The fake QB slide like Kenny Pickett's is awesome but definitely needs to be outlawed
This is by no means a place to wag a finger at Kenny Pickett.
What the Pitt QB did against Wake Forest was just awesome — he ran in the open field in the ACC title game, faked as if he was going down, and then took off again as a Deamon Deacons defender right in front of him had basically stopped, for fear of going in for a tackle and getting whistled for hitting a QB that gave himself up.
It ended up being a 58-yard gain, and one of the biggest highlights of championship weekend in college football.
And it should be outlawed.
Wake Forest’s coach Dave Clawson summed it up best (via ESPN):
“You just train your players, as soon as your quarterback starts sliding, you stop because if you touch him it’s going to be a penalty,” Clawson said. “He started his slide, and our kids stopped playing. I don’t think he did it intentionally, but if he did, he’s brilliant. I just think he reacted as an athlete. But what do you tell your players? The quarterback is protected, and there are two guys there who could have made a play but stopped playing because he started to slide.”
Yes, it’s a brilliant move that I have no doubt other QBs will practice and copy, despite the fact that having to consciously stop and go like that isn’t easy.
But because defenders don’t want to be flagged for hitting a quarterback who has already given himself up, they’ll hold up. It’s a loophole, one that Pickett successfully exploited and rightfully so. There’s no rule against it …
Yet. The loophole needs to be closed. Once a quarterback starts the process of the slide, he’s giving himself up. Whistle blows, end of play. Defenders know to stay away and QBs know they can’t fake it and keep running.
Otherwise? Defenders will start to tackle quarterbacks who presume they’ve given up, penalties on those plays will go up, then the reverse will happen and we’ll get more faux slides, another advantage that quarterbacks have over the opposition.
If that was the last fake slide we’ve seen, it was a heck of a play. And the Kenny Pickett Rule will remind us of how great it was.