NC State’s Doeren is NOT a Fan of the New College Football Clock Rules in 2023

In case you missed it, college football games were shorter in Week 1. That’s because the good ol NCAA made a significant in the way the clock runs heading into the 2023 season.

So here’s the deal. No longer will the clock stop after a first down, giving a chance for the chains to move before starting the clock again. From now on, the clock will only stop after first downs within the final 2 minutes of each half.

Why did the NCAA make said changes? To speed the game up to maintain engagmenent and give less opportunities for players to get injured. For perspective, college football games were roughly 20 minutes longer than NFL games last season, playing on average 27 more snaps per contest.

NC State Head Coach Dave Doeren expressed his sadness towards the changes at his weekly press conference, after experiencing its impact first hand up in Connecticut last Thursday night.

“There’s 15 fewer plays per game, on average. Three possessions that you’re losing in a football game. It’s definitely noticeable. Our 1st quarter was over after 3 possessions total at UConn. They had a long drive where they ran the football. We did the same. I looked up and there was 2:30 left in the 1st quarter after the 1st touch for each team. We had 4 TV timeouts per quarter.

16 television timeouts in our game, but we’re going to be excited about that and take football out of the game. I think it’s sad. That’s what’s happened, but it’s the way it goes. People want a shorter game, but they want more commercials within the game.”

Doeren also explained how the rule change will change the way teams plan and the total amount of points up on the scoreboard at the end of the game.

“As a football team, now you have to understand…there are fewer possessions. Each possession is critical for both teams. Offense and the defense, both sides of your football team. You don’t have as many opportunities to score points that you did before. There’s less touches. It’s going equal less points in a lot of cases. Not all, but if you’re playing a pretty clean football game and you’re used to having 10-12 possessions per game, you’re probably looking at 8-10 now. It’ll take time to get used to, but it’s just the way things are.”