How Ohio State Football Team Is Preparing to Use New Headset Communications

Staff held up notice boards or made hand gestures to signal formations, protections and other missions.

That’s how Ohio State teams have responded in recent years. But things should be a little less frantic this season.

That’s because the Buckeyes, who open against Akron on Saturday, are among the Football Bowl Subdivision teams that use headset communications.

Instead of a complex network of signals to send play calls, staffers can rely on radio frequencies after the NCAA’s Playing Rules Oversight Committee approved their use in April. Coach-player communication, a staple of the NFL for decades, has expanded to college football.

“It’s going to be a really good tool for us,” quarterback Will Howard said.

As he starts for Ohio State, Howard will have a speaker in his helmet, visible through a green dot on the back center line, to hear offensive coordinator Chip Kelly’s play calls and relay them to his teammates.

Buckeyes starting middle linebacker Cody Simon will also wear the green dot. One player on the field, whether on offense or defense, will be able to wear his helmet with the device.

Communication can last until the game clock reaches 15 seconds, at which point a cutoff operator turns off the radios. (They are restarted when the ball is ready for the next play.)

Since preseason training camp opened earlier this month, the Buckeyes have practiced coach-player communication and, to further simulate the game, have been turning off the devices after 15 seconds during scrimmages.

The period allowed them to acclimatize to the new technology.

Buckeyes coach Ryan Day said the quarterbacks have shared their views on how much information is beneficial to receive before the snap, with the goal of keeping them from being overloaded.

Quarterbacks also adapted to the unfamiliar sounds in their ears.

“It took a little getting used to,” Howard said. “We had to work out some kinks. Some days it’s really loud and crackly. Other days it’s perfect.”

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Howard, who made 25 starts at quarterback for Kansas State before transferring to Ohio State in January, expressed anticipation for being able to use the headset to talk with Kelly.

“There’s a lot of interesting things you can do with it,” he said. “If you interrupt the group early, you have them for up to 15 seconds. It can give you little reminders here and there.”

After delegating offensive play-calling responsibilities for the first time since taking over the program in 2019, Day will also rely heavily on Kelly to be in sync with Howard.

“I have the ability to communicate with him and talk to him,” Day said, “but I’m going to let Chip do that for the most part.”

Even with the communications system, the Buckeyes have contingency plans in place for possible outages.

It’s something Day experienced in the NFL when he was Kelly’s quarterbacks coach with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015 and the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.

“I remember that happening,” Day said. “It lasts 30 seconds and it can make you lose your mind very quickly.”

All Big Ten teams use the same coach-player communication system. GSR, an audio company based in Wahoo, Nebraska, provided each team with 10 pods this preseason.

While radios can add a problem to Ohio State’s offense, they also do so for opponents.

Simon said he expected a certain level of play. He suggested that offensive teams wait until 15 seconds have passed before breaking up the huddle, which would prevent him from communicating with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles once the formation is revealed.

“There will be a lot of tactics used to hurt defenses that way,” Simon said.

Knowles therefore considers it imperative that the Buckeyes’ defenders be able to counter any attempt to come forward in the final seconds before the snap.

“You have to prepare your players and your officials on the field, because I’m not necessarily going to be able to make all the right decisions for you,” Knowles said. “It starts with teaching. You may have to make a lot of adjustments yourself. You better know the defense.”

The adoption of headset communications gained attention last fall as a potential response to the alleged theft of inadmissible signs in Michigan.

It appears that signals are less likely to be deciphered if transmitted through headsets.

But momentum for such implementation had already been building before the scandal involving the Wolverines.

The Big Ten asked the NCAA for a waiver to use the communications before last season, but it was ultimately denied.

“Some of our coaches who spent time in the NFL have wondered why this practice hasn’t been applied to college football?” said AJ Edds, a former Iowa linebacker who serves as the conference’s vice president for football administration and co-chairs the football rules committee.

The measure now comes into effect this week, adding another difficulty for teams to manage on match days.

“At the end of the day, football is football,” Day said. “Whether we’re signaling it or communicating it, we all have to be on the same page and play the game.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @joeyrkaufman or send him an email at [email protected].

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