Penn State is still transitioning to a world of headset communication, according to James Franklin, who spoke to reporters on Tuesday following the Nittany Lions’ most recent spring practice. The hiccup? There aren’t enough transponders for everyone in college football just yet.
“What happened is this rule got changed so late, that the company couldn’t really get it out to all the schools in the country,” Franklin said. “They can only get out three [in-helmet systems] So you got to decide how you’re using those three.”
“So we were doing two quarterbacks and one guy on defense. Typically a middle linebacker, one day it’s Kobe [King] and the next day it’s [Tyler] Elsdon. So it’s not ideal. We’re able to get some work at it right now. But it’s not like we can treat it game like where all three of your [middle linebackers] have it, all three of your quarterbacks have, or so on and so forth.”
Franklin and company might not need to wait too much longer for a more full-scale supplying of the headsets. The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel is scheduled to meet on April 18th and would give the final approval of the rule change. The proposed modifications to sideline technology would also include the introduction of up to 18 tablets for in-game video only.
Teams are permitted to have just one player on the field at a time with headset communications. Generally speaking middle linebackers – seen as the quarterback of the defense – would be given that responsibility on the defensive side of the ball. Players equipped with the system would be required to wear a green dot sticker on the back of their helmets to identify them to officials. Headsets would turn off with 15 seconds left on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever is first the same as it is in the NFL.
As for the move itself, Franklin is happy to have the technology, but is skeptical that it will change the main motivating factor that led to the change in the first place.
“I think the other thing that is an interesting thing is, this thing got pushed because of the whole sign stealing,” Franklin said. “And, for the offenses that are no huddle [Penn State has historically been a no huddle team] it doesn’t change them at all. Because, you still got to get the information to the wide receivers. How do you do that? You signal. So it doesn’t really solve that issue.”
“Now, do I think we should have had helmet communication the whole time? Yes. Do I think we should have been able to have tablets? We go to high school games, they got TVs on the sideline, and we can’t have a tablet. So I think they’re good changes. But, I don’t know if they necessarily are solutions to some of the challenges that have been out there that actually got the rule passed.”
Penn State’s incoming spring game will be the program’s first public usage of the headset technology, teams were permitted to experiment with the technology during bowl season if both teams agreed to it. In the case of Penn State’s trip to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl, Franklin and company voted in favor of it while Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss voted not to. As such it was not used during the game.
