Deion Sanders’ Vision for College Football Comes to Life Thanks to 16-Year Nike Employee

There was hardly any coach last season who wasn’t flustered by Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal. It wasn’t just the unethical components adding to their fury; it was the fact that the debacle could have been avoided altogether. The executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, Todd Berry, and every other major college football coach had been backing up the use of coach-to-player technology for the last couple of years. “I mean, everyone’s trying to get whatever edge they can,” Deion Sanders said as a member of that association.

The NCAA Football Rules Committee finally proposed the rules allowing schools to leverage coach-to-player communications through the helmet to one player on the field on Friday. Per ESPN Heather Dinich’s report, the player wearing that helmet would be identified by having a green dot on the back midline of his helmet. Moreover, the communication would be turned off when the ball is snapped or with 15 seconds remaining on the clock – whichever comes first. Thanks to the adaptive environment that Deion Sanders has fostered in Colorado, it became one of the earliest teams to use the technology.

Colorado finally got their hands on the CoachComm helmet

Along with Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, and West Virginia, Colorado has also added its name to the list of some of the initial teams adapting to the technology of coach-to-player communication. Colorado players will now be adjusting to using the helmets during practices, and later, on-field.

Michael Smith, the assistant athletic director for Sports equipment services, paired up with Reach the People Media to demonstrate how the CoachComm helmet would work at Colorado. ” You got two speakers on the side, one right here, one right here. This is the module that controls all the communication,” Smith demonstrated. Surely, the financial restraints played their part in hindering the CoachComm settling in Colorado. But with Prime bringing in a steady (and hefty) income, it was hardly the only reason.

The former Nike employee, who worked with the shoe giant for 16 years, mainly with their basketball production department, decoded why the Buffs took a while to set the system up aside from the financial restraints. “This stuff is really expensive. Costs an awful lot of money. So I think they’ve had a hard time trying to figure out how to use the technology that’s available, but make sure that everyone can have access to it and handle it the right way. I think over the last couple of years that’s kind of finally sorted itself out so this year we’ll be able to you set it up and see if we can advance the game,” Smith stated in the video.

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With Colorado having state-of-the-art technology in their locker room, do you think it would help them achieve the ultimate goal Deion Sanders had set: to redeem themselves of the previous year’s records?

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