Nick Saban shares why he doesn’t agree with new kickoff rule, offers suggestions
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Kickoffs will look a little different this season. A new rule, installed to protect player safety, allows teams to make a fair catch on a kick anywhere inside their own 25-yard line and have the offensive drive start on the 25-yard line as if the kick had been a touchback.
The rule change came up at Nick Saban’s Friday press conference held after Alabama’s first practice of fall camp. The coach expressed his “reservations” with the rule, saying it removes strategy from the game.
“I think because you can fair catch and get the ball on the 25 yard line, I guess that could eliminate returns,” Saban said. “I think that if they would have thought all the way through the rule, they take some strategy out of the game by doing that. So if you sky kick and the guy fair catches it, they get it on the 25 yard line. It takes some elements strategically out of the game.”
The coach went on to share his suggestion for kickoffs.
“My suggestion was, why don’t you just move the ball back up to the 40 yard line where you used to kick off, so now you can do every onside kick, every sky kick, every squib kick, everything you’ve ever done, and 60 percent of the kicks were kicked out of the end zone from the 35 yard line, that would probably go up to about 80 percent so you’d have even less returns.
“Well, they don’t even have a return, they don’t even have to coach a return now. They just fair catch it and get on the 25-yard line. I don’t think those kinds of rules that take the strategy out of the game — even though I do believe that this will eliminate some returns — I just think we could’ve eliminated some returns a different way with not affecting any of the strategy that goes into playing the game.”
Last season, UA averaged 21.9 yards per kickoff return. All three primary returners – Henry Ruggs, Josh Jacobs, and Trevon Diggs – are back this season.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
