How does the new punting rule affect the Lobos?

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To the untrained eye, Rule 7-1-4 might not be much of a conversation starter.

Tucked under “Other rule changes approved” in a March 19 release from the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee, the rule in full: On punts where jersey number exceptions (players who do not wear numbers 50-79) are used, the snapper and two adjacent linemen on either side who are lined up in (or touching) the tackle box are ineligible receivers by position and become exceptions to the numbering rule when the snapper takes his position. This clarifies which players are eligible receivers.

In layman’s terms: Regardless of what number they wear, the two players on each side of the snapper are now ineligible regardless of what number they wear. The change is designed to make the play easier to officiate, one most fans might not even notice, much less talk about.

But among college coaches — particularly special teams coordinators and assistants — the rule has been perhaps the conversation of the last month. Backlash has been nearly unanimous, with coaches voting 61-1 against it in an informal survey provided to USA Today and a select few posting their ire on social media.

“So good to see the strong opposition to this new rule which was passed impulsively!” Buffalo head coach and longtime special teams coordinator Pete Lembo posted on X.

“INSANE rule change,” Auburn special teams coordinator Jacob Bronowski posted on X.

“61-1 for a reason,” UMass special teams coordinator Joe Castellitto posted on X. “Allow us to be creative on special teams.”

New Mexico special teams coordinator Eric Link said he didn’t have a strong stance on the rule one way or the other. The 45-year-old veteran special teams coach even understood why a change was needed: with the sheer “multiplicity” of punt formations teams were using, the play was only becoming harder to officiate.

In that sense, he’s fine with it, and does not think it’ll affect the Lobos all that much.

“It certainly will change some things that we do, and what I’ve done in the past,” said Link, who joined UNM’s staff this winter after six seasons at Mizzou. “But we can certainly operate and not have any issues with it.”

He still has questions, though. For starters, if all players in the five-player “core” (the snapper and so-called guards and tackles) are ineligible, Link doesn’t get why they can’t be aligned differently.

“I don’t really understand why you couldn’t go three-by-one or two-by-two or four-by-zero, as long as those guys are all in the core and ineligible by rule,” he added.

To that extent, Link believes the change is “stifling” creativity among those responsible for punt units. That it was made without consulting coaches directly dealing with it, he noted, has only added to the outcry against the change.

“What a lot of special teams people were up in arms about was just the process in general, right?” Link said. “Like if you’re gonna change a rule that directly deals with special teams, why would you not have more representation (from) the special teams world?”

To make the play easier to officiate, Link said he would have given teams the opportunity to align the core differently and clearly define the space a player had to be off the ball – say, at least three yards. “So that it’s crystal clear who’s on the ball, who’s off the ball – because that’s one of the issues that officials have, right?” he added.

Link also would have preferred to see the change tabled for 2027 or some “amendments that made a little more sense.”

At the very least, he wished the change was communicated better – not tucked away under a series of different rule changes.

“There’s still people that I talk to – Division I FBS football coaches – that don’t know about the rule,” Link said. “That’s a problem. I don’t know if that’s an officials problem, I don’t know if that’s a rules committee problem, or if that’s a coach’s problem.

“We’re probably all at fault to a certain degree. But that process can be improved.”

Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.

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