This week’s change in college football’s targeting rule won easy approval from Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson, Georgia State coach Trent Miles and Georgia coach Mark Richt.
Before last season, the NCAA instituted a rule that defensive players who targeted an offensive player and hit him in the head would be ejected and assessed a 15-yard penalty. Officials were then to review the hit on video to confirm the defensive player was indeed going for the offensive player’s head. While the ejection could be overturned, the penalty could not.
On Thursday, the NCAA approved a rule change stating that the penalty would be wiped out if video review overturned the ejection. The change goes into effect for the 2014 season.
Johnson is a member of the American Football Coaches Association rules committee that advised the change. He called it a “no-brainer.”
“I think that, after seeing it a year, they realized it doesn’t make sense,” Johnson said.
That realization came a year too late for the Bulldogs. Against Vanderbilt in October, Bulldogs linebacker Ramik Wilson was penalized for targeting and ejected on an incomplete pass on a fourth-and-4 play in the fourth quarter. Video replay overturned the ejection, but the rules in place called for the penalty to stand. With the first down, the Commodores went on to score a touchdown en route to their 31-27 upset of Georgia.
Following the loss, Richt and athletic director Greg McGarity both had conversations with SEC coordinator of officials Steve Shaw about the call.
“Great change,” Richt said Friday in a comment provided by the school. “I wish it was in effect last year!”
Miles saw it similarly.
“It’s common sense,” he said. “It made no sense to penalize a kid when you didn’t say he didn’t receive a penalty. I knew it was going to happen. There was no way they couldn’t continue to do that.”
Johnson said that another rule change under discussion is to ban tackling a quarterback below his waist while he is in the pocket. Johnson said, “I think it’s going to go through.”
He was not in favor of it. While he is an advocate for changes that would improve the safety of the game, he also noted that it would be difficult to officiate and perhaps make it excessively difficult for defensive players.
“Pretty soon, I don’t know where you can tackle ’em,” Johnson said. “You can’t hit ’em above the shoulders, and you can’t hit ’em below the waist.”
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