Mike Elko calls out how offenses are treated amid fake injury debate

Faking injuries to stop the game has become a topic of conversation in college football as it appears teams are doing it more often. Texas A&M Aggies head coach Mike Elko is aware of it but he also has a unique perspective on the problem.

While sharing his thoughts on the issue, Elko shared the perspective of a defensive coordinator and called out how offenses are treated in the sport.

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“So, can I be a defensive coordinator for a minute? Something has to be the other way too,” Mike Elko said. “The speed at which we play the game in college, you have a kid’s shoelace come untied, nobody bails him out. And so he’s out there, the offense is sprinting to the line, they’re about to snap the ball. What do you want the kid to do? Kids’ shoe comes off. They’re sprinting to the line of scrimmage. He can’t put his shoe back on. What do you want the kid to do?”

The core reason why it’s assumed that defenses might fake an injury comes down to getting the offense, typically an up-tempo offense, out of its rhythm. That can either allow for easier substitutions or just let a defense on its heels catch its breath or slow the opposing momentum.

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While there aren’t current rules against it, it would be difficult to implement rules because it’s difficult to know if a player is faking something like a cramp. However, there are times when players or teams don’t try to hide it.

“The way we allow offenses to just go with no respite for the defense at all, which is completely unique to the college game, it does not exist in the NFL that way, puts defensive kids at risk,” Elko said. “Do we condone faking injuries? No. But I can go back to when I was here as the defensive coordinator, and certain programs felt as though we did that at times. At times, it was a kid having to stop the game because there was no other way to stop the game, not necessarily because we were using it as our advantage for third down or to get a group on the field, but literally because he couldn’t play the next stop and no one was going to help him and you can’t hockey line sub when offenses are going fast.”

Ultimately, Mike Elko knows it’s a bad look for college football and most fans take a serious issue with it. The ABC broadcast called out Ole Miss for a blatantly faked injury when playing Kentucky, though in that case, it was an offensive player who went down. Meanwhile, College GameDay host Rece Davis recently made a plea to end the fake injuries.

“I think it’s a both-side problem,” Elko said. “I think it’s a bad look for the game when you see defensive players faking injuries all over the place. I think it’s a bad look for the game when we allow offenses to go at whatever speed and tempo they want to go at. I think it’s certainly something that probably needs to be addressed on both sides in some way, shape, or form.”

For his part, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has shared that he wants to make a rule change around the issue of fake injuries, but nothing has happened yet.