Greg Schiano says college football will 'be fine' with helmet communication, tablets

Greg Schiano, like other college football coaches, have to adjust to new technology in the sport this coming season.

Helmet communication and tablets are now permitted throughout the sport. This came on the heels of Michigan’s alleged sign stealing scandal last season.

Whether it spearheaded the effort to change practices or not, Schiano thinks there will be an adjustment period, but it’ll be fine by the time the season rolls around.

“You know, I think as long as you practice with it, I think you’ll be fine,” Schiano said on Big Ten Network. “You’re right, we have experience with it. Several guys on our staff, including myself. So it’s one of those things that really the two big changes: the helmet communication and the tablets. I think the tablets are even a bigger change because we have video on these tablets, you know that in the NFL, it’s still shots. Well now there’s video.”

“So how you figure it all out, how you’re going to use it, how you’re going to have a workflow. Those are things that coaches will spend a lot of time on you know, have spent time on and will spend a lot of time on leading up to training camp and getting ready for the season. So technology is certainly making a big push in 2024.”

The Rutgers head coach has experience from his time in the NFL as a head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012 and ‘13.

The rules for helmet communication are almost a carbon copy of the NFL rules. One player for each team can be on the field and wearing a helmet with the communication technology at a time. 

The helmets with the communications tech in them will be marked by a green dot sticker on the back of the helmet, exactly how the NFL manages the identification. And in a final similar to the NFL, the communication from sideline to player will cut off at 15 seconds left on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.

There are also rules for the amount of tablets to be used, and for what purposes. That’s something Schiano said he and his staff will have to figure out.

The same could be said for other teams.

“Teams can have up to 18 active tablets for use in the coaching booth, sideline and locker room,” the release announcing the new rules said. “Tablets cannot be connected to other devices to project larger additional images and cannot include analytics, data or data access capability or other communication access. All team personnel will be allowed to view the tablets during the game.”

In addition, the two-minute warning at the end of each half was also adopted. As Schiano said, technology is coming to college football in 2024. We better all get used to it.