ADVERTISEMENT

NCAA ruling allows for up to 4 game participation without redshirt loss

32counter

Spider's Club
Apr 8, 2008
20,074
7,975
113
Siesta Key,FL
Virginia Tech, UR coaches react to new NCAA guidelines

5ad28bf5e3d97.image.jpg

Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente waits for the start of the NCAA college football team’s Maroon-White spring game Saturday, April 14, 2018, in Blacksburg, Va. (Matt Gentry/The Roanoke Times via AP)

Matt Gentry

Virginia Tech football coach Justin Fuente said he’s pleased with the NCAA’s decision to allow players to compete in up to four games in a season without losing a full year of eligibility.

“I applaud the NCAA for this rule change,” Fuente said Wednesday, in a statement released by the school. “It’s a positive for our student-athletes to be afforded the opportunity to get some limited game experience without penalizing them. I’m all for the change. Particularly when it gets late in the season and teams are dealing with attrition, it makes a lot of sense. We’ll obviously study the rule and the implications in more detail, but in my opinion, it’s good for student-athletes and good for our game.”

Previously, players that competed in any games lost a full year of eligibility unless they suffered an injury. Now, freshmen can see some playing time on special teams or in a bowl game and not burn an entire year of their college career.

The new rule goes into effect for the upcoming season.

The change in policy is also a major win for coaches at the FCS level (63-scholarship limit), especially at private schools that don’t draw many walk-ons and commonly have depth issues as coaches have tried to redshirt as many true freshmen as possible.

When the NCAA was considering the matter, University of Richmond coach Russ Huesman said a redshirt rule modification would be “unbelievable, especially at our level, with our numbers.”

The proposal was submitted into the 2017-18 NCAA legislative cycle by the ACC.

According to the ACC’s proposal: “The current rule often places coaches in a difficult position to decide whether to play a student-athlete in a limited amount of competition or to preserve the student-athlete’s season of eligibility. The opportunity to play in a small number of games will ease this decision for coaches and help the student-athlete’s development and transition to the college game.”

Wednesday, the NCAA’s Division I council also announced a change in the way transfers will work. Student athletes will no longer be required to seek permission – or a release – from their current school to transfer to a specific program, eliminating the ability of programs to block players from certain schools.

Starting in October, an athlete who wants to transfer just needs to notify his current school, which would then place him in a national database of available transfers.

In recent years, a number of high profile cases became public where a coach and school attempted to block an athlete from transferring to a rival program or one in the same conference it competed in.

“This creates a safe place for student-athletes to have a conversation with their coaches and makes the whole process more transparent,” said Nicholas Clark, a recent Coastal Carolina graduate and the student representative to the council. “This will clean the process up and give more influence and flexibility to the student-athlete.”

NCAA release:

https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...otball-offer-more-participation-opportunities
 
Last edited:
Has anyone been over at the Robins Center today? Russ said that he would be turning back flips if this legislation passed.
I heard rumors an ambulance pulled up to the front door, some thing about a broken back?
 
KJ burnt his red shirt helping us out in the playoffs a year ago. I hope it applies to him. He played a few games, won a big one but sacrificed a full year of eligibility for the team and spider fans.
 
  • Like
Reactions: urfan1
This is going to be interesting - a lot of strategy in play as to when to use those 4 games, particularly for a team likely headed to the playoffs. Certainly should help us though.
 
KJ burnt his red shirt helping us out in the playoffs a year ago. I hope it applies to him. He played a few games, won a big one but sacrificed a full year of eligibility for the team and spider fans.

Yes, he burned his red shirt, but he got it back last year, as multiple posters have pointed out. It was a selfless act on his part, but the coaching staffs (both outgoing and new) knew they had a solid QB2 in Mancuso and could redshirt KJ in 2017.

Even if they made it retroactive, it wouldn't apply to him.
 
Huge change that will aid teams and the student athletes. Should help because a freshman redshirt in particular will get to see the field in first year at college which will be big morale booster. On the other hand, wonder how the transfer rule change without out needing present school's permission will affect continued recruitment by a spurned school after the player has chosen a different school? That could raise some issues?
 
If the new rule had been in place he could have had 3 years left, except he can't have two red shirt years correct?
If the new rule had been in place, he would've been able to play the 3 game playoff run without breaking his redshirt. So he would've been unable to redshirt last year. Either way he ends up with 2 years of eligibility left
 
Richmond's Russ Huesman tackles modified redshirt rule, new science of roster management

5b479813c515e.image.jpg

University of Richmond coach Russ Huesman

MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH




In June, the NCAA amended its redshirt rule. Starting this year, Division I football players can participate in up to four games without losing a season of eligibility. Previously, a player who competed in any games lost a full year of eligibility, unless the NCAA granted a medical exception in response to injury.

The modification creates a new science of roster management for coaches, and mostly impacts freshmen.

A five-year window for four seasons of eligibility is allowed by the NCAA. The majority of freshmen in past years redshirted to preserve a season of eligibility later in their careers, when they were generally more physically and mentally prepared for Division I football.


Richmond coach Russ Huesman tackled the new redshirt rule in a Thursday interview.

Have coaches started formulating this new science of roster management that goes with the changed rule?

I think everybody has started that process in some ways. We talked about it this week. We’re going to reassess it, but I think the bottom line is we’ve got to get into camp and see where we are physically when we break camp. Some of it is going to be determined by where you feel like you are depth-wise. Some of it’s special-teams needs, too. We’ve got to figure out when we’re going to play them and how we’re going to play them. … It’s going to vary from school to school.

Have you encouraging your incoming freshmen to ramp up summer training with the expectation that they may play this season?

They’re all here right now, so they are ramping it up pretty good.

Does this rule change help a private school, such as Richmond, that may have depth issues more than public schools that generally have more players?

There’s no question about that. I would say the [more demanding academic schools], whether it’s private or public, probably have less numbers. … For schools that struggle to keep their numbers up where you’re allowed to have them, it really does help us. …For us, depth is the key thing, and seeing where you are toward the end of the season with injuries and those types of things.

Now, you’re allowed to have 110 on your roster. We can’t even get close to that. The year we won a national championship here in 2008, there were 87 on the roster. If we get to 90, we’re probably pretty excited about that.

Will these players who participate in four or fewer games do so because they are filling in for injured players, or other reasons?

For one, I think it’s filling in for injured guys. I think that’s the first part of the equation. And it’s probably filling in for injured guys late in the season. But it could be early in the season when a guy is dinged up and missing a few games. As you get into the season, you’ll kind of figure out how you want to use them. If you’re not using them depth-wise, you can get them some experience on special teams.

Will there be fewer linemen used in these situations because of the physical development usually required for them to play?

There are some that aren’t ready to play and don’t fit into your special-teams needs. But if they are in the two-deep and they’re getting those [practice] reps, at some point in time we’ll say, “Let’s plug them in and see where we are with them.”

It sounds like one of the reasons coaches like this rule is it provides greater involvement and motivation for freshmen who otherwise would have known they weren't playing in their first years. Do you see it that way?

I think that’s a big part of it.
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT