The targeting rule has grown into one of the most controversial penalties in college football. Ejecting players who are guilty of that personal foul is something that a lot of people around the sport want to see changed.

That includes Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell.

Coming off a tremendous 2021 season at Cincinnati, Fickell was asked what rule he’d like to see changed most in the sport. While he understands why the targeting rule is in place, the leader of the Bearcats wants to stop seeing players lose a game for an inadvertent targeting call.

“Stop ejecting kids out of college football games (for targeting calls),” Fickell said, per Brett McMurphy of Action Network.

Under current rules, players can be ejected for a targeting call at any point during a game. If a player commits the penalty in the second half of a game, he must miss the first half of the following contest.

Most people agree that targeting has helped with the health and safety of players in games. Keeping a 15-yard penalty doesn’t seem to get too much resistance. But with players only getting a limited number of games during their career, tossing someone seems a bit extreme.

We’ll see if the oversight committee makes any rules changes to the penalty this offseason.