Will Ohio State football use helmet communication against Missouri in Cotton Bowl?
ARLINGTON, Texas — Ohio State and Missouri will not adopt helmet communications for the Cotton Bowl.
The technology, used for decades in the NFL in order to radio play calls from the sideline, was approved for bowl games by the NCAA rules committee over the summer.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said he discussed the possibility with his counterpart, Eli Drinkwitz, the Tigers’ coach, before they decided against it.
He chalked it up to having only a handful of weeks to practice with the communication devices before the teams meet Friday night at AT&T Stadium.
“We both agree that down the road, it makes a lot of sense,” Day said, “but with everything going on right now, to try to manage a game without having done it all season, we felt like it was something we wanted to have a spring practice and a preseason to work through, because of the unintended consequence of a new variable.”
This month is also a particularly hectic time on the calendar for coaching staffs, ranging from bowl preparation to managing the opening of the transfer portal and the early signing period for high school players.
The juggling act weighed on Drinkwitz.
“December’s got enough challenges,” he said. “For us to try to communicate on the sideline and get the communication in was something that just didn’t make a lot of sense for us. Coach Day and have a good working relationship and made a call.”
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Yahoo! Sports reported last week that at least 14 bowl games will see teams using helmet communications or smart tablets on the sideline, spanning about a third of this season’s bowl games.
The NFL began using the communication in 1994, allowing for headset transmission to quarterbacks and expanding to a defensive player in 2008. As part of the system, a speaker is placed inside their helmet, enabling them to hear a play call from a coach or coordinator.
A benefit seen to the headsets is that they reduce opportunities for sign stealing, an issue that has been at the forefront of the sport this year.
Since at least October, the NCAA has been investigating Michigan, the top seed in the College Football Playoff and the Buckeyes’ archrival, for allegedly violating rules that prohibit teams from scouting opponents in person in order to steal signs.
As the scandal became public two months ago, Day said the use of the helmet technology should be considered. He is familiar with it having spent two seasons in the NFL as the quarterbacks coach with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 and Philadelphia Eagles in 2015.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch and can be reached at jkaufman@dispatch.com.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State will not use helmet technology vs. Missouri in Cotton Bowl
