SEC coaches discuss how to stop players from faking injuries to slow tempo

On this week’s SEC coaches teleconference, some of the brightest SEC coaches put their heads together to discuss how to tackle one of college football’s pressing issues. Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher and Lane Kiffin all have different theories on how to stop players from faking injuries to slow the game down.

First, Saban digressed — stating that decision makers above his pay grade need to figure it out.

“Not really,” Saban stated, when asked if he had a resolution to the issue. “It really slows the game down, so it’s not a good thing for the game. It’s not something that we’ve ever done here.

“When a team goes fast, which everybody has the right to go fast, and you go on long drives .. players get tired. When players get tired, they’re more susceptible to getting injured. You don’t have enough timeouts to call time out, so I understand why some people do it. We’ve not done it here. It does impact the pace of play. I don’t have a solution to it.

“There’s a lot of good people out there that are above my pay grade, I probably shouldn’t even be trying to answer this question.”

There aren’t many people above Saban’s pay-grade, so the few that remain better get to work on the issue.

Fisher: ‘I think it’s wrong.’

Moreover, Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher echoed some of the same sentiments of Saban later on the SEC coaches teleconference. However, he stated that if you believe someone is faking, you better be right.

“I think there’s two things that go on — one .. injuries are going to occur. When do you get hurt? When you’re tired, you’re out of shape — that’s when you get hit bad, things happen. And to sit there and say somebody is lying on an injury is a very tough thing to say. Especially when you call wolf one time and the guy’s really hurt,” said Fisher. “At the same time, I understand the complaint. I understand the process of which people do it. We do not do it here, we do not coach it here, I do not allow it here. .. I think it’s wrong.”

Fisher can see the issue, but believes it’s a bigger issue when you start calling wolf on some of these injuries.

Kiffin: ‘There’s gotta be a penalty to it.’

Finally, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin offered a solution to the problem. Of all the SEC coaches who touched on the issue, Kiffin was the one came up with an interesting system for stopping the problem.

“It’s been talked about for years. .. I said, ‘Well, I can tell you I don’t think you’re going to really stop that until you make it the guy has to stay out for so many plays.’ There’s gotta be a penalty to it. If you really want to change it, let the conference review it — look at the film,” stated Kiffin. “If they deem it to be an obvious faking of an injury, then there’s a penalty .. a fine. Then, I promise you it would never happen anywhere.”

While some of the best SEC coaches are putting their minds to it, we’ll see if we eventually see a penalty enacted for faking injuries. It may be morally wrong and detrimental to the sport, but how to enforce it is a separate issue.