In 2018 the NCAA instituted a rule that would allow student-athletes to play in four football games while still maintaining their redshirt eligibility. Previously a player that appeared in any game would have lost the opportunity to use a redshirt.
Dan Mullen has been a champion of this new rule for multiple reasons and took advantage of it last year.
“The motivation for guys to get into games and go play, the depth for guys to go in and play and not potentially burn a whole year because of injury situations where, ‘I need this guy to come up because we’re thin at this position’ so this guy’s got to play and then all of a sudden everybody’s back from injury and now he’s dropped back down the depth chart and they can still redshirt that year,” Mullen said.