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Being a Rutgers guy, when I saw that proposed change I had the same reaction as Andy Staples:

https://www.si.com/college-football/...ge-nfl-combine

The problem is the committee’s half measure makes the game more boring while not making it much safer. A much more effective solution was proposed by a coach seven years ago. It’s the full measure as opposed to the committee’s half measure. Not only would it make the game safer, it also would make it more interesting. Who is this prescient coach? You’re not going to like the answer, Tennessee fans.

It’s Greg Schiano.

When the Ohio State defensive coordinator was the head coach at Rutgers, he began thinking about ways to eliminate the kickoff after Scarlet Knights defensive tackle Eric LeGrand was paralyzed making a tackle on a kickoff against Army in 2010. In 2011, Schiano presented his idea.

• Instead of kicking off, teams would punt from the 35. (When Schiano proposed his rule, kickoffs were from the 30. They’re now kicked from the 35, so we’ll adjust his number.) This would keep tacklers from slamming into blockers with a 30-yard head of steam. On punts, blockers shadow tacklers from the line of scrimmage to the point of the return. The collisions happen at a much lower speed.

• Instead of the onside kick—probably the most dangerous play in football—teams could run one offensive play from the 35. To keep the ball, they’d be required to gain 15 yards. (That figure could be adjusted to match the historic success rate of onside kicks.) If they didn’t make the required yardage, the opposing team would get the ball at the spot of the tackle.

These measures would do far more to reach the goal the committee is trying to achieve here. If the proposed rule passes, it will eliminate a lot of high-speed collisions involving return men and tacklers, but it will do little to eliminate the ones between blockers and would-be tacklers. The TV cameras rarely show this, but on kickoffs that go into the end zone now, the first wall of blockers still slams into the oncoming group of tacklers. They have to do this, because at that point, they have no way of knowing whether the ball has gone into the end zone. If the new rule is adopted, these collisions would still take place because the blockers and tacklers won’t know if the return man has fair caught the ball.

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The rule is being changed to eliminate sky kicks, but the coaches who employ the sky kick will merely switch to the squib kick. That may produce some wild bounces and some very interesting field position fluctuations, but it won’t really reduce the number of high-speed collisions. Meanwhile, touchbacks will increase, but high-speed collisions between blockers and tacklers on those plays will continue unabated.

Switching to a scrimmage punt in that situation would actually be safer. The return rate on punts already is at the level committee members are seeking. If 42.4% of kickoffs went for touchbacks last year, that means more than 57% were returned. (A small fraction went out of bounds and were neither returned nor downed for a touchback.) This rule change likely will bring that number below 50%. It might even get it below 40%. But teams only returned 26.9% of punts last season. That’s the kind of result the committee seeks.

And even though fewer punts get returned, the probability of the most exciting play—a return man taking it to the house—is higher on a punt than a kickoff. From 2012 to ’17, about seven of every 1,000 punts in the FBS were returned for touchdowns. For kickoffs, the number is closer to six out of every 1,000.

Still, the best part of the Schiano plan is the elimination of onside kicks. No matter how much a kicker practices the onside kick, the shape of the ball and the non-uniformity of the playing surface will combine to produce some strange bounces. That play, no matter how thoroughly drilled, often gets decided by luck. Why not make it a test of actual football skill by pitting the offense against the defense? That would make end-of-game scenarios even more exciting, and it would eliminate the most dangerous play in football.