What Alabama football coaches said about SEC fake injury crackdown

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey finally acted on an issue that was plaguing his conference’s football games: Fake injuries. Ahead of Saturday’s slate of games, which didn’t include Alabama, which was on a bye, Sankey reportedly sent a letter to coaches and athletics directors, ordering them to end the practice and laying out new consequences.

On Monday, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about the edict from the league.

“The rules have been the rules, so just having to find another level of enforcement, I think, and seriousness about it is what’s happening here,” DeBoer said. “From our end, I already talked to our players, our staff. It doesn’t change what we do because we go about it and if you are hurt, you need to stay down, especially if it’s substitutions that need to be made, you need to be looked at.

“But you can put yourself in some tough positions if you really truly are hurt. And I really feel like with what our team does and how we operate, and how it’s going to continue to be.”

The fake injuries are largely used to slow down fast-moving offenses without taking a timeout. Alabama appeared to utilize one this season, when defensive backs coach Maurice Linguist looked as if he pushed King Mack back onto the field to go down and slow the Tennessee offense.

Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kane Wommack agreed with DeBoer’s assessment of the situation.

“When you’re in a situation where you are hurt in a game and you have to go down, you can’t come off the field,” Wommack said. “These offenses are going too fast. They’re watching your sideline. They’re aware of, all of a sudden you try to make a personnel change when you don’t have the iron cross by the officials.

“I think the rule is still the rule, but you have some of these instances that they are maybe trying to crack down on. Ultimately, it doesn’t really change what we’re telling our guys. Our guys need to understand if they’re hurt in a game, never come off the field. You always have to go down in that situation.”

On the fake injury front, Ole Miss was the most publicly maligned school in the conference ahead of Sankey’s order. The Rebels were spotted on camera telling players to go down, seemingly in order to stop the clock.

The new penalties for what Sankey called “feigned” injuries include fines, pubic reprimands and coach suspensions. DeBoer reiterated that the change won’t be much different for Alabama.

“I’ve been on the other end where there’s situations at the end of the game or whatever it might be, that get a little frustrating,” DeBoer said. “And that can happen at any time. But the rules have been the rules, and so we’ll just continue to go about business as we always have in our program.”

Alabama is back in action Saturday against LSU in Baton Rouge.