In recent years up-tempo offenses have spread like wildfire across college football. Oregon and Auburn get a lot of credit for bringing it to major college football and coaches like Will Muschamp and Nick Saban have spoken about the difficulties in stopping it.
Now Kirk Herbstreit believes that defenses will go to extremes to slow down these high powered offenses:
“There’s nothing in the rule book at this point that states defenses can’t fake injuries,” Herbstreit said. “I promise you, in some big game after some crucial second down that sets up a third down, they’re going down. It’s going to be embarrassing. It’s going to be so fake. Nothing prevents it other than being unethical.”
“If it’s obvious, you might get a warning or discipline from the league office after the fact,” Herbstreit said. “I’m telling you, keep an eye on this. These guys are practicing it. You have to get down and be comfortable with it so if you fake in a game, you don’t look like you can’t do it.”
The rule books actually only states:
“Feigning an injury for any reason is unethical. An injured player must be given full protection under the rules, but feigning injury is dishonest, unsportsmanlike, and contrary to the spirit of the rules. Such tactics cannot be tolerated among sportsmen of integrity.”
Will we see an increase in fake injuries this year? I don’t see an Alabama doing this but I guess it’s possible. Would you be made if your favorite team faked an injury to make some key substitutions late in a game?