College football faces controversy as "College GameDay" criticizes the increasing use of faked injuries to slow down opposing offenses. Credit: ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’
By Sam Neumann on

Only a few weeks ago, Kirk Herbstreit took aim at Oklahoma, calling it “unethical as hell” after it looked like the Sooners faked an injury in the first quarter of a loss to Tennessee. But Herbstreit wasn’t the only one who took notice, as it’s become a bit of an epidemic in college football (and the SEC).

So much so that Ole Miss, which has been at the center of this controversy, had to issue a statement, which was shared by Rece Davis on College GameDay live from Eugene, Oregon.

Here’s that statement:

It comes just a week after South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer questioned how many “injuries” occurred in a 27-3 loss to the Rebels after his Gamecocks converted a first down.

After Beamer called it a “really bad look for college football,” Nick Saban, never one to shy away from calling out what he perceives as unfair tactics, didn’t mince words when addressing the growing trend of faking injuries on Saturday’s GameDay.

“This is the integrity of the game,” said Saban. “And there’s no player that flops in a game that doesn’t get a signal from the coach to do it — to slow the game down. There’s a history to all of this because, in the old days, you used to have to run off the field if you got injured. I mean, I broke my leg, and I gotta run off the field. Well, fastball came along, so everybody said, ‘If you’re getting injured, stay down — don’t get up. We can’t substitute fast enough.’

“Alright, so now people are taking advantage of this rule. But I think until there’s some penalty for doing it, and I know it’s a very sensitive subject for an official to make a determination about is a player injured or not — but there should be a flop rule. And if a guy actually gets up, runs down, and right before the play starts, flops, maybe it should be a charged timeout for that team because it’s pretty obvious in these situations where guys are flopping, and they’re not injured.”

“Every game I get out on the field the last three or four years, and I talk to the officials when teams are warming up, and I say, ‘What are you guys doing to do about this, all these guys faking these injuries?’ said Herbstreit. “And every single time they say, ‘Listen, we can’t call that. That’s on the coaches in the offseason to come up with a rule to establish, hey, if you fake an injury, this is what’s gonna happen.’ I think you have to do what the NFL does — use replay.

“So, what we’re talking about is not an Ole Miss thing; this is a college football thing. Guys, after a big 40-yard play against an up-tempo offense, defensive guys get a signal from the sideline as they’re jogging to get back and get ready to lineup — and then they go down. Like if a camera were to catch that and then you ding them, like you said. Whether it starts out with a timeout, maybe it’s an unsportsmanlike dead ball penalty. Whatever it is, something needs to happen when it’s so obvious that you’re just trying to slow the opposing offense down.”

Herbstreit added that he thinks replay would be a great way to help.

“I think there’s several solutions here, but it’s going to start with the coaches and the integrity of the game,” says Saban. “And I think we all should respect the integrity of the game because there’s so much passion for our game and so much people and so much fan interest, and when you hear people booing constantly because of this, that’s a problem.”

“It’s unethical,” Herbstreit said. “It’s not breaking a rule, but it’s unethical.”

According to Davis, Craig Bohl, the president of the American Football Coaches Association, says addressing feigned injuries is the No. 1 priority for the upcoming offseason.

But as Davis pointed out, teams don’t need to wait for new rules to take effect.

While the NCAA may tackle the issue in the offseason, the reality is that teams can end this practice immediately. This isn’t just about exploiting loopholes — it’s about preserving the integrity of a sport that millions hold dear. As the frustration mounts, the message from those at College GameDay is simple: clean it up now, or risk facing the inevitable backlash that will force change.

[College GameDay]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann