Change has a prominent seat for the 2024 college football season, and that’s certainly the case in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama football not only has a new coach in Kalen DeBoer and plenty of changes to the program, but the Crimson Tide also has two new teams in its conference in Texas and Oklahoma. There’s an expanded College Football Playoff, and oh by the way, there’s been a change to in-game communication.
Earlier this year, the NCAA gave the green light to helmet communication for players and coaches to communicate for the 2024 season. A coach will be able to talk with one player on the field. They can talk until 15 seconds remain on the play clock. Or, the mic shuts off the minute the play starts.
Alabama tested it out during the scrimmage this past Saturday. Deontae Lawson is a top candidate to wear the “green dot” at inside linebacker.
“It will be a cat and mouse game,” Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said. “I’m excited to see how to navigate that. I want to stay ahead of the curve.”
Wommack said some teams might wait until after the 15 seconds to go, so then the defense would have to go back to normal signaling. Because if an offense tries to go quickly and makes a check before the 15 seconds, Wommack can immediately tell his defense to make an adjustment.
“You could write a book on the headset communication and how different that is from where we were with signaling to where we are now,” Wommack said. “I think you’re going to see all things over the spectrum. You’re going to see some people that still do all the signaling and you’re going to see some people who are going to try to go exclusively to the headset communication.”
Either way, it’s going to be different in a season full of different.
