing of staffer Connor Stallions, a three-game suspension of now NFL-bound head coach Jim Harbaugh and a national championship win.
Even with the ability to talk directly to his quarterback on the field, DeBoer is still hesitant to say for sure if it will solve all problems for offenses.
“But I think there’s a lot of reasons for it, you know, that I know it can be positive,” DeBoer said. “I don’t know that it answers all the concerns you might have when it comes to some of the things that people will say it automatically fixes — maybe sign-stealing and things like that. Because I think there are other ways it could go the other way, just with being intentional and trying to get a call and being able to echo it through your defensive headset. I could go on and on with that.
“But it was good. I think the quarterbacks were just getting used to it, I saw them a couple of times putting their hand up to their helmets listening, but for the most part it seemed clean.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
