Whether it's the NCAA Quarterfinal loss to No. 2 Albany on May 19 of 2018, the snow bowl game the last time Denver and Air Force met, or the exciting new rules that have been introduced to the college game ahead of this season, the 2019 Denver Pioneers are ready to get a new campaign underway this weekend as they welcome the Falcons to Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m. MT/Altitude 2/ESPN Denver 1600).

Head coach Bill Tierney, whose tenure as the IMLCA liaison to the NCAA Rules Committee came to an end after 12 years following the latest meeting this summer, has adapted to several rule changes during his 35-year career, and is ready to see how these new rules make the game different.

Major Rule Change #1:
80 Second Shot Clock – Following several years of testing during fall seasons, from the time of possession teams will have 80 seconds to get a shot on cage (either in the net, off the pipe or off the goalie from above goal line extended) beginning in the 2019 season. The clearing clock, which in previous years allowed teams 30 seconds to get the ball into its offensive box, will now expire in 20 seconds (60 seconds left on the shot clock) into the possession with teams needing to get to the midfield line to satisfy the clock.

"Overall it's great for the game, especially for spectators," Tierney said. "I think for players and coaches, there have been rule changes every two years for the last 100 years I've been around, so it happens, you deal with it, you move on. This is the first one in a while that has been really significant, but certainty the shot clock is the one everyone has been talking about. We've taken the arbitrary timer out of the referee's hands, and you know you've done something right when both the referees and the coaches are happy about a rule change. For us it's been trying to find the happy medium between realizing 80 seconds is a long time but that you don't have all day. We can kind of break our offense into what happens when you immediately get the ball, because you still have to clear it in 20 seconds over the midline, then the middle part of transition, and figuring out, "okay do we keep attacking? Or do we sub off?', and that last third, that final 20-25 seconds where tensions are getting high because the clock is winding down."

Major Rule Change #2:
The Dive is Here – Following the 2017 NCAA Semifinal loss to Maryland in Foxboro, Tierney's postgame press conference was remembered for his call for the rules committee to bring the shot clock and dive into the college game after two goals (one for each team) were waived off in the final couple of minutes for what would now be legal dives. Nearly 20 months later, he'll see both implemented on Saturday afternoon, although the dive maybe isn't what he imagined it would be.

"It should be exciting, but because of the way it was written, it won't be," Tierney said. "The verbiage of the rule itself is so vague. So they took away one difficult thing for the referees, the timer versus shot clock, but they added this dive thing. The rule is the dive has to be away from the goal mouth, so how do you determine that? That's a tough one. Plus, if the diver does dive towards or parallel with the goal mouth, not only does his goal get taken away but he also gets a penalty. So the excitement of the dive has been replaced with angst. I know for us, other teams may be different, but we've just told them not to dive, it's not worth the chance you're taking. I hope over the years they change that or put something else in like a 'landing zone' that really makes it clear for the officials."

Major Rule Change #3:
The substitution box has been cut in half in 2019 from 20 yards to 10 yards, five on each side of the midfield line, creating more transition opportunities by limiting the ease of subbing on a defender and gaining as many as 20 yards on foot with the larger box.

"In the past when we had the bigger substitution box, you could pretty much cut off anyone's man advantage from offense to defense just by running an attackman off and subbing a long stick on. Now that it's 10-yards and the attackman has to run five more yards, the defender has to run five more yards and that extra 10 yards can really make a difference. We'll see more fast breaks and extra man transition advantages than we have had in the past. That's what people want to see. They want to see scoring and more ball movement, they want to see the excitement. So that's been good!"

A lot has been talked about these changes, and week one already provided some discussion, but starting Saturday, everyone will see how these rules change the game in the Lacrosse Capital of the West.