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It was fun while it lasted, but the NCAA will now be implementing a Kenny Pickett rule.
During the ACC Championship, the Pitt star quarterback froze a defender and scampered 58 yards for a touchdown thanks to a fake slide that had the internet buzzing. Some people loved the play and couldn’t get enough, while others thought it was cheating and should be an illegal move.
Well, we now know where the NCAA stands.
NCAA national coordinator of officials Steve Shaw sent out a memo that puts an end to players using the fake slide in the future. If a player simulates a slide, the play will be blown dead.
“Any time a ball carrier begins, simulates, or fakes a feet-first slide, the ball should be declared dead by the on field officials at that point,” the memo states, via ESPN.com. “The intent of the rule is player safety, and the objective is to give a ball carrier an option to end the play by sliding feet first and to avoid contact. To allow the ball carrier to fake a slide would compromise the defense that is being instructed to let up when the ball carrier slides feet first.”
Kenny Pickett hit the fake-slide 🤧pic.twitter.com/8f4VoUtxV4
— PFF (@PFF) December 5, 2021
Pickett, a Heisman Trophy finalist and ACC Player of the Year, explained the move following the game.
“I just kind of started slowing down and pulling up and getting ready to slide, and I just kind of saw their body language and they just pulled up as well,” Pickett said. “… I have never done that before. I just kind of kept going after I initially started to slide.”
It is one and done for the fake slide, but it will be remembered in our minds forever.
