Lane Kiffin responds to NCAA rule change on injury timeouts

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin didn’t have much to say about the NCAA announcing rule changes regarding faking injuries. Kiffin was at the forefront of speaking out against the move during last season.

Under the new rule, if medical personnel are forced to enter the field of play to evaluate an injured player after the ball is spotted by the officiating crew, the player’s team will be charged a timeout. If that team doesn’t have any remaining timeouts, a five-yard delay-of-game penalty will be assessed.

So it’s a step in the right direction to deter faking injuries. Kiffin actually saw it on social media. Maybe it was on the On3 Twitter account!

“Yeah, actually, I didn’t even get information about that from the SEC or NCAA yet,” Kiffin said. “I actually saw that this morning on social media. So, I don’t know enough to comment on that.”

This injury timeout penalty was proposed by the NCAA Football Rules Committee earlier this offseason. It came after many within the college football community expressed concern that some teams were having players fake injuries to slow down the opposition’s momentum or to avoid taking a timeout.

Lane Kiffin comments on NCAA rule change to injury timeouts

The reasoning for the rule change now is to provide an immediate in-game mechanism that can potentially curtail teams from utilizing fake injuries. In the past, teams were required to send video of questionable injury stoppages to be reviewed by NCAA national coordinator of officials Steve Shaw, who would then contact the offending team’s conference if it was clear the injury was a ruse.

At the start of November, the SEC announced it would begin implementing punishments for faking injuries. That was a move that Kiffin says he’s happy about.

“I’m glad,” Lane Kiffin said. “I know some people say, okay, that sounds weird coming from me. We’re a tempo offense. I’ve been saying this for years, okay, that faking an injury hurts us more than anybody — us and Tennessee — probably more than anybody in America.”

Earlier in the season, broadcaster Sean McDonough pointed out that one of the Ole Miss went to the ground in an SEC matchup against Kentucky, seemingly faking an injury. However, rules analyst Matt Austin said there was no rule specifically against such a move at the time.

“Happens to us more than anybody. Happened last week. Over and over again,” Kiffin said. “So, it may not surprise you, I was very happy for that. We issued a statement weeks ago about this.”