Chattanooga choosing not to use in-helmet communication at Tennessee
Rusty Wright isn’t a fan of the new two-minute warnings in college football, stopping the clock with two minutes left in the second and fourth quarters just like in the NFL. The way the Chattanooga coach sees it, it’s counterproductive.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Wright said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday, “but we talk all the time about the length of games and all this stuff and now we’ve added replay and now we’ve added the two-minute warning. And they say it’s not going to add an extra timeout and those kind of things, but it does.”
“Nothing is wrong with the game,” Wright added later, “leave it alone.”
Wright has a similar view of in-helmet communication, another new rule in college football this season that allows a coach or coordinator to communicate to one player on the field through a speaker system in the helmet.
Season Opener: No. 15 Tennessee vs. Chattanooga, Saturday, 12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network
FCS teams like Chattanooga can take advantage of the new technology in games against FBS competition, like at No. 15 Tennessee on Saturday or next week when the Mocs go to Georgia State.
But Chattanooga won’t use the in-helmet communication at Neyland Stadium on Saturday or next week in Atlanta.
“(We) can (use it),” Wright said, “but we’re not.”
It’s another NFL regularity making the move to college football.
But the NFL game doesn’t translate enough to the college game to allow make it worth it, according to Wright.
“That’s another thing I hadn’t figured out either,” he said. “I understand (it) in the NFL game, because everyone huddles. Not everyone at our level or the Division I level huddles up anymore. So you still have to signal to all of those other guys.
“I’m not real sure how big of a difference that’ll make unless it’s just the communication between the offensive coordinator and the quarterback or the defensive coordinator and whoever is calling signals defensively.
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“… I understand the communication part there,” Wright continued. “At our level, it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”
“Alabama is loud too, maybe not as loud as Neyland”
Chattanooga began preparing for the Neyland Stadium atmosphere by piping in crowd noise at practice this week.
Communicating in a hostile environment won’t be anything new for the Mocs, though. They ended the regular-season schedule last year at Alabama. They went to Illinois in 2022 and Kentucky in 2021.
“We played Rocky Top on Sunday,” Wright said. “We played the team deals. I mean, it’s loud. Hopefully it’s loud for the right reasons, not the wrong ones. Hopefully they’re making noise so we can’t do anything because we’re playing well. But it’s hard to simulate all that stuff.
“When it’s all said and done, we got some things to hopefully help ourselves with it. Alabama is loud too, maybe not as loud as Neyland, but it’s loud. They’re all loud just because of the sheer number of people.”
