When Pac-10 coaches attended a rules meeting last week in Los Angeles, Cal coach Jeff Tedford, Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter and USC’s Pete Carroll were the most vocal critics of the new rule that starts the clock on a change of possession when the official signals, not when the ball is snapped.
Coaches expect the rule to shorten the game 10-12 plays minutes and maybe 10-12 plays per team.
Tedford was the most concerned, I hear, with a long list of questions about the new rule. “He looked like he was up the night before studying it,” one coach said. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti led a petition from Pac-10 coaches to the NCAA that protested the rule change.