Minium: ODU Coaches Will Talk to Players via helmet communications in opener at South Carolina

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – It was the first day of Old Dominion football practice and quarterback Grant Wilson was hearing voices in his head. And, no, he wasn’t suffering some kind of mental breakdown.

“I put on my helmet and as I’m walking down the field, I hear Kevin Decker talking to me,” he said about ODU’s offensive coordinator.

“I looked around for him and didn’t see him. I didn’t know what was going on.”

But then he looked across the field and saw Decker on the other sideline.

And then it dawned on him – there’s a speaker in his helmet, and Decker was speaking to him on a headset.

“Coach Decker was laughing at me,” Wilson said.

That was how Wilson, ODU’s starting quarterback, discovered the latest technology to hit college football.

More than three decades after the NFL began allowing wireless communication between coaches and players, the NCAA is allowing the same technology for all 134 FBS schools.

Coaches on the sidelines have long been allowed to communicate via radio to coaches upstairs in the press box.  Now, they can speak to one player on the field, although only between plays and for a limited time.

Decker will communicate with Wilson or whoever is playing quarterback. Defensive coordinator Blake Seiler will speak to middle linebacker Jason Henderson or Koa Naotoa, his backup.

Only one player with a speaker in his helmet is allowed on the field and it’s a one-way street – all the players can do is listen. Coaches do all the talking.

“They can’t talk back to us,” Decker said with a laugh.

The radio turns off with 15 seconds on the play clock or when the ball is snapped, whichever comes first.

If coaches attempt to communicate with less than 15 seconds left, they will hear an annoying, loud buzzing sound in their ear. Reminds me of Pavlov's dogs, but I digress.

Head Coach Ricky Rahne said the technology could come in handy this Saturday, when the Monarchs open at South Carolina. Rahne calls South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium, which seats nearly 78,000, one of the most difficult places in college football to play because of the crowd noise.

ODU has been amping crowd noise into practice the last two weeks to prepare for Saturday’s game. Being able to speak directly should help both teams communicate better, he said.

“It should help some,” he said, adding that it might also help South Carolina’s defense, which will be calling plays while the crowd is fired up.

The rules were designed to speed up the game, and Rahne said he think it will. It will also make things more complicated.

That’s certainly been the case for Josh Marlow, the associate athletic director for equipment operations, and Rodney Harmon and Guy Williams, who work for ODU’s IT department. They’re the ones who had to install the new technology and make it work.

Marlow had small speakers installed in helmets. Harmon and Williams, meanwhile, are tasked with making sure the electronics work.

And although not technically part of ODU’s athletic department, few have been with Monarch football longer than they have. Both began working with ODU football in 2009, the first season of football. In the 15 years since, Harmon has only missed one ODU game and Williams two.

They struggled with the ancient technology at old Foreman Field and since 2019, have enjoyed the upgraded technology of S.B. Ballard Stadium.

The NCAA will also allow FBS schools to use computer tablets on the sidelines. ODU has purchased 10 for this season and has four more on order as backups. Six will be with the coaches upstairs and four on the sidelines.

That necessitated running fiber optic cables from both sidelines to the home and visitor’s coaches’ boxes. Harmon and Williams also had to install more antennas on the field for the new coach-to-player communications.

Seiler said he is more excited about the tablets than the radio communication with players. The tablets get a direct feed from the TV cameras, and at ODU games, that means coaches will have nine different angles in which to view a play, Harmon said.

“You can take a photo mid snap and post-snap or replay the play,” Seiler said. “It’s a great tool for coaches.

“The speakers in helmets, that’s more of an offensive tool. I can’t talk to Jason when a team is coming to the line of scrimmage.”

Decker said the speakers will allow him to speak about more than just strategy.

“If we miss a wide open guy, our quarterback can hear me on the headset saying, ‘Hey man, put that one behind you,

“It will be nice to have that one-way conversation.”

Rahne stated the obvious when asked about a downside of the new communications tools.

“It’s technology,” he said. “So it will go out. That’s the reality of it. Technology is not foolproof.”

Harmon worries most about a speaker going out in Henderson’s helmet. Henderson is a physical player who led FBS in tackling last season and is chasing several tackling records.

“The helmets are supposed to be able to withstand a jarring tackle,” he said. “But it’s a possibility that it could knock out a speaker.”

Not to worry. “We have two helmets for Jason and two for Grant,” Harmon said.

Rahne said it’s an open secret that the NCAA introduced the technology because of the sign-stealing controversy involving the University of Michigan. The Wolverines allegedly were stealing signs, which if true, meant thew know what plays other teams were calling.

“Will it stop some of it?” Rahne said. “Absolutely.”

“But until they put it in everyone’s helmet, they haven’t solved anything.”

Rahne said ODU and every other team in FBS will continue to call signs into the offense and defense. “You have to,” he said.

And in spite of hype elsewhere to the contrary, he doesn’t think the new technology will change the game very much.

“Will it make you go fast?” he said of ODU’s offense. “Absolutely. Can it help the game? Absolutely.

“But some people look at these things as a panacea and I don’t that’s the case. I think the game will be very similar to what we’re seeing now.”

Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram