Will Quiet Stadiums Impact Offensive and Defensive Line Play Most?

When fans across the Southeastern Conference pour into stadiums across the Deep South on Saturday for the first time, it will honestly be more of a trickle.

At Ole Miss, for the Rebels' season opener against No. 5 Florida, the capacity at Vaught-Heminway Stadium is capped at 25-percent, meaning around 16,000 fans will be able to attend the game. This 25-percent threshold is just about the norm across the conference at this point.

However, from a crowd noise perspective, 25-percent is essentially the same as having no one in the stadiums. Home field advantages are going to take a huge dip this year, as 16,000 people in an open air stadium really can't do much at all to hinder opposition.

Coaches will be able to very easily communicate to players on the field pre-snap and line of scrimmage adjustments will be easier than ever. But there's a place where these eerily quiet stadiums may have a big impact that many aren't really considering – in the trenches along the offensive and defensive lines.

"It goes both ways," said Ole Miss senior linebacker Lakia Henry. "We have to be focused in on both sides, because they could draw us offsides easier or we could jump the snap.

"For me, personally, in junior college I didn't play with any fans anyways. So it's kind of like going back to day one and just playing football. I feel like that's going to be an advantage to me personally."

Henry said that during team scrimmages over prior weeks, such play has gone both ways. There have been times that the offense was able to draw defenders offsides easily and there have been other times that the defense has jumped snap counts for big sacks on the quarterback.

Left tackle Nick Broeker said that the team hasn't experimented too much with a hard count going into the Florida game, but where not having many fans in the stadium will help the offense is with line communication.

"The main thing that helps us is that we can communicate a lot easier. There's not as much noise. So when Ben (Brown) makes his calls, we can communicate well with the other guys and everyone is really on the same page. We don't have as many issues with crowd noise."

Head coach Lane Kiffin downplayed the significance of a lack of fans earlier this week.

"I think it will be strange for our fans and our returning players," Kiffin said. "I kind of joked, but I spent three years in Conference USA so I'm kind of used to social distancing. I don't think it will be that strange to me."

There's still a chance that, as the season progresses, more and more fans will be allowed in stadiums across the nation. But for now, capacities will be limited and home field advantage will be at a minimum. How that impacts actual game play will be interesting to watch unfold.

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By the Numbers: Ole Miss vs. Florida

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