Things have been heating up towards season 2 of the USFL. The hubs are official, and now all eyes are on the draft, training camp and kickoff.
With a little over two months to go, we’re now starting to hear about some of the rule changes we’ll see in season 2.
Mike Pereira joined OutKick 360 earlier this week, in which he discusses some of the updates that are coming down the line.
I’m assuming we’ll have some adjustments to some rules, because I know you’re all about implementing other things that you couldn’t do in year one as you got things off the ground. What are we looking forward to this spring with USFL from your department?
Pereira starts by touching on the subtle adjustments due to the expanded hubs. First and foremost, the league will be adding more officials. 80% of which are part of the NFL developmental program.
From there he dives into the updates for 2023.
We looked at the rules and we were pretty pleased with last year, we were still a little bit concerned about game times. Especially now in the hub format, you’re going to have the possibility of one game playing into another… Last year we wound the clock after incomplete passes in the 1st and 3rd quarters, which sped up our game. We thought it was a good change, but still we think it wasn’t quite enough. So, we’re going to wind the clock in the 2nd and 4th quarters also after incomplete passes, up until the five-minute mark of the quarter. And we’ll see in the first of couple weeks where that makes our timeframe fall.
If the gametime gets where we want it to be, I think it’ll be a good change.
Additionally, Pereira speaks on changes to the forward fumble rules.
We’re listening to the fans and we’re listening to the critics. So, a forward fumble into and out of bounds in the endzone will go back to the spot of the fumble and the offense will keep the ball.
Lastly, he touches on a minor change the USFL kickoff rule.
We’re going to make one slight adjustment to the kickoff. We like kickoff returns, 81% of our kickoffs were returned last year kicking off from the 25. Well, we want to get it to the 90, so we’re going to kickoff from the 20. We are likely to push that number up toward 90% of kickoffs being returned.
Other than that, he believes the USFL ruleset is pretty good. Unlike the first year, they’re hoping not to adjust any rules mid-season.
In our opinion, this is a good sign. It’s natural to make rule changes from one season to the next, but it’s positive that we’re not seeing a lot out of the USFL. They’re confident in the game they laid out last season, and are truley working towards perfecting it for season 2 and beyond.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming USFL rule changes? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
You can watch the full segment with Mike Pereira below.
