Iowa State Cyclones
Keeping Up in the College Football Arms Race
This weekends edition of the Wall Street Journal featured an article on the lengths college football teams are going to develop their quarterbacks. Titled, “Making the Firstt Three Seconds Count,” Jon Weinbach reveals the lengths schools are going to improve their quarterbacks. Tennessee and Georgia Tech use infrared systems developed by a Chicago Ophthalmologist which uses 3-D goggles to develop quarterbacks peripheral vision along their ability to quickly visual recognition and speed reaction time. According to their website, The Vizual Edge Performance Trainer claims to help quarterbacks in: scanning the field, passing consistency and accuracy, reading defenses quickly, reacting to the play on the field as it develops, field awareness your position in relation to players and field markers, chains etc., and concentration.
According to the article 15 schools are using “Pro Simulator”, a video game that allows teams to upload their playbook and scouting reports and game plans. In an article in the Sporting News, Maryland’s coach describes the benefits,
“This is the next best thing to practicing or playing," Hollenbach says. "Watching film is a passive experience. This is as close (as you get) to the real thing without getting hit." Besides, what college kid isn't going to want to play a souped-up video game?
Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen knows this. That's why he's smiling as he gazes out his office window at Byrd Stadium. A phone behind his desk rings. He ignores it. He wants to talk about this new gizmo.
"Decision making and vision are the two most important qualities a quarterback can have," Friedgen says. His voice rises. "It's all about accelerating learning and augmenting the learning curve. They need to learn to make decisions off what they see."
What makes the simulator better than the video game you bought at Best Buy is the fact a school can customize it with its playbook. Any play, any formation, any personnel grouping. The possibilities are limitless.
But the simulator will cost you -- as much as $250,000, according to developer GridIron Technologies. Arizona State was the first on board. Oklahoma State, Wake Forest and Virginia, among a dozen other schools, soon followed. The NFL might be next. Coaches around the country are pleading with their A.D.s for blank checks.
"A guy from the company told me he needed 20 minutes to pitch his product," Friedgen says. "I said I'd give him 10. Almost two hours later, I had bought the system."
An article in the Denver Post tells how Colorado is using the system. “Helfrich, now the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Colorado, has brought his innovative toy to the Buffs.
Quarterbacks, he says, can do nothing but benefit.
"As a quarterback, it's always better to play 11-on-11. That's really the only practice that matters," Helfrich said. "It's also the hardest to do, because you've got to have 21 other people getting banged (up), and during the summer you can't replicate that. This is just a way to visualize it, to go through the thing mentally without physically executing it. It's the closest thing to mentally executing, to recreate real life."
In Helfrich's office at CU's Dal Ward Athletic Center, the program is on a widescreen laptop. It is run by a PlayStation-type joystick, and figures on the screen are just shy of EA Sports' NCAA Football '07 quality.
But that's where the similarities between it and your garden variety football video game end.
It is a test. CU's entire playbook is loaded onto the program. Every player on the team is listed, with correct heights, weights, 40-yard dash times and whatever else makes it as realistic as possible. From the moment the huddle breaks, the quarterback is asked a series of questions, everything from what the proper pre-snap front calls should be to identifying likely blitzers.
After he gets the pre-snap questions correct, the play starts. The offensive line blocks. The receivers run routes. The defense rotates. Now, he must go through the proper progressions on the play to hit the right receiver. Red or green marks - and completed passes - let the quarterback know whether he was wrong or right.
"You can almost brainwash the quarterback into thinking a certain way every play, all the time," Helfrich said. "So then hopefully that translates on the field."
GridIron has video on their website that shows the system in action.
Tennessee uses seven digital cameras to record every practice including one behind the quartebacks head to capture the vantage point of what the quarterback was seeing as he makes decisions during a play.
The tools used by schools to gain an edge in athletics continue to escalate. I suspect that these tools become not only vehicles to develop and prepare your athletes, but also create a recruiting advantage. Imagine the seventeen year old quarterback with visions one day of a pro career visiting campus and the trainers show the 3-D goggles that will be used to develop your visual recognition and peripheral vision. The quarterbacks coach shows the current quarterback playing video games that teach them to make the right decisions and prepare them for game day success. It just gets harder and harder to compete. ISU fans will need to continue to step up in our donations and support to keep ISU competitive.
According to the article 15 schools are using “Pro Simulator”, a video game that allows teams to upload their playbook and scouting reports and game plans. In an article in the Sporting News, Maryland’s coach describes the benefits,
“This is the next best thing to practicing or playing," Hollenbach says. "Watching film is a passive experience. This is as close (as you get) to the real thing without getting hit." Besides, what college kid isn't going to want to play a souped-up video game?
Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen knows this. That's why he's smiling as he gazes out his office window at Byrd Stadium. A phone behind his desk rings. He ignores it. He wants to talk about this new gizmo.
"Decision making and vision are the two most important qualities a quarterback can have," Friedgen says. His voice rises. "It's all about accelerating learning and augmenting the learning curve. They need to learn to make decisions off what they see."
What makes the simulator better than the video game you bought at Best Buy is the fact a school can customize it with its playbook. Any play, any formation, any personnel grouping. The possibilities are limitless.
But the simulator will cost you -- as much as $250,000, according to developer GridIron Technologies. Arizona State was the first on board. Oklahoma State, Wake Forest and Virginia, among a dozen other schools, soon followed. The NFL might be next. Coaches around the country are pleading with their A.D.s for blank checks.
"A guy from the company told me he needed 20 minutes to pitch his product," Friedgen says. "I said I'd give him 10. Almost two hours later, I had bought the system."
An article in the Denver Post tells how Colorado is using the system. “Helfrich, now the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Colorado, has brought his innovative toy to the Buffs.
Quarterbacks, he says, can do nothing but benefit.
"As a quarterback, it's always better to play 11-on-11. That's really the only practice that matters," Helfrich said. "It's also the hardest to do, because you've got to have 21 other people getting banged (up), and during the summer you can't replicate that. This is just a way to visualize it, to go through the thing mentally without physically executing it. It's the closest thing to mentally executing, to recreate real life."
In Helfrich's office at CU's Dal Ward Athletic Center, the program is on a widescreen laptop. It is run by a PlayStation-type joystick, and figures on the screen are just shy of EA Sports' NCAA Football '07 quality.
But that's where the similarities between it and your garden variety football video game end.
It is a test. CU's entire playbook is loaded onto the program. Every player on the team is listed, with correct heights, weights, 40-yard dash times and whatever else makes it as realistic as possible. From the moment the huddle breaks, the quarterback is asked a series of questions, everything from what the proper pre-snap front calls should be to identifying likely blitzers.
After he gets the pre-snap questions correct, the play starts. The offensive line blocks. The receivers run routes. The defense rotates. Now, he must go through the proper progressions on the play to hit the right receiver. Red or green marks - and completed passes - let the quarterback know whether he was wrong or right.
"You can almost brainwash the quarterback into thinking a certain way every play, all the time," Helfrich said. "So then hopefully that translates on the field."
GridIron has video on their website that shows the system in action.
Tennessee uses seven digital cameras to record every practice including one behind the quartebacks head to capture the vantage point of what the quarterback was seeing as he makes decisions during a play.
The tools used by schools to gain an edge in athletics continue to escalate. I suspect that these tools become not only vehicles to develop and prepare your athletes, but also create a recruiting advantage. Imagine the seventeen year old quarterback with visions one day of a pro career visiting campus and the trainers show the 3-D goggles that will be used to develop your visual recognition and peripheral vision. The quarterbacks coach shows the current quarterback playing video games that teach them to make the right decisions and prepare them for game day success. It just gets harder and harder to compete. ISU fans will need to continue to step up in our donations and support to keep ISU competitive.
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