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By now every college football fan knows all about the tabbed "Saban rule", the attempt by Nick Saban and Bret Bielema to sneak a rule in that would slow down the hurry up offenses that are becoming so lethal in college football these days. We have finally heard from Saban himself about the proposed rule that carries his name and after Bielema made an ass of himself on the matter Saban had no choice but to deny his vested interest seeing this rule passed. Nick was interested enough to address the rules panel on the subject personally like Steve Spurrier pointed out as he named the 10 second rule "the Saban rule". Saban rule or not this attempt by these coaches to stifle the innovations being brought to football by coaches like Gus Malzhan, Kevin Sumlin Hugh Freeze and Art Briles to name a few just seems weak. It's almost like they just don't see any way to stop teams like Auburn who came out of nowhere to win the SEC except to change the rules to slow them down and what kind of message is that to the players who are smart enough to see this for what it is. Coaches like Malzhan have found a way to take a team with less talent and disrupt the "process" that coaches like Saban thrive on, recruit the best players and let the talent and depth wear the other guys down. Instead of evolving with the game coaches like Bielema will even go as far as to site a Cal players death that had nothing to do with game pace and use it to further his own agenda, which is very sad and disturbing.
Gus Malzhan did say that proper data needs to be made available for this discussion at a later date, he pointed out that 2015 is a rules change year and that would give the NCAA time to study the situation. Coaches like Malzhan are not shying away from the player safety issue and will be willing to adapt if there is any data to prove a bigger risk of injury, however unlikely that is.There is one study out that seems to show that Bielema is dead wrong, that teams who play power football might pose a bigger risk for players. It sounds reasonable that an offense that has 15 play drives that take eight minutes with a lot of hard collisions in a small space with much bigger and stronger players than in any time in the sports history could cause more damage than a HUNH team that has a seven play drive in only two minutes. The way that certain coaches tried to sneak this through just stinks and thank goodness it was leaked in the media and other coaches were made aware of it, even though nearly %80 of current head coaches disagree with the rule it will still be voted on next week. Chairman of the rules panel, Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun came out strong for the proposal at first but after he spoke with coaches like Malzhan he pulled away mirroring Malzhans stance that there has to be data/proof for a change in the rules, which only seems fair. Lets only hope for the good of the game that nothing comes from this, just think if coaches tried this when earlier new offensive or defensive styles were brought in to play. Imagine a rules change that killed the "west coast" offense or the "fun-n-gun" Spurrier used to dominate the SEC when he was at Florida. Say what you want but this amounts to the same thing, the difference is that the coaches who went against these earlier innovations didn't moan and cry, they adapted.
Auburn HC Gus Malzhan and A.D. Jay Jacobs, both have come out against "Saban rule"