SOUTH CAROLINA: SHANE BEAMER

“We have been wearing them for awhile. Other schools I have been, we wore them at other schools, as well. We are always about player safety and it is another layer of protection for our guys.”

AUBURN: HUGH FREEZE

“At our SEC head coaches meeting, several years ago, and even at Liberty, there were some stats shown that kind of caught my attention. I felt like it decreased it considerably, particularly among the o-line, d-line, linebackers and running backs. If anything that I think has potential to increase the safety of our players, I’m all in on. If it has the possibility, which I believe they do, to increase the safety of our players, in practice, I’m going to do that every time.”

TENNESSEE: JOSH HEUPEL

“At the end of the day, every coach in the country, head coach and assistants, you’re trying to get the work that you need in over the course of training camp or practice during the week. At the same time, you’re trying to take care of your players. As we found more out about this game and how to keep their heads healthy, you’re looking for every advantage to put your players in the best position to be safe. We’ve been using it here. We do see that it’s limited. The things that happen, in particular over the course of training camp, and the long term research that’s taken place, a lot of it through the NFL, just repetitive hits and how that affects you long term during your life potentially, we feel like it’s definitely the right thing to do and use to make sure we’re taking care of our players the best way we can. Our medical staff, our training staff, do a great job of continuing to track all that information and make sure we’re staying up to date.”

LSU: BRIAN KELLY

“We did not have the data at Notre Dame that now is available through the research that has been done with the NFL. That research and that data is now available as of last year. If I had the data, I probably would have worn them at Notre Dame, as well. The data, in terms of incident of head injury in practice and in preseason, was just so compelling that we included them on all of our linemen, linebackers, tight ends and running backs, and paved to be a very effective tool for us in our practicing.”

OLE MISS: LANE KIFFIN

“We wear them all the time and studies show it helps concussion numbers, obviously as soon as we were told that, we purchased them and use them every day.”

VANDERBILT: CLARK LEA

“We wear it. The NFL data is what we lean on to kind of give us the best understanding of how that instrument helps reduce impact on collisions to the head. We waited until we felt like there was data present, and once the NFL started to incorporate it, it seemed like anything we could do to limit the collision and take a little bit of the impact off our players, we’re going to do it. That’s the reason we wear them. We feel like the Guardian Cap, there is enough science out there that says it will be helpful for us, so we are going to use it.”

FLORIDA: BILLY NAPIER

“We’ve kind of subscribed to that theory for several years now. Obviously, the NFL has done tremendous research there, it’s been effective. Each one of our players is wearing them in a practice setting now, and I do think we’ve seen some benefit there. Player-safety’s a big deal. I think our game continues to be popular and it’s important that we protect our game, and certainly the player-safety element, as we get more information and continue to learn via technology that maybe we have access to that we didn’t have even one, two, three, four, five years ago. I know for me personally, I could have benefitted from a Guardian Cap in my day, so it’s been great. It’s a great equipment, great product, and it’s made our players more safe.”

ARKANSAS: SAM PITTMAN

“We have cut down our concussions significantly in practice. I think we went the entire spring ball and did not have one last year. I think a lot of it has to do with on days, off days, on days. I think concussions rise as you have consecutive practices and consecutive hitting practices, so I think we have been educated on how far you can go there without having a spiders practice or a walkthrough, and some things like that. I think the education has helped us, as well, but I certainly believe in them. When coach (Barry) Odom was here, he was the one that really talked to me about them because they used them at Missouri when he was head coach up there. I think it’s really made a difference, it has in numbers.”

GEORGIA: KIRBY SMART

ALABAMA: NICK SABAN

KENTUCKY: MARK STOOPS

MISSOURI: ELI DRINKWITZ

“We were one of the first teams in the SEC to really wear those. Obviously, it reduces the impact on the helmet, and it has been a savior for us. We try to pride ourselves on being a physical football team in practice, but we really have been able to reduce the number of concussions that have occurred. It is something that when I was with coach (Dave) Doeren at NC State, we had something very similar, and I took that same approach at Appalachian State and carried it here. It has been a very beneficial thing for our program.”

Guardian Caps have been a staple in football practices throughout the Southeastern Conference. “We started this whole project in 2010,” Erin Hanson said. “Our whole goal in starting it was really to just help players across the board.”

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