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Rhett Lashlee calls for NCAA rules committee to look at tackling defenseless players at the knees

On3 imageby:Billy Embody•10/22/24•

BillyEmbody

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SMU HC Rhett Lashlee. (Matt Visinsky / On3)

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee wasn’t going after Stanford for the hit on tight end RJ Maryland that ended his season, but he does want change to come in tackling.

Maryland caught a pass in the 3rd quarter against the Cardinal and with a rough hit to his knee, which is legal, his season was over with an ACL injury.

Lashlee wants the NCAA rules committee to look at tackling with regards to defenseless players at the knees. Part of his stance includes him feeling that players would prefer to get hit chest up rather than a low shot at the knees.

“I’ll say this, it was a clean hit, there’s nothing dirty on their part at all, but I think at the end of the year, competition committee needs to look at college football a little bit because we make such a big deal — and rightfully so — on the targeting,” Lashlee said. “I think any skill player would tell you they’d rather be hit chest up any day of the week, other than defenseless at the knees. Guys are gonna get hurt. You see it in the NFL, you see it in college. Like I said, that tackle’s legal, so there’s nothing dirty about it. But I think we need to look at it because you’re not allowed to hit a defenseless quarterback below the knees while he’s in the pocket for obvious reasons, and that is no different. As a matter of fact, it’s probably worse.”

Maryland, who is a star in SMU’s offense, now goes from potentially heading off to the NFL after this season to probably needing another year in action of college football. As Maryland is now set for surgery and a recovery, Lashlee hopes change is brought.

“I just hate it for him and again, it’s just unfortunate. I’m for the game being physical, I’m not trying to to take it a different direction, but we put a lot of emphasis on making the game safer,” Lashlee said. “To me, that’s a very unsafe tackle when you can go at a guy’s knees, that hard defenseless. I think that’s why you see when that happens a lot of times guys hurt.

“He’ll he’ll push through it, he’ll be better for it, and he’ll make a full recovery. I still think he has a huge future.”

SMU heads on the road to face 6-1 Duke Saturday night at 7 p.m. CT on ACC Network. The Mustangs are bowl eligible at 6-1 and ranked No. 22 in the latest AP Top 25 and Coaches Poll.

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