OXFORD | Mike Bianco is always seen going through series of hand motions and face touches during televised games, delivering signs to his catcher prior to each pitch.
The Ole Miss head coach, who is entering his 18th season, will still have to implement his usual communication methods during nonconference and postseason games in the spring, but the Southeastern Conference is testing a wireless one-way device that allows head coaches to speak their messages to catchers in between pitches.
The Rebels have tested it multiple times during intrasquads, and Bianco is already a proponent of the technology. The coach can use a walkie-talkie or a microphone clipped to the jersey, while the receiver to the catcher’s earpiece will typically be attached to the chest protector.
“It’s certainly going to speed up the game,” Bianco said.
The SEC requested to test the communication during conference games and report the findings to the NCAA. The Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved it, and the hope is the few seconds saved between pitches will add up to as much as 20 minutes of decreased game time.
Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin told SportTTechie.com he believes 80 percent of pitches during a college game are called by a coach, so this should improve game length with every team in the conference.
While there isn’t time data for the 2017 regular season, College World Series games have averaged 25 minutes longer over the past five years, per Baseball America. CWS games have averaged more than three hours in 12 of the last 13 seasons.
There are also extended replay rules for 2018, so this move should offset any added time caused by more reviews.
Gubser & Schnakenberg, the current makers of the NFL communication device used by quarterbacks and defensive captains, also provides these earpieces. Unlike the NFL, there’s no cut off with this device. It’s continuous communication.
“The cutoff would almost defeat the purpose,” Bianco said. “I’d assume in the NFL the cutoff is so the quarterback needs to adjust without help at the line of scrimmage. Thats not the case with us. A cutoff isn’t viable.”
The devices have lost their signal at times during Ole Miss intrasquads, usually for around 20 seconds, forcing Bianco to use traditional signals during the outages. That’s not an issue this season because hand communication will be routine because of the nonconference games. If the wireless system becomes a national tool in the future, there could be problems during one of the glitches.
“You have to still teach the old system, even if (in 2019) it’s all earpiece, but they won’t be as good at it,” Bianco said. “If you watch in the fall now we teach a new catcher — no matter if it’s Cooper Johnson or Will Allen — they really struggle with the signals throughout the fall and then when they are catching everyday it’s 150 signals a game and a couple weeks into it they are aces at it.
“If you’re not using them it’s different so note to self we have to really keep teaching signals so if there’s a problem it won’t totally slow down the game. It’s going to speed it up tremendously.”
One temporary problem is the earpieces sent to Ole Miss are for the right ear. Since all Ole Miss catchers are right-handed, the movement during throws has dislodged it. The SEC is sending devices for the left ear, but Ole Miss hasn’t received them yet.
The speaker fits down into the ear, so sweat has affected its position and caused minor issues. On the whole, Bianco believes it will be fine once catchers get used to wearing them.
“Other than rather having it in the left ear, it’s just something new and takes time,” Bianco said. “All the problems are correctable, and it’s going to speed things up. Fans will see less time between pitches, and the game should flow more smoothly for those watching.”
