If Kalen DeBoer and his Alabama coaching staff need to communicate something to Jalen Milroe during a game this season, they have a more direct way to do it than in years past. College teams are now allowed to use helmet communication, allowing coaches to sit right in Milroe’s ear and make play calls.
The Crimson Tide held their first preseason training camp at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday, and DeBoer said the practice was an opportunity to get to know the technology better.
“I’m really trying to take advantage of being here,” DeBoer said. “You can communicate between coach and player. We use that every day in practice. It stops after 15 seconds, but it was simulated with the officials and it looks pretty much exactly the same down to the second. So we did a good job there.”
The helmet radio isn’t the only new technology coming to college fields this fall. Schools are also now allowed to use tablets to watch movies with players during games.
SEC schools, including Alabama, will use Apple iPads for this purpose, and UA was able to begin using them at Saturday’s practice game.
“We took two breaks of about six minutes just to get to the sideline and understand what that looks like,” DeBoer said of the iPads. “Because right now, we can’t really practice that in our complex during normal practice. We’re just taking advantage of that and really understanding what the benefit is of taking advantage of the validation or learning opportunities that can come up between drives during the breaks we had today, but also not dwelling on it as much as how it affects our mindset and how our posture and confidence goes into the next drive.”
Alabama will play two more scrimmages during training camp at Bryant-Denny Stadium, where the Tide will open the season on Aug. 31 when Western Kentucky visits.
UA will also be at BDS on Sunday for the Fan Day event, which is open to the public.
