Clark Lea reacts to NCAA becoming more like NFL with rule changes

The NCAA became more like the NFL in terms of rules on the football field and Clark Lea is ready for change.

The Vanderbilt head coach put a positive spin on the two minute warning and helmet communication coming in 2024.

Basically, Lea is not expecting drastic changes to the games and teams should be able to adjust on the fly. Not only that, Lea and other coaches prepared during the spring.

“Obviously our game’s evolving to look a little more like the NFL game and there’s been a lot of football played with helmet communication and two minute warnings that, you know, we’ll be paying attention to that,” Lea said during spring practice. “And it’ll subtly change, you know, strategy into half into game situations. I think offensively as a huddle team, you know, the helmet communication will really help. I think defensively, it’s gonna give an opportunity to communicate to someone on the field that you know, we’re going to still need to rely on nonverbal because of offensive tempo and that kind of thing. 

“So we’ve used it this spring, we’ll be ready for it this fall, but I don’t I don’t expect anything dramatic in terms of change.”

 The NCAA announced the changes were adopted after a vote on April 18th.

The adoption of the two-minute warning will apparently not result in an additional television timeout. The use of helmet communications will be limited to the FBS levels to begin, but the use of sideline tablets is being permitted for all three NCAA divisions.

Additionally, the rules for helmet communication are almost a carbon copy of the NFL rules. One player for each team can be on the field and wearing a helmet with the communication technology at a time. 

The helmets with the communications tech in them will be marked by a green dot sticker on the back of the helmet, exactly how the NFL manages the identification. And in a final similar to the NFL, the communication from sideline to player will cut off at 15 seconds left on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.

Lea and others will adjust when need be, but it seems like the NCAA to NFL transition won’t be too difficult when the time comes.

All of the new rules adopted were approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP) after earlier consideration in February by the NCAA Rules Committee.