Big 12 Media Days: Players weigh in on rule change

ARLINGTON, Texas — Day two of Big 12 Media Days started off with a presentation from the coordinator of officials. Cowboys Ride For Free Tweeted a slide from the presentation that presented changes to the rule regarding blind side blocks. Well... it got some traction among players (and even fans) from Oklahoma State.

Remember those blocks from last year where Tylan blind sided defenders into oblivion? Yep, can’t do that anymore.

Essentially what this rules does is eliminate blind side blocking with forcible contact. It makes a blind side block where the receiver does anything like de-cleat the defender, a 15-yard penalty.

While Oklahoma State had their day with the media yesterday and I couldn’t exactly get comment from him directly, Tylan Wallace retweeted CRFF’s tweet about the new rule with an emoji that expressed how he felt.

Face palm emoji tells us enough about Tylan feels. Which is understandable. When something you’re accustomed to doing is suddenly a no-no you’re not going to be happy about it.

Fans quickly started calling this the “Tylan rule” because of his tendency to do this.

Quarterback Spencer Sanders also weighed in on the issue.

“Before we know it football will be 2 hand touch,” Sanders Tweeted. While this reply was of the thought that football is becoming soft or less physical, commissioner Burks emphasized player safety.

“When it comes to matters of safety we’re always going to err on the side of safety,” Burks said. “So we want the player to behave to where you can push them, shove them, not drop a shoulder or your torso and get the same affect to spring the ball carrier without delivering a blow that might hurt somebody.”

Since Tylan was not at Media Days on Tuesday I decided to talk some of the wide receivers that were there between Texas, West Virginia and Baylor and got their thoughts.

Collin Johnson of Texas thought that it was overall a good rule change and it was good they we’re doing a bit more to protect defenders.

“There are so many rules in place to protect receivers,” Johnson said. “Like targeting they’re really picky on that. I guess it’s just defending some of these defensive guys too cause it’s not fair the rules are in place to kind of protect us all the time and we can go and just blind side the mess out of them...As a receiver that’s our dream to go back and blind side like a player and just put him on his butt.. but it is what it is... you just have to adjust and and continue to play at an elite level.”

West Virginia’s T.J. Simmons echoed Johnson sentiments about safety.

“I think its a good rule as far as safety goes,” Simmons said. “A lot of players can get hurt from blind sided blocks....It does take some of the edge off the game. Like we grew up hitting people like that starting from little kids. We’re just going to learn how to play within the rules.”

I also talked to a few defensive players about the rule change to get a different perspective.

While Malcom Roach of Texas said he would have to reserve judgement until the rules were played out, but he thought that it was probably going to happen anyways.

“I just gotta see how it impacts the game,” Roach said. ”At the end of the day I feel like that block is a part of football. It’s still gonna happen regardless. You hate to see it sometimes it gets players fired up and you hate to see it happen to your guy but it’s gonna happen.”

Clay Johnston of Baylor said he was happy they we’re going to be able to penalize these types of plays.

“If they can call those penalties I’ll be pretty grateful,” Johnston said. “If I get clocked from the side I’ll take that for 15-yards.”

Like any change this is going to take time to adjust to. Refs are going to need to learn how to call it correctly and fairly. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets ticky tacky and fans aren’t happy. But I think it’s a positive that they’re taking steps to protect everyone on the field so they can play for a long time.