<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4LxVMj_0wAb8RKG00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4LxVMj_0wAb8RKG00" width="2048" height="1152" ></figure><p>ATHENS — The college football season is flying by and flying high with refigured teams and leagues providing compelling matchups each Saturday afternoon.</p><p>The action has been fast and furious, to the extent a handful of significant rules changes has mostly flown under the radar — a good thing, according to LSU coach Brian Kelly.</p><p>“It really hasn’t been as impactful of a year, relative to the particular rule changes,” said Kelly, speaking to the new rules changes that include teams being allowed to utilize one in-helmet radio communication on offense and defense, iPads on the sideline and halftime locker room and a two-minute warning at the end of each half that serves as an added time out.</p><p>“The technology piece has worked a lot smoother than I thought it would,” said Kelly, whose Tigers are 5-1 and ranked No. 8 in the AP Top 25 poll. “It’s a first-year thing, and I thought there would be a lot more fits and starts, and communication errors, but I’ve got to say, from my perspective that’s gone pretty smoothly.”</p><div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hLq16MUrxLM?feature=oembed" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div><p>Kelly said the changes to the NCAA transfer portal — Dec. 9-28 and April 16-25 -- have not yet affected his program.</p><p>“We’ll be dealing with the transfer portal here in terms of it being a shortened window,” Kelly said on the SEC teleconference, “so I haven’t felt that yet.”</p><p>Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who serves on the NCAA football rules committee, is withholding judgment, but notes the changes have had a negligible, and neutral effect.</p><p>“It’s hard to measure six weeks in, I don’t think you know the full-effect of some of those rules changes until you have the entirety of the season,” Smart said. “Whatever the changes have been, they are equal on each side; I look at it as you have iPads, they have an iPad.</p><p>“The great high school programs across the state and country, they (use i-Pad technology) already, so it’s not really different for the kids, it’s new to us,” Smart said. “As far as the two-minute (warning), it’s like an extra timeout. I can’t say what impact it has, it is different, but it’s not a noticeable impact.”</p><h2>Advantage, Defense</h2><p>Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has noted how the iPad technology has helped defenses more than offenses.</p><p>“I do think the sideline iPads have had a positive impact for defenses going against tempo offenses,” Drinkwitz said, “because they can identify where they misaligned or what wasn’t right about the play, whereas before you’ve had to guess.”</p><p>Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer likes the aspect of immediate review the iPads allow, the better to teach his players.</p><p>“With the tablets, it has been more of a positive than anything,” DeBoer said. “The confirmation is immediate, especially when you’re on the ground and you can’t see everything, and you’re trying to coach your guys up.</p><p>“You can show your players, especially with teams that are faster with their tempo, you get a chance to look at the pictures.”</p><p>DeBoer said the newly introduced two-minute warning, however, has required coaches to re-calibrate clock management.</p><p>“The two-minute timeout was something in spring and summer was something I was wanting to hone in and understand greater,” DeBoer said. “You do this long enough and you know all the times, and how much you can run off with one, two, three timeouts — you know those off the top of your head, where you understand the situations.</p><p>“When trying to figure out when to use the timeouts (now), we’re getting more and more on the same page, (and) it adds an element to the game,” the Tide’s first-year coach said. “All of them (rules changes) have been, for the most part, positive, especially the communication piece with the helmets and the tablets.”</p><h2>Cat and Mouse</h2><p>“Maybe in the past there were some things where someone wasn’t able to figure it out on Sunday, they’re going to be able to figure that out Saturday right in the middle of the game,” Lebby said. “You’re playing fast and playing with tempo, you’re not going to get away with the same thing three, four, five times inside of the game … like you would in the past.”</p><p>Lebby said that has led offenses to run more “set-up plays,” which consistent of different plays being run out of the same looks and formations.</p><p>“Where you’re creating the same picture and doing something else,” Lebby said, “to constantly play that cat and mouse game.”</p><p>Drinkwitz concluded teams are still learning out how to maximize the new rules changes to their benefits, and staying on their toes for what might come next.</p><p>“Obviously we’re still trying to all figure out, only six games into some of these rules changes, I think it’s still a lot left to be determined,” Drinkwitz said.</p><p>“As for what’s the future of college football, every time I wake up, there’s a new rules change, you just have to adjust to it.”</p></div></body>

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NewsBreak

SEC football coaches share impact of new rules changes, defenses early benefactors

ATHENS — The college football season is flying by and flying high with refigured teams and leagues providing compelling matchups each Saturday afternoon. The action has been fast and furious, to the extent a handful of significant rules changes has mostly flown under the radar — a good thing, according to LSU coach Brian Kelly.