Rutgers coach Greg Schiano made some waves when he suggested that kickoffs should be eliminated and replaced with the scoring team having a 4th-and-15 scenario at its own 30-yard line. His primary motivation for bringing up such a change is the paralyzing injury that Eric LeGrand suffered on a kickoff last year. Football Study Hall's Bill Connelly took a look at the proposal at Football Outsiders and determined it should be more in the 4th-and-12 or 13 range, but Schiano's proposal has been well received in a number of places.
Today, Mark Richt came out behind eliminating kickoffs too. In doing so, he referenced the career ending injury that his own player Decory Bryant sustained on a kickoff in 2003. That two coaches who have seen career ending (and life threatening, in Schiano's case) injuries happen on kickoffs is not at all surprising.
Richt didn't go as far as Schiano did, as he just suggested giving the team that gave up the score the ball at their own 23-yard line. He picked that number because he thinks it might be the average spot kickoffs are returned to (I don't know what it is myself), so it wasn't that the number 23 is special to him. The problem with doing that is it keeps teams from having the chance to get the ball back after scoring like they have with onside kicks now, something that Schiano's idea takes care of.
I'm certainly interested to find out if more coaches and players would be supportive of eliminating kickoffs. I have no doubt that there would be some resistance to it; in this very article, Richt's defensive captain Christian Robinson spoke out in favor of keeping kickoffs. Ideally, someone will hit up the coaches at SEC Media Days to find out their stance on it (nudge nudge, cocknfire).
Richt also spoke about oversigning and morality. For the details on that, head over to Dawg Sports via that there link.