- Joined
- Nov 29, 2015
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It is clearly prohibited by NCAA rules. The issue is that it is impossible for a referee to make an in-game determination if an injury is legit or not. It can't be enforced during play. It's something the NCAA would have to deal with after the game. A coach could also teach his defensive players to yell "hike" and throw off the snap count. If other coaches heard about it, they'd lose a lot of respect for the coach. This isn't a life or death battlefield. It's a sports competition. Hence the word sportsmanship. At the very least it's poor sportsmanship and bush league..
Maybe you've heard the old story about Don Shula (it's a true story). Before a game (I think it might have been the Super Bowl) one of his players found the opponent's playbook. It had been accidentally left behind. The player immediately went to the opponents locker room and gave them back the playbook. Afterwards someone asked the player why he didn't give the playbook to his coaches. His response was that every player on the Dolphins knew Coach Shula would have been disgusted by the idea of needing to cheat to win.
Put it another way: Let's say your kid was in little league baseball and the opposing coach yelled "swing" at batters every time his pitcher threw a ball. If his response was, "Hey man, it's not against the rules. I'll do whatever it takes to win." Most dads would give that guy a beating.
Anyways, like I said- I'm old fashioned. I would have absolutely lauded Davis for beating Miami straight up. But what I saw was grimy. To me at least, the way he won says a lot more to me about Butch Davis's character than the fact that he beat Manny Diaz.
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