Players faking injuries has unfortunately been quite common in recent years.

Perhaps the most viral fake injury came when Notre Dame visited Georgia in 2019. Late in the third quarter, Irish defender Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah was pulled down by a teammate after appearing to get instruction from the sideline. QB Jake Fromm had completed three straight first down passes for a combined 36 yards.

With Owusu-Koramoah down, officials stopped action for the injury timeout. Georgia fans were obviously upset, too, as a chorus of boos rang down in Sanford Stadium. Below is a replay of the event.

Steve Shaw, now the NCAA national coordinator of officials, joined the “Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 to discuss a number of topics, including players faking injuries.

“From an officiating perspective, you have to honor the injury,” Shaw told the radio station. “We don’t know if they are feigning or not. Sometimes, we can suspect, but if a player goes down, we’re going to stop the clock. We’re going to make sure the player gets attention for the injury. You can’t just make that judgement on the field on the fly.”

So, how are they going to enforce it in 2020? It’s being left up to the coaches.

“What we’re going to do is put this in the coaches’ lap for the 2020 season,” he said. “We expect this thing to get cleaned up. If it doesn’t, then we’re probably going to change a rule to limit time to a player who gets injured. It is their last shot to clean it up before the rules committee takes action.”

Coaches are now on notice, and the rules committee may have to step in if things don’t get fixed.