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Who will wear the green dot for the Buffs?
The 159 total years of NFL experience held by Colorado’s 16-man coaching staff gives the Buffs an advantage for developing pro-level talent. Those years in the league will also an unexpected edge in the 2024 season: experience using in-helmet communication.
For the first time in college football history, the NCAA will allow coach-to-player communication via in-helmet radios during the regular season. During last year’s bowl season, teams like Cal and Texas Tech used in-helmet radios as part of a test run. The experiment was successful and teams can now use in-helmet radios at their leisure during the regular season.
The rules regarding the in-helmet communication system are pretty simple. Only one player on the field will be allowed to wear the “green dot,” which marks that a helmet is equipped with a radio. The radio will be shut off with 15 seconds left on the play clock or at the snap of the ball.
Getting used to using the radio to phone in plays might be a struggle for some college teams, but not for the Buffs. Colorado’s offensive and defensive coordinators have years of experience using in-helmet radios in the NFL, which should make the adjustment as smooth as possible.
“[Using the in-helmet radio] is a great advantage for us,” said Buffaloes defensive coordinator Robert Livingston. “It’s a little bit more my comfort zone.”
Livingston’s gained plenty of experience using radios in-game during his eight years in Cincinnati as the Bengals DBs coach. That experience should offer the Colorado defense a massive advantage over their opponents, at least in the early stages of the season. Livingston knows what works with the in-helmet radios and what doesn't, which will help eliminate any speedbumps during Colorado’s important non-conference schedule.
“Defensively, do I think that when you’re getting no-huddle spread [the radio] is going to work perfect every time? No,” said Livingston. “Are you still going to have to signal? Yes. But it’s a great tool for us and candidly it’s a great tool to talk to the guys on the field.”
As for who will wear the green dot for Colorado’s defense, that’s still a mystery. Livingston said that they’re currently experimenting in practice with what situation works best for the unit.
“We’ll play with it,” said Livingston. “Everybody will have [the radio] at some point so once we have to make that decision bi-weekly, it won’t be the first time that they’re hearing me.”
Things will be as cut and dry as it gets for Colorado’s offense regarding the green dot. Shedeur Sanders will wear the helmet radio to get plays from offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.
Shurmur has a long history as an NFL offensive coordinator, most recently with the Broncos from 2020 to 2021. It is pretty safe to say that much like Livingston, using the helmet radio is more in Shurmur’s wheelhouse than using posterboards with emojis to signal plays to his quarterback.
When Deion Sanders brought in Livingston and Shurmur, he didn’t even know that their experience using the helmet radio would come in handy. Fortunately, the Buffs have inadvertently put themselves in a great position to have the best communication possible this season, which is a huge asset going into the 2024 campaign.
by RylandScholes
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