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July 29, 2008

Will new clock rules help Georgia?


Dave Paschall with the Chattanooga Free Press discussed the new 40/25 second play clock rules in Sunday's paper. As you may have heard by now, the rule basically works like this (per the Free Press)
In February, the NCAA Football Rules Committee voted to implement a 40/25-second play clock similar to what the NFL employs. Instead of using a 25-second clock that doesn’t start until officials mark the ball ready for play, college football will now use a 40-second clock that will start at the end of the preceding play.

The 25-second clock still will be used on the first play following a change of possession, as well as after penalties, measurements and timeouts.
Most coaches think the rule change favors teams spread offenses who have a natural predisposition to go no huddle anyway.

Richt's specific comments were interesting
“Seven years ago, I would have been thrilled about it,” Richt said. “My ambition was to play as fast as we could possibly play and run the no-huddle and get to the line of scrimmage as fast as possible and get the ball snapped in a hurry and run as many plays as possible. We were not allowed to do that.

“In my opinion, the officials in this league were more deliberate than in any league I had been. The SEC, to me, was grinding it to a halt. Now, all of a sudden, you can play as fast as you want to play.”
If his preference is to move faster, then let's go. No reason not to bring that aggressive tempo to Athens.

My one concern with this rule change is the impact on Georgia's defense. It seemed that we struggled a bit last year when the other team's offense went to an aggressive no huddle tempo. I believe it was Troy and UK that created some issues for the Dawgs when they accelerated their pace.

Do you think we'll move faster next year between plays?

See Also:
-- Go, Go, Go, Go - Blutarsky
-- Does the rules committee hate football - SMQ
-- Not to belabor the point but... - SMQ

PWD

5 comments:

Hobnail_Boot said...

As we see more teams trend towards the stall technique employed by Troy and Kentucky, our defensive coaching staff will find ways to combat it as well.

It's damn frustrating from the stands.

Anonymous said...

The coaches weren't getting the plays in to the defense on time. That's why we often struggled against hurry-up offenses.

I can't tell you how many times I watched Willie signal in the plays while the other team was at the line of scrimmage about to snap the ball.

Anonymous said...

Under old rules, the game clock would not start until the snap, and the old rules have been left in place for the final two minutes of the half and game.

This is from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Is this a new rule change as well or is it one that was used last year?

Anonymous said...

I am not sure how much of a difference this will actually make, because lots of SEC games are televised, and as anyone who has been in a stadium for a game being televised knows, it doesn't what rule they have in place because TV producers have a trump card.

Anonymous said...

based on the games I watched last year, Georgia should have the advantage because Stafford appears to be the only QB out there that has been taught to read coverages and adjust on his own without looking to the sideline for each play. If the D can disguise its coverage, and play switcheroo, then the QBs are going to end up absolutely clueless and sitting ducks.

 
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