Ohio State Football Schedule 2024: Watch Big Games and Important Matchups
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Personnel held up posters or made hand gestures to indicate formations, protective measures and other tasks.
That’s what it’s looked like in recent years when Ohio State’s sideline called plays, but this season it should look a little less hectic.
That’s because the Buckeyes, who face Akron on Saturday, are among the Football Bowl Subdivision teams that use helmet communication.
Instead of a complex web of signals that transmit game calls, personnel can rely on radio frequencies after the NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Committee approved their use in April. Communication between coaches and players, a staple in the NFL for decades, has now spread to college football.
“It’s going to be a really good tool for us,” quarterback Will Howard said.
When Howard plays for Ohio State, he will have a speaker in his helmet, visible through a green dot on the back center line, so he can hear offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s play calls and relay them to his teammates.
Cody Simon, the Buckeyes’ starting middle linebacker, will also wear the green dot. Any player on the field, whether on offense or defense, can have his helmet equipped with the device.
Communications can continue until the game clock reaches 15 seconds, at which point a cut-off operator will turn the radios off. (They will restart when the ball is ready for the next play.)
Since the start of preseason camp earlier this month, the Buckeyes have been practicing communication between coaches and players, and to better simulate game situations, they have turned off the devices after 15 seconds during practice games.
This time has allowed them to get used to the new technology.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said the quarterbacks exchanged views on how much information it would be useful to receive before the snap to prevent overload.
The quarterbacks have also become accustomed to unfamiliar noises in their ears.
“It took us a while to get used to it,” said Howard. “We had to work through a few issues. Some days it’s really loud and noisy. Other days it’s perfect.”
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Howard, who started 25 times at quarterback for Kansas State before transferring to Ohio State in January, was thrilled to be able to use the headset to talk to Kelly.
“There are a lot of cool things you can use it for,” he said. “If you break the huddle early, you’ve got them down to 15 seconds. It can give you little reminders here and there.”
Having delegated responsibility for offensive play-calling for the first time since taking over the program in 2019, Day will also largely rely on Kelly to keep in line with Howard.
“I have the opportunity to talk to him,” Day said, “but I leave that mostly to Chip.”
The Buckeyes have even adopted contingency plans for possible outages in their communications system.
Day experienced this in the NFL when he was Kelly’s quarterback coach with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015 and the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.
“I remember that happening,” Day said. “It goes off for 30 seconds and that can really throw you off.”
All Big Ten teams use the same coach-player communication system. GSR, an audio company based in Wahoo, Nebraska, equipped each team with 10 modules this preseason.
While the radios may create additional difficulties for Ohio State’s offense, they also do so for opponents.
Simon said he anticipates some level of tactics, suggesting the offensive linemen might wait 15 seconds before breaking the lineup to prevent him from communicating with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles once the lineup is known.
“Many tactics are used to damage the defense in this way,” Simon said.
That’s why Knowles believes it’s imperative that the Buckeyes’ defenders be able to counter any attacks that come their way in the final seconds before the snap.
“You have to prepare your players and playmakers on the field that I can’t necessarily make all the right decisions for you,” Knowles said. “It starts with teaching. You may have to make a lot of adjustments yourself. You better know the defense.”
The introduction of helmet communication systems attracted attention last fall as a possible response to the alleged illegal theft of traffic signs in Michigan.
The probability of decrypting signals is apparently lower when they are transmitted via headsets.
But the momentum for implementation was already growing before the Wolverines scandal.
Before last season, the Big Ten had asked the NCAA for a waiver to use these means of communication, but was ultimately denied.
“Some of our coaches who have spent time in the NFL have asked why this hasn’t made its way into the college game,” said AJ Edds, a former Iowa linebacker who serves as the conference’s vice president for football administration and co-chairs the football rules committee.
It comes into force this week and presents a new challenge for teams on match days.
“At the end of the day, football is football,” Day said. “Whether we signal it or communicate it, we all have to be on the same page and play the game.”
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State University football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @joeyrkaufman or email him at [email protected].
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