Chris Borland’s retirement hit Bret Bielema hard, stiffened his resolve to slow down the game
Chris Borland’s retirement hit Bret Bielema hard, stiffened his resolve to slow down the game, Few took Chris Borland’s early retirement harder than Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema, who recruited Boreland to Wisconsin in 2009 while he was the head coach there and coached him for four years. According to Matt Hayes of the Sporting News, Bielema had to walk off the stage during the awards ceremony for Tim Tebow’s charity golf tournament to compose himself after he received the text message from Borland.
Bielema, who is known for a power-rushing attack that’s seen as something of a throwback, has long been a proponent of slowing down the game for the sake of player safety. Though shared by others such as Alabama Coach Nick Saban, it’s not a popular stance: Bielema has been mocked as something of a caveman who would rather change the rules than adapt to the spread offenses that have overtaken football. But Bielema’s reasoning is fairly straightforward: By running more plays, teams increase the chance of serious injuries simply because there are more chances to get hit.
“We have to protect student athletes to extremes we never thought of before,” Bielema told Hayes on Tuesday. “I just read a study that said players in the no-huddle, hurry-up offense play the equivalent of five more games than those that don’t. That’s an incredible number. Our awareness as a whole has to increase.”
Borland, 24, retired after just one NFL season because he was worried about the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma, even though he had a successful rookie season with the San Francisco 49ers. The announcement stunned nearly everyone involved in the game and led some to wonder if this is the tipping point as far as head injuries are concerned. It only strengthened Bielema’s resolve.“I know how much the game means to Chris,” Bielema told Hayes. “For him to decide he has had enough, it’s a very sad situation.”
Before last season began, Bielema publicly advocated for a “10-second rule” that would penalize offenses if they snapped the ball within 10 seconds of the play clock starting. Few joined his crusade, and it quickly fizzled out. But now, in the wake of Borland’s announcement, it could return to the conversation again. And again, Bielema will be mocked. He already has been in the 12 or so hours since Hayes’s story hit the Internet.
Barrett Sallee, the lead SEC writer for Bleacher Report, said “Bielema saddled back up on his high horse” and cited a study conducted by Dave Bartoo of CFBMatrix.com that said player weight in tight spaces, and not running more plays, is responsible for the rise in injuries. “In that study, Bartoo found that the 20 fastest teams in college football in 2012 averaged 83.12 plays per game and lost 143 starts due to injury. The 20 slowest teams ran 65.85 plays per game and lost 151 starts due to injury,” Sallee wrote.
Arkansas averaged 73 plays per game last season (ranking 70th in the nation) and annually has one of the biggest offensive lines in football.
Bielema, who is known for a power-rushing attack that’s seen as something of a throwback, has long been a proponent of slowing down the game for the sake of player safety. Though shared by others such as Alabama Coach Nick Saban, it’s not a popular stance: Bielema has been mocked as something of a caveman who would rather change the rules than adapt to the spread offenses that have overtaken football. But Bielema’s reasoning is fairly straightforward: By running more plays, teams increase the chance of serious injuries simply because there are more chances to get hit.
“We have to protect student athletes to extremes we never thought of before,” Bielema told Hayes on Tuesday. “I just read a study that said players in the no-huddle, hurry-up offense play the equivalent of five more games than those that don’t. That’s an incredible number. Our awareness as a whole has to increase.”
Borland, 24, retired after just one NFL season because he was worried about the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma, even though he had a successful rookie season with the San Francisco 49ers. The announcement stunned nearly everyone involved in the game and led some to wonder if this is the tipping point as far as head injuries are concerned. It only strengthened Bielema’s resolve.“I know how much the game means to Chris,” Bielema told Hayes. “For him to decide he has had enough, it’s a very sad situation.”
Before last season began, Bielema publicly advocated for a “10-second rule” that would penalize offenses if they snapped the ball within 10 seconds of the play clock starting. Few joined his crusade, and it quickly fizzled out. But now, in the wake of Borland’s announcement, it could return to the conversation again. And again, Bielema will be mocked. He already has been in the 12 or so hours since Hayes’s story hit the Internet.
Barrett Sallee, the lead SEC writer for Bleacher Report, said “Bielema saddled back up on his high horse” and cited a study conducted by Dave Bartoo of CFBMatrix.com that said player weight in tight spaces, and not running more plays, is responsible for the rise in injuries. “In that study, Bartoo found that the 20 fastest teams in college football in 2012 averaged 83.12 plays per game and lost 143 starts due to injury. The 20 slowest teams ran 65.85 plays per game and lost 151 starts due to injury,” Sallee wrote.
Arkansas averaged 73 plays per game last season (ranking 70th in the nation) and annually has one of the biggest offensive lines in football.
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