Notre Dame Football: Orange Oven Mitts Threaten To Cool Irish Offense

He stands there, almost motionless on the home sideline of Notre Dame stadium. Calm, cool, serene, he patrols his realm with an authority hidden by his job title.

Though he is often reviled, cursed and booed, he is unmoved, unshaken in his solemn duty granted by a higher power from (the press box) above. At the signal in his headset, he commands the South Bend gridiron with a single wave of his orange oven mitt-covered hand, just as Moses parted the Red Sea.

He is as immutable as a game clock reading 00:00. His power is absolute, and he is an unquestionable, infallible force. He is NBC’s TV Timeout Official.

This nameless, shadowy figure has patrolled Notre Dame’s sidelines seemingly for as long as NBC has brought Irish football into living rooms on fall Saturdays. He has seen coaches come and go, but for the first time, one is standing up to his imperious regime.

In his press conference yesterday, Irish head coach Brian Kelly was asked about the NBC broadcasts of his team’s home football games, specifically whether their perceived longer-than-average length would negate the advantage of his fast tempo, no-huddle offense.

Surprisingly, Kelly did not brush this question aside as a politically correct network yes-man might, but, much to the contrary, actually acknowledged that both NBC and Notre Dame representatives already had met to discuss the issue and possible solutions.

“There is certainly a need for us to address [the TV timeouts] and we're working with NBC to make sure they get what they need...from an advertising standpoint,” Kelly responded, “but also as the network that carries Notre Dame, that we're able to do things that we need to do as well.”

The first reaction of any journalist is shock that Kelly gave an actual answer. The second reaction is surprise that Notre Dame is actually pushing back on a business partner in defense of its football program.

It’s certainly a bold play by Kelly. As the new guy in town, rattling cages among the establishment is a quick way to get on the wrong side of the wrong people.

But his willingness to go up against an institution like NBC in year one suggests that the idea of broadcast slowdowns goes beyond the theoretical and is a legitimate concern. Breaks in the game flow do seem to run counter to Kelly’s repeated emphasis on the “speed of practice” and the “speed of the game.”

One of the keys to his no-huddle offense is not providing the defense with any sniff of a breather. Even back in spring camp, Irish players have specifically mentioned the change in practice speed. When fall camp started, tight end Mike Ragone even spent a night in the hospital after the constant running on a hot day.

But how much will the broadcast really be a factor?

A look at the actual game duration numbers from 2010 is not conclusive to say whether overuse of TV timeouts create longer NBC broadcasts. Notre Dame’s NBC-televised games averaged three hours and 28 minutes in length.

Irish away games, televised but not by NBC, had a three hour, 21 minute average duration. This amounts to a difference around 3% less time, not significant enough to isolate broadcast as the primary factor.

However, almost any Notre Dame fan who has been to more than one Irish home game in the last 15 years can identify the man with the orange oven mitts. Regardless of the actual time difference, Notre Dame home games do feel longer, and extended periods of inactivity seem much more obvious.

Kelly may also be concerned about preserving not just his no-huddle offense but also his home field advantage. TV timeouts can only happen at specific times during a game (injury, change of possession, after a score, etc), although it’s not required to happen at every instance. The production team’s mismanagement of those breaks in the action is a potent recipe for deflating crowd momentum.

The most obvious examples occur when a TV timeout immediately follows a turnover by the opposing team. The loss of energy is almost palpable. Even worse is the scenario when Notre Dame scores, kicks off, and then receives a turnover, during which there could be as many as three TV timeouts, one after each event.

Instead of a rabid crowd with fans virtually foaming at the mouth, the stadium feels like a kindergarten arts and crafts hour. If Jack Swarbrick is worth his salt as an Athletic Director, he will equip Kelly with a “commercial kill switch,” where he can just press a button and hold the action. Plus, that will keep things lively in the play-by-play booth and make sure those commentators earn their paychecks.

So a word to the wise, Mr. TV Timeout Official: countless times you have been booed after an unnecessarily rapid succession of momentum-killing “words from our sponsors” but to no avail. The Irish coach is onto your game now, so if you know what’s good for you, keep your orange oven mitt to yourself.