College Football Needs To Change Their Targeting Rules ASAP

Last night was an absolutely egregious display of targeting calls. Four kids getting ejected in one game is ridiculous with what seemed like targeting reviews on every other play. Somethings gotta give here. With the direction that football and safety are going in the rule in itself is obviously not going anywhere but there needs to be some kind of change. We can’t be having middle linebackers making solid tackles over the middle or lead blockers on kick returns getting ejected from football games for making solid, clean hits where their helmet grazes the opposing players helmet. Where does it end? Literally any hit can be targeting if you slow it down enough. Is an offensive lineman‘s helmet clashing with a defensive lineman‘s helmet on the line of scrimmage gonna start getting called for targeting? How about a running back who lowers his head into the defenders? I feel like people lose sight of the fact that these players are playing at full speed and have no control of what the other guy does. If the ball carrier just dips his head at the last second right into you’re head as the defender you get ejected no matter if its the first play of the game or the last. That’s bullshit if you ask me. Intent matters. Launching yourself head first into the player you’re attempting to hit matters. 

The best solution in my opinion is to take on a similar rules structure as flagrant fouls do in the NBA. A very blatant disregard for the rules should still allow for an ejection but there has to be some middle ground for a 15 yard penalty but no ejection. You can also implement if you get two flagrants in one game than it can be an ejection. It just breaks my college football loving heart to see a kid make a good, clean, honest tackle and get ejected from the game for it. I may sound like the old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn but that makes it not football anymore. Do I think a targeting 1 and targeting 2 is a perfect solution? Absolutely not. Do I think it improves the current structure significantly? Yes. There still would be a ton of argument about the difference between a targeting 1 and targeting 2 but the one thing that none of us are arguing about is that the current targeting policy is broken and needs to be fixed ASAP.