Bret Bielema has had this conversation before.
The Arkansas coach has been an outspoken advocate for player safety in the name of fewer plays per game. While we can likely all agree about making football safer, the tempo debate is where it gets tricky. Especially with the way Bielema has awkwardly presented his arguments. Like in early 2014, when he used the death of Cal player Ted Agu to advocate for a 10-second rule to slow down college football.
The rule proposal was withdrawn.
However, the previous discussion and resulting criticism didn't prevent Bielema from breaking out and playing his slower-tempo-in-the-name of safety drum on Tuesday after the retirement of San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland. The 24-year-old retired earlier in the week, citing health dangers.
“I’m going to tread lightly,” Bielema says, knowing full well the recent history of a man and his crusade, and how he has been mocked for it since.
Then he just can't help himself.
“We have an obligation to do what’s right,” he says, his voice getting stronger. “I can’t understand how some guys can’t see that.”
Bielema is well-qualified to speak about Borland. He coached him at Wisconsin. But given the way we opened the post, you know what's coming next.
“We have to protect student athletes to extremes we never thought of before,” Bielema said to the Sporting News. “I just read a study that said players in the no-huddle, hurry-up offense play the equivalent of five more games than those that don’t. That’s an incredible number. Our awareness as a whole has to increase.”
And also this:
“I can’t imagine the thought process he had to go through to get to where he was,” Bielema said. "it's not about what we want for the game, it's about what the game needs."
We're not discounting that Bielema's concern for player safety is legitimate. With a lot of misdirection in college football, it's easy to fall for things and sentiments that may not be genuine. With the way Bielema has stuck to his apparent beliefs, it's clear he truly wants to make the game safer. He's just not backing up his arguments very well.
Bielema's teams have always run some of the fewest plays-per-game in college football, though his 2014 Arkansas team made a big leap from the year before. As the Hogs improved and went 7-6, Arkansas ran more than eight plays more each game (73) in 2014 (70th in FBS) than it did in 2013 (123rd in FBS). Arguing against teams that play at a faster pace has always looked like a tactical one.
Plus, Bielema needs to cite and champion his study for others to see and also ditch the generalizations. What is a "no-huddle, hurry-up offense" and how is it defined? With the numerous offensive styles in college football, it's unfair to classify them by tempo. That's virtually impossible.
The fastest team in the country in 2014, Baylor, ran 90 plays per game. The slowest, New Mexico, ran 62. Yes, that means Baylor ran as many plays in 12 games New Mexico would have run in over 17. But comparing outliers to outliers is only good for a raucous cable news panel discussion. It's not going to help with trying to make a common-sense argument (99 of 128 FBS teams ran more than 70 plays per game in 2014 and 81 ran between 70 and 80 per game).
There's also no proof that our increased attention to player safety in football has any correlation to teams playing at faster tempos. While Bielema's belief that more plays equals more injuries could be correct, it's also entirely possible that tempo has little or nothing to do at all with the way we are learning about player safety thanks to medical advancement.
And even if we did find out that an increase in plays in game settings resulted in an increased risk of injuries, wouldn't the easiest solution be to cut the number of games from a season rather than limiting the number of plays per game? Oh, right. That would never happen because of the corresponding dip in revenues from television contracts, sponsorships and ticket sales. Silly us for ignoring the business side of football for a moment.
Rule changes can't deal entirely in unknowns – we simply don't know what's "right." Until there's legitimate evidence that limiting the number of plays in a game will help keep players healthier, Bielema's stance is going to continue to reside on a sparsely populated island.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Bielema uses Borland retirement to cite player safety and tempo
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