(AP) EAST LANSING, MI It was not an unusual sight for Andrew Kolpacki. He used to watch NFL games on TV on Sundays, where tens of thousands of fans would yell at the top of their lungs as quarterbacks put their hands on their helmets in a frantic attempt to hear the play call from the sideline or booth.
With the NCAA’s playing rules oversight committee approving coach-to-player helmet conversations in 2024 games this past spring, Michigan State head football equipment manager Kolpacki knew the Spartans’ quarterbacks and linebackers would be in trouble.
“There must have been a solution,” he remarked.
There was, as it happens. It was also directly across the street.
Tamara Reid Bush, a professor of mechanical engineering who oversees the school’s Biomechanical Design Research Laboratory and has a football season ticket, was contacted by Kolpacki.
Kolpacki asked me, “Do you think we can do anything better than duct tape?” after he showed me some pictures and mentioned that previous teams had simply placed duct tape within the earhole. Bush stated. And I replied, “Oh, of course.”
Bush and Rylie DuBois, an undergraduate research assistant at the lab and sophomore majoring in biosystems engineering, set out to use a 3D printer to create earhole inserts from polylactic acid, a bio-based plastic. Taking into consideration the different earhole shapes and sizes depending on the model of helmet was part of the problem.
In order to reduce crowd noise, starting quarterback Aidan Chiles and linebacker Jordan Turner had their helmets modified with the inserts once the season began on August 30 with a Friday night home game versus Florida Atlantic.
DuBois sat in the student section at the game.
DuBois remarked, “I felt such a strong sense of accomplishment and pride.” I also shared with my pals how I created the outfits they wore on the field.
Due in part to the wide range of helmet styles and colors that Spartan players can wear on any given Saturday, Bush and DuBois have developed approximately 180 sets of the inserts overall. Additionally, during the season, the engineering team has been improving their design.
Similar actions are being taken by dozens more Bowl Subdivision institutions. XO Armor Technologies, which offers on-site, on-demand 3D printing of athletic wearables, is frequently the source of their 3D-printed earhole covers.
According to Jeff Klosterman, vice president of business development at XO Armor, the Auburn, Alabama-based company has given its version of the earhole covers to the equipment managers of programs from Georgia and Clemson to Boise State and Arizona State in the hopes that the universities will think about working with the company in the future.
At the close of the previous season, the Houston Texans contacted XO Armor about developing a device that would let quarterback C.J. Stroudin hear play calls that were sent to his helmet while playing on the road. After working on and finishing one option, XO Armor was contacted again by Ohio State, who had learned that Michigan State was proceeding with helmet inserts and wanted to know whether XO Armor had any other plans.
“Honestly, we didn’t anticipate it becoming our viral moment in college football; we kind of just did this as a one-off favor to the Texans,” Klosterman said. Nowadays, almost 60 NFL and college football teams wear our sound-absorbing earhole covers every weekend.
Only one player per team is allowed to communicate with coaches while on the field, according to the rules. Usually, Turner plays defense while Chiles plays offensive for the Spartans. Chiles has requested that the insert be placed in just one earhole on his helmet, but Turner would like it in both.
According to Kolpacki, Chiles enjoys feeling as though he has some kind of external exposure.
The Long Beach, California, sophomore signal-caller received exposure during this season’s away games versus Michigan and Oregon. More than 110,000 people attended the October 26 meeting between the in-state rivals at Michigan Stadium. And it was loud, even though Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, had a crowd of just under 60,000 for the Ducks’ 31-10 victory over Michigan State three weeks prior. According to Kolpacki, there are several really amazing venues in the Big Ten.
According to him, it can be simply deafening. The purpose of the fans is to cause chaos and make it challenging for coaches to cancel a play.
Something that Bush and her staff have made a little easier to manage. She referred to the inserts as a win-win situation.
Working with the football squad and athletics excites me, she remarked. I believe it’s quite thrilling for our students as well to apply what they’ve learned to create and build something and watch it come to life.
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