Stallions changed the game: Helmet Radios are now AOK!
Yeah, not sure this goes under the category of "bragging rights," like the Raiders can take credit for the 4th down fumble room (as a result of the Holy Roller). But I guess we can take credit for the fact that NCAA has advanced its technology to at least, like, 1986, by allowing helmet radios now.
And now there is also a 2 minute time out, b/c apparently Fox and ESPN still don't have enough time outs during college football games.
Isn't it funny how wild horses can't drag the NCAA to the do the right thing on its own, but a single Stallion can?
So what will OSU's excuse be in 2024?
Also, didn't anybody think about the number of jobs at risk? This is at least three staffers waving placards / wearing funny colored shirts who are no longer needed.
Signs and placards will still be used because no-huddle teams need them.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart, the rules committee co-chair, and others have said they still expect many teams to use hand signals and signs to relay plays.
But for what it's worth, Stalions was never getting the scouting info on the signs, only the hand gestures.
But for what it's worth, Stalions was never getting the scouting info on the signs, only the hand gestures.
This sounds like new information...and also doesn't make sense to me.
He specifically told the scouts to ignore the placards. I put that detail in one or two of the early posts but it kinda got lost in the overall hullabaloo.
Crazily it was never reported (that I recall) in any of the gazillion stories and everyone (it seemed) presumed we were talking almost exclusively about the placards.
But what is the strategic purpose for that, is what I wonder. Is it that CS was able to get good enough intel on the placards just from the usual methods (i.e., TV broadcasts) and needed additional visuals on the hand signs?
That's a possibility, but my semi-informed guess is he just didn't care about the type of info in the placards (I don't personally understand the demarcation of what gets a hand gesture and what gets a placard, but I'm sure somewhere on the interwebs former players have explained).
What I think the national media missed, other than most things, is how limited the info was. This is speculation on my part and not inside info, but playcalls are far too complex to try and download the whole thing, process it, signal it back to your defense all in the few seconds before the ball is snapped. This is especially true when the O goes out, sees how the D sets up, and then signals in a change with the info the D is showing. The snap of the ball is usually only a few seconds away at that point and you don't want your D taking their eyes off the road, so to speak.
I suspect, strongly, this was just trying to nab just enough info to squeeze in a very simple run/pass alert for situations when the scouting or offensive down/distance/set suggests a tendency and you want to alert that the tendency might get broken, like a play action in a situation that is otherwise scouted to be a run. Or to just catch certain checkdowns. That's a quick one-second signal (like pointing to the air) so the D doesn't waste a step checking run when they should just be dropping into their zone. That's about it. So, it's nice to have if you're really confident in it, but also something you can pretty easily do without if your players are super good at figuring out what's coming anyway and aren't wasting that step to begin with.
I'm looking at you, Mike Sanristil. The players were the real scouting heroes.
This is always my explanation to the 'they cheated' crowd, and it always ends with them having no rebuttal and just muttering under their breath as they walk away.
Here's my guess: because the placards are just held up for a long time and are never shuffled quickly, they're rarely the actual play call and likely just formation/tempo. Perhaps some of the early drives or gimic plays are on the placards, but definitely not the majority of play calls.
If you watch most of these tempo, no huddle offenses the past 5+ years, they rush to the line, get set, then immediately look to the sideline for the 'final' play call as an adjustment to the defense. In these scenarios there's always a coach/coaches gesturing the final call, never shuffling of the placards, which to me means the placards rarely if ever hold actual play calls. Perhaps the first few scripted drives and a few immediate run to the line and snaps but far and away are essentially decoys.
For what it's worth the frigging NCAA has taken 30 years to do what the NFL did in the '90's. Ditto for high schools in Texas that adopted in-helmet microphones quite some time ago.
But hey, the MFers can draft rules that allow for an ice cream cake to be eaten by a recruit in the lobby but the same cake can't be brought to the recruit's room.
There's been progress. Recruits can at least have cream cheese with their bagels now.
Hate to say it but the fact that our universities remain NCAA members says as much about the leadership of our universities as it does about the NCAA.
So you're saying Stalions was in charge of the hand jobs, and not the sign jobs?
He gave out hand jobs. And paid the people he was giving hand jobs!
That Michigan is now using AI led drones to tap into helmet radios, then the drones spit out exact play to run to stop or score on them.
Oh, and that the drone program was funded by Harbaugh himself
That’s why Stalions ended up working with CMU last year, Harbaugh couldn’t afford the drones and subsidize the joint venture vacuum business run by CS and Blake. CMU was willing to fund the Shark portion of the venture.
Combining real-time AI with analytics could be an interesting approach. With enough processing horsepower and a good link (thus ruling out Michigan Stadium) you could get very quick responses that might be very helpful in terms of tendencies. Uniform numbers provide immediate player ID. The analysis could be transmitted in a few seconds.
2024 will be tough since Michigan turned over the entire roster. I would not get ahead of our skis here.
OSU was out of excuses last year. Until they own it, they will struggle in this game. We are all to familiar with this mentality as Michigan had an excuse for losing every year until the culture changed. I don't know if Day is capable of not blaming someone else for his failures.
Michigan turned over the entire roster
There is this newfangled thing called defense…
Actually, Ryan Day should get credit for forcing the change since everyone in the game (including Ohio State) wanted to keep sign stealing as part of the game until Ohio State complained about it.
the two minute timeout is not to be confused with their timeout every 2 minutes
2 shall be thy number you shall count, and the number of the counting shall be 2. 3 shalt thy not count. 4 is right out!
I just watched this movie over the weekend! I had gotten stoned and watched Love Guru and needed something I could actually laugh at.
Sorry, you blew the punchline-- it's "Five is right out!"
I know this is a stupid hill to die on, but adding a two minute warning to college football really pisses me off. I liked that there were rule differences between the college and NFL games which created differences in game management. This move is 100% coaches wanting one more time out at the end. What's so stupid is this is against everything the previous rule changes have all been about which is shortening the game beacuse they can't afford to give up a single commercial. Let's reduce actual game time and plays, but add a two minute warning??? WTF!!!! Yes, I know, get off my lawn.
I’m honestly confused by what you are arguing for. I agree that college and NFL should have rule differences for a reason. However, last year with the new rule that runs the clock on first downs, they stole game time from us, added commercial time, and the games still take 3.5 hours to be played. At least the 2 minute warning gives us some of that time back. My guess is this will actually cut into commercial time. The games will still have to be played in the same time slot, but now they are adding back a play or two. You want to shorten games? Get the asshole with the red hat off of the field until a team calls a timeout or until the quarter ends.
It's too bad Dennis Norfleet can't get a COVID year.
And now there is also a 2 minute time out, b/c apparently Fox and ESPN still don't have enough time outs during college football games.
The article says that these will not be additional TV timeouts. I assume they'll figure out a way to throw an ad in a box on the screen.
I heard Klatt get all indignant about this awhile ago. The number of commercial breaks are not increased. However, I sort of assume this means that instead of going to commercials after a kickoff, they will stay on air and do ad reads, and that will be the ad break that gets "removed."
Supposedly the 2-minute warning will replace a previous TV timeout. It would not be an incremental TV timeout.
The guys running the TV broadcast likely PREFER a 2-minute warning versus a timeout elsewhere. Some games (ND/Navy last year I recall as an example) have minimal game breaks in the 4th Quarter because teams are running it a lot and the clock keeps on running. TV literally runs out of time to get all their ad breaks in. A 2-minute warning guarantees a stoppage.
As regards the warning and gameplay, given the new clock timing rules (clock not always stopping on a 1st down), I'm fine with the 2-minute warning. It has become easier to "ice" a football game with the new rules (4:00 left, 1 1st down can sometimes do it). This makes it a bit tougher.
TV execs: There are some coaches not using all of their timeouts. What an afront to humanity!!! and our profits!!!!!!!. You college people need to add a guaranteed timeout to the games because it works really well for us in the NFL!!!!
SMDH
Why any fan would give a shit about what the guys running the TV broadcast prefer is beyond me. TV literally runs out of time to get their breaks in? Jesus, you support the dumbest fucking takes sometimes for someone that is mostly rational. It’s ok to have a 3 hour college football game, some of us have other shit to do.
Da Vinci, Tesla, Ford, Stallions.
The 4th down fumble room
Is a South Beach club run by Sammie Smith.
I believe Joel Klatt talked about the 2 minute warning. Mentioned it will not create additional commercials ( number of commercials per game ). They probably will take advantage of those times to go to a break but wont be more commercials. I like the 2 mintue rule with the new clock rules.
plot twist, stalions has been working to hack the helmet radio signal for years, his 4d chess plan is coming together perfectly.
this was all in the 600-page manifesto
I actually don't know how these work. does every player get one, or just the qb? can the player(s) talk back?
edit: google AI to the rescue. very interesting how the nfl does it, i wonder if ncaa will do the same.
NFL players can use audio equipment built into their helmets to communicate with coaches during games. Only one player on offense and one player on defense are allowed to have a speaker in their helmet, and the helmet can only have a speaker, not a microphone. The coach can select a play using a tablet, which sends the information to the quarterback. The quarterback then relays the play to his teammates in the huddle. Quarterbacks can hear, but not talk to, their coaches until there are fifteen seconds left on the play clock.
Right, which is why some/many teams will still be signaling. At a minimum, the wide receivers need the info that the QB has, especially when there is a check into something else (coming from the sidelines) based on what they're seeing in the defensive alignment.
It's the QB and MIKE LB that gets the radio.
You're welcome college football...you can leave your thank you cards at Connor's doorstep
... along with your non-working vacuums. Our current turnaround time is approximately 3-9 business days.
Prediction: If [1] the communication is encrypted, OSU will spend $ and figure out how to decrypt it. Michigan will eventually -- and unwittingly -- get on that train through an overzealous staffer. Because of sloppy processes, OSU will find out and try to kneecap Michigan.
[1] I haven't looked into the technical details at all.
The next wave in college football espionage ----- big-time college football programs spending millions in NIL $$$ to compete with the NSA for 5-star cryptologists.
To the NCAA, it's not worth changing a moronic rule unless Michigans gets dragged through hell because of it first.
+1 informative. however, regarding your last sentence - the article explicitly states that the 2 minute warning timeout will not be a tv time out.
We'll see. First rule of business is, if it's not in a contract, it doesn't exist.
The Michigan Difference.
(won't wait for StephenRJKing to say it)
The Michigan Difference
NOW what can people get upset about?
I'm fine with the 2 minute warning in the second half as it adds a little more strategy. But it's absolutely useless in the first half.