New NCAA injury rule means Georgia no longer has to worry about unethical Lane Kiffin practices

Injuries are a very real thing in college football. That may be the most obvious statement in the world because of ow physical of a sport football is, but injuries are one thing that is extremely important and needs to be handled a certain way.

But over the last few years, some teams have begun taking advantage of injuries by faking them as a way to earn a competitive advantage. This was most often seen on defense with coaches having players fake an injury when an opposing offense was driving down the field as a way to stop their momentum.

While there was never a rule against this, it is very unethical and unfair to do as it then makes people start questioning every injury that takes place, even when they are legit injuries.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey cracked down on this practice during the 2024 season because Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin were known for faking injuries all the time. If an injury was deemed to be fake by the SEC, coaches would receive fines and if it continued they would be suspended after a third offense.

While this was a good decision by Sankey, many fans hoped the NCAA would create a rule to address this on a more broad level, and that is exactly what they have done.

New rule surrounding faking injuries

According to 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz, if training staff enter the field of play after the ball is spotted to look at a potentially injured player, that team will be charged a timeout. If they don’t have anymore timeouts left, a 5-yard penalty will be assessed.

This new rule is a little tricky because it’s likely just a matter of time until a team loses a timeout or receives a penalty for a legit injury. But the timing of when this rule would be used is key because it only occurs after the ball is spotted. So if a player is actually injured during a play, they should have around 10 seconds to go down before the ball is spotted which is plenty of time for an injured player to go down.

Looking at this from Georgia’s perspective, this rule change is very good. Kirby Smart has stated that Georgia is not a team that ever fakes injuries, so they won’t have to adjust anything with their game plan. But a team like Ole Miss will because Kiffin is notorious for doing this nearly every game.

So this is just one less thing UGA will have to worry about when they face the Rebels later this season.