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College Football Playoff: Players share what they would change about the sport

 
One of the Goodyear airships hovers over Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, ahead of Monday's College Football Playoff National Championship. [ Luis Santana | Times]
One of the Goodyear airships hovers over Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, ahead of Monday's College Football Playoff National Championship. [ Luis Santana | Times]
Published Jan. 9, 2017

TAMPA -- "What's one thing you would change about college football?"

That's the question we asked participants in Monday night's College Football Playoff championship game. Here's a sampling of their responses:

Alabama lineman Lester Cotton: "The hot days in camp, if we could change those and make it cooler a little bit, that would be nice. Change the weather. I think Nick Saban got a little temperature thing outside and then like every time we go out for practice it just gets hot for no reason."

Alabama linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton: "I would probably change the playoffs. Coach Saban say some true stuff about everybody wanting the playoffs and now you got guys sitting out bowl games because all the attention on the playoffs nowadays. It's just adding another game to our body after a long season you know, playing week in, week out in the SEC, it definitely takes a toll on your body. It don't need to be no playoffs."

Alabama linebacker Jamey Mosley: "The playoff system that we have now kind of ruined it for some of the bowls. A lot of people don't pay attention to the bowls nowadays. When we were in the BCS era a lot of people paid more attention to the other bowls other than the championship. But now all the attention is on the playoff. So now if you don't make the playoff we don't really watch other bowls. It's kind of a longer season, the season is already long, but now its 15 games, so it's definitely more wear and tear."

Alabama lineman Joshua Frazier: "When I was playing Tennessee, the guard and the tackle came down took out my legs. That's one thing I would change, when I'm engaging, you can't chop block and go for the knees. That was horrible. I did the splits on the field, pretty much, and I'm not supposed to be able to do the splits. I'm too big for that."

Clemson linebacker Kendall Joseph: "Maybe the early morning wakeups. Sometimes we have to wake up extremely early before class and then you're tired the whole day. So I think that might be it. Sometimes waking up at 5 a.m. to go work out before we go to class. So that gets tough and that wears on you."

Alabama wide receiver Calvin Ridley: "The pay thing. Just because we practice so much, we work out so much. We just don't have the time for jobs with football and school."

Alabama linebacker Ryan Anderson: "I would change the way our time is managed and our pay. I think players deserved to be paid at least something. People are making so much money off all this, and we work, work, work. Not everybody gets that NFL shot. We play in front of 100,000 people, no pay, no nothing. I feel like we should get paid something."

Clemson linebacker Dorian O'Daniel: "Probably the targeting rule. Whenever they review it to see if it's intentional, if it is intentional give the player an unsportsmanlike conduct. You don't have to eject the player for the rest of the game. And if you do eject the player for the rest of the game, you don't have to put him in the locker room for the rest of the game. At least let him be on the sidelines."

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Clemson defensive tackle Scott Pagano: "Probably just having the top two teams again. Because people are making a big deal of how we have four teams, now they want eight teams. No one is ever going to be happy with it, so they should just go back to the top two teams."

Clemson safety Jadar Johnson: "I wish we could paid. Bro, if we could get paid for college football, I'd love it."

Clemson tight end Jordan Leggett: "I think it's pretty good as it is. I mean, they're taking care of the players as much as possible, all the contact hits and stuff like that. The playoff is perfect, top four teams. There doesn't need to be a top eight. That's just too many games to ask out of a college player."

Clemson wide receiver T.J. Chase: "I still don't like the way how they do it when they lead with the helmet and stuff like that. I understand it, but I feel like they're taking the fun away from football."