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AFM Magazine


The Evolution of Technology in Football

Reflections on How We Arrived Here and What the Journey Tells Us About the Future
by: Samuel G. Covault, Ph.D.,
Athle-Tech
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CLICK...CLACK...CLICK...CLACK.... the only sound emanating from the darkened room droned endlessly. For decades, it was the sound of technology in football. For generations of players and coaches, the first technological skill to be mastered was how to thread film in the 16mm projector. It was film, passing back and forth through the projector's gate, which was the sound of technology in the game. An endless ribbon of film ran through the game and connected generations of coaches and players.

As I honor AFM's request to reflect on the evolution of technology in football, I'm reminded of a special memory, of a time when I began to learn the skills of the profession. It was the summer of 1975, I had just joined the staff of the late Bill Hess at Ohio University. As were two other fine head coaches for whom I've worked, Bill Mallory and Earle Bruce, Coach Hess had been an assistant with Woody Hayes at Ohio State. He, like every coach I know who served with Coach Hayes, believed in a strong work ethic - opposing coaches may have more talent, they may have better resources, but they would never out work you.

Like most coaches, as a college player I watched a lot of film. It helped me to learn how to play my position, but I didn't truly begin to learn the art of film study, and the intricacies of the game, until those slower days of the summer of 1975. With a projector and a library of film, Bill Hess began to teach me the art of analyzing your own team, your opponent and of formulating a game plan. With most of the staff on vacation. it was just the two of us. Bill Hess' command of the knowledge of the game, his love for it, and his respect for coaching as a profession inspired me. Those amazing days, which I spent alone with one of the great men of the game, were the finest display of teaching that I've ever experienced. As a player, I loved the game, its competition and camaraderie, but it was in that dark OU meeting room where I began a career-long respect for the strategies of coaching.

For most staffs at that time, the tools of strategic analysis were paper, pencil, calculator, 16mm film and the analyst projector. The projector, in its light brown case - a little over a cubic foot in size - was ever present in a coach's life. It sat on your desk at the office, you took it home at night, it was your companion on every recruiting trip, and whenever you spoke at clinics. Film, its procurement, viewing and repair took up a lot of your life, particularly as a young coach.

In the days before video coordinator's and their staffs, making use of game footage was much more difficult than it is today. How many coaches today can still remember the late evening or early morning trip to the film processor's to pick-up a 16mm print of today's practice or game, the drive to a truck stop halfway between your campus and your upcoming opponent's, or the airline freight office in the early hours of a Sunday morning? What about the off-season meeting room filled with six foot splices of film stuck on the walls with masking tape headers, or the laborious task of scraping, gluing and splicing each clip into teaching reels? For decades this was the technology of the game.

However, while coaches continued these time honored rituals, breakthroughs were occurring in such locations as the Stanford Research Center, the Sarnoff, Bell and Watson Scientific Computing (IBM) Labs and Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. These discoveries were about to change the manner in which society managed information. A fast paced revolution was coming, and it would touch not only our personal lives, but our professional lives, as coaches, as well.

The First Computers

The world's first large scale calculating computer, the Mark I, performed its first calculation for IBM and Harvard inventors in 1944. The Mark I was fifty feet long, eight feet high and weighed eight tons. It took six seconds to perform one multiplication. The first electronic digital computer, ENIAC was unveiled at the Stanford Research Center in 1946. Since the time of the Mark I and ENIAC, the capacity to store information on a given surface area has increased one million times; the amount of data a drive can read and write in one second has increased 300,000 times; and the inflation-adjusted cost of storing each bit of data has decreased 500,000 times!

Over the past fifty years, dozens of breakthroughs have hurled technology forward at an ever increasing pace. Each milestone has been important, but FIVE innovations in particular have directly altered the ways in which we, as coaches, prepare our teams.

Mainframe Computing Standards

Until the mid-1960's, every new model of computer required new hardware and software. IBM's introduction of the model 360 family of compatible machines provided broad-based computing with standards for the first time. This, and other large-scale computing innovations, like the Hollerith paper punch card, opened mainframe computing to the world. It was shortly after the introduction of these innovations that college and professional teams began to develop the first applications of computer technology to football.

One of the first systems for game analysis was developed by William Witzel and used by the Washington Redskins in 1968. The Bears, Cowboys, Falcons and 49er's soon followed suit and the race was on to gain an advantage through technology. When asked in 1970 about the 49'ers use of computers, then head coach Dick Nolan was quoted as saying, "Computerized reports give me 50% more information 20% faster than any manual system ever used. . . A coach who understands the power and the limitations of the computer method has a definite advantage over his opponent."

Throughout the 1970's, mainframe and minicomputer applications were developed for NFL clubs and on a few college campuses. In Los Angeles, Joe Guardino developed a systems for the Rams, USC, and later the Bills, Packers, Lions and Broncos. Frank Ryan, a Cleveland quarterback who was educated as a mathematician, helped develop a program for the Browns.

However, maintaining computer capability in the late 70's was expensive, time consuming and in most cases did not produce reports which were easy to interpret. Professional clubs were usually required to employ programmers and technicians who did not possess a working knowledge of the game. This made communications difficult. College programs had access to university computers, but had to fight for computer time and had the same communications problems as the pros.

At Ohio State, at the beginning of the 1980's, we had just come off a one-point Rose Bowl loss to USC. Undefeated and ranked #1 going into the game, the loss had cost us the national championship. A Sports Illustrated article recapping the game made quite a point of how USC's computer analysis had accurately predicted a lot of our game plan. That article, and the knowledge that we had lost the championship by the smallest of margins, helped us to convince Earle Bruce that we should take a serious look at how technology might help our program.

After thorough research, we determined that while systems did exist which provided basic down, distance and field position information, none really produced the kind of reporting that related to the ways in which we made decisions. We wanted a system which concentrated on decision-making concepts in all phases of the game. We wanted reporting which drew together related elements and presented them in a more graphic manner. At that point, in one of those twists of fate that can affect the direction of your career, Coach Bruce gave me the go ahead to develop a system of analysis that was the first of its kind in football. We still relied on the university mainframe to crunch the numbers (the release of the IBM PC was still two years in the future), but for the first time we as coaches had direct control over every aspect of the technology - film breakdown, data entry and most importantly, reporting which revealed and presented tendencies in a new way.

Football's First PC-Base Systems

The next major innovation to affect college and professional staffs came in the mid-1980's. The IBM PC had been introduced in 1981, but the power and storage technology, necessary to finally put computing capability directly in the hands of coaches, had taken another four years to make it to market. At the time, I was finishing my second year as the offensive coordinator at UConn. The opportunity arose to apply this new technology to coaching. With the help of some fine professionals, the idea that coaches could gain unfettered, direct control of a technology which would provide them with real insight and competitive advantage, was born.

To a large extent, seven forward-thinking head coaches and their staffs made this revolution happen. In the spring of 1986, staffs under Jack Elway at Stanford, Bill Mallory at Indiana, Leon Burtnett at Purdue, Bo Schembechler at Michigan, Dan Simrell at Toledo, Mike Gottfried at Pitt and Don Nehlen at West Virginia, agreed to purchase and install PC-based game analysis and recruiting systems. In several cases these staffs gave up the security of established mainframe operations on their own campuses, for the promise of gaining total control over these important tools. In the intervening fifteen years, systems for PC-based applications have become available to programs at every level of the game.

Introduction of PC-Controlled Analog Editing

A personal computer system first edited game footage and produced synchronized printed reports, in the staff conference room at Indiana University in 1987. Years before, I had begun my coaching career with several of the men in that Hoosier conference room. As young coaches, we had all made training films by hand, and wished for a technology that might someday improve the process. As we watched the PC direct tape decks to make a cut-up of IU's offense versus the blitz, it seemed like magic. An entirely new approach to analyzing our own teams and our opponents, and to teaching our players, was suddenly a reality.

When Indiana, Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Miami (FL) and USC, became the first programs to use editing systems, 16mm game film was still the standard medium of exchange. In those early days, video editing was a multi-step process involving a box with mirrors. Game film was projected into one side of the box while a video camera recorded the image from the other side. Once game footage was transferred to master tapes, Athle-Tech's• game analysis and video editing software directed large banks of video tape recorders to produce the desired cut-ups. For the first time in history, coaches could request cut-ups on any combination of variables, individual plays could be used again and again if needed, and once the games' breakdown information was gathered and master tapes prepared, the entire process was automated.

Introduction of Super VHS (S-VHS) Video

With the development of systems for managing game analysis, recruiting, player personnel, video editing, academic tracking, strength & conditioning and the training room, the value of PC technology to coaching staffs was becoming well-established. Shortly after Athle-Tech Computer Systems introduced PC-based editing, an innovation arrived from Japan which would accelerate its growth, as it relegated 16mm film to obscurity.

For several years coaches, except those who could afford very expensive broadcast quality equipment, resisted video tape because of its poor image quality. Non-broadcast tape formats were incapable of providing an image quality coaches were willing to accept, particularly when copied. When Panasonic introduced the affordable S-VHS standard, an image quality was finally available which would allow the majority of staffs to exploit the many advantages available with tape. Consequently, 16mm film and the analyst projector, which had been essential tools of the profession for so many years, disappeared from the meeting room.

Introduction of Digital (Non-Linear) Video

By the early 1990's, non-linear editing systems had existed for several years, primarily as off-line editors in the film and advertising industries. However, an old problem - image quality - was delaying the application of this digital technology to football. Football's wide sideline view, showing all 22 players with sufficient clarity to read individual jersey numbers, presented a standard which digital could not meet at the beginning of the decade. We had dreamed of the potential of digital video - with its instant access to any play - for years. The big question was, how long would we have to wait for the basic technology to advance to a level which would overcome the image quality limitation?

A hint at the answer could be found in "Moore's Law." A 1965 observation by researcher Gordon Moore had proved an uncannily accurate predictor of the rate at which technology advances. Moore studied the growth of performance capacity in memory chips, which are at the heart of computing power. He observed that every 18-24 months, chips were introduced which doubled the memory capacity of their predecessors. In what has come to be known as "Moore's Law", he reasoned that computing power would increase exponentially over relatively brief periods of time. Having seen "Moore's Law", validated time and again, we were confident that digital video's image quality issue would be solved, and that this solution would probably become available by 1994. Armed with this confidence, we proceeded with the development of football's first non-linear editing systems in the early 90's, working out the design and incorporating existing reporting and analysis capabilities first under IBM's OS2 then Microsoft's new Windows NT operating system.

During the spring of 1994, in a meeting room overlooking West Virginia University's Mountaineer Field, Athle-Tech Computer Systems unveiled football's first broadcast-quality digital (non-linear) editing system. Among its many instantaneous features were cut-ups on any range of variables, multiple view inter-cutting and synchronized printed reports.

Don Nehlen's West Virginia staff was the first in the country, college or pro, to install and fully employ a non-linear editing system. The Mountaineers were quickly joined by the University of Wisconsin, one of football's most well-conceived information technology operations. Today, non-linear editing systems are standard tools in the arsenals of most professional and major college programs.

The Future

Just as five innovations in the past have changed the ways in which we prepare our teams, there are FIVE breakthroughs in technology which are poised to change the future.

The Internet

The National Science Foundation opened the Internet to commercial applications less than ten years ago. Currently, Internet traffic is doubling every 100 days. Web sites already play an important role in bringing college and professional programs to recruits, prospects, alumni and the public. That role will expand in the future.

Fiber Optics

Each strand of fiber-optic cable now carries 2 trillion bits of information per second, up from 10 billion bits five years ago, an increase of 2,000 times. Soon the rate will be 5 trillion bits and the direct exchange of video over wide-band networks will become an everyday occurrence.

Wireless Technology

Wireless technologies, which allow communications between PC's and all manner of gadgets within a six-mile radius, will soon connect devices which now require cables. This will open exciting possibilities for monitoring performance during strength and conditioning sessions, and in the areas of video and communication.

Voice-Command Software

Athle-Tech first installed voice-command software in it's game analysis system with Jack Elway's staff at Stanford in 1986. The concept was about 15 years ahead of the technology. Driven by voice's potential as an Internet transforming technology, a long held coach's dream of dictating game breakdown information directly into the computer will soon be accurate and reliable enough to become a reality.

Video Conferencing

The convergence of several key technologies may make desktop video conferencing so inexpensive and widely available that it replaces much of the travel coaches now do for recruiting, player evaluation and professional development.

Epilogue

The history of the development and application of technology in football is filled with tales of hard work, success and failure, and of risk-taking by coaches who shared a common vision, to advance their ability to teach and guide the young athletes with whom we share this great game. The explosive effect of technology on the game has occurred almost exclusively during the past thirty years, its been an amazing time. "Moore's Law" promises that the next thirty will be even more exciting. •Athle-Tech Computer Systems has been one of the country's premier providers of technology to football staffs for the past 15 years. As system elements have become commodities and athletic departments and professional teams invest ever greater resources in technology, Athle-Tech has changed its primary business focus - from a provider of systems to an independent consulting and teaching firm specializing in helping college and professional clients make good decisions as they purchase, implement and manage their technical systems.

A pioneer in bringing technology to football, Sam Covault has nearly 30 years of experience in the game as a player, coach and Athle-Tech founder. He's helped teams to 11 national or world championships, 48 conference titles and over 120 post season or playoff games. He can be reached at (727) 942-9576 or athletech@netzero.net. Sam Covault and Bill Hess on the OU sidline in 1975.

Milestones
1944 Mark I - the world's first large scale calculating computer (IBM & Harvard)
1946 ENIAC - the world's first digital computer (Stanford Research Institute)
1947 Invention of the transistor (AT&T's Bell Labs) - the ground-breaking innovation that is the basis for nearly all technology of the second half of the 20th century
1962 1963 1964Mid-Sixties through the Seventies -Original research and articles dealing with mainframe computer applications to football begin to appear in literature...

Mainframe and later minicomputer systems for game analysis, player selection, statistics, budgeting and training begin to appear in the NFL.
1965 Sony introduces its first video tape recorder
1971 The world's first microprocessor is created (Intel)
1977 Introduction of the Apple II personal computer (Apple)
1980 First computer system to tie opponent and self-scouting analysis to conceptual decision making for offense, defense and kicking game reporting [Convault (Ph.D. Ohio State)]
1981 Introduction of the IBM PC
1982 First ethernet network adapter card for the IBM PC (3Comm). Term Internet is first used to describe a connected set of networks using TCP/IP protocol
1986 First PC-based systems to provide opponent and self-scouting analysis with graphic conceptual reporting of offense, defense and kicking and recruiting and player personnel management. First programs to employ this new technology included: Stanford, Michigan, Indiana, Purdue, Pitt, West Virginia and Toledo (Athle-Tech Computer Systems, Inc.)
1987First PC-based systems integrating analog linear editing technologies, game analysis and recruiting/player personnel systems. First installed at Indiana, Michigan, USC, Miami (FL) and Wisconsin (Athle-Tech)
1988 S-VHS video format is introduced. For the first time affordable, quality videotape images becomes available, beginning the move to a tape standard and away from 16mm film (Panasonic) NFL makes league-wide decision to adopt Betacam video tape and equipment standard (Sony and NFL)
1991 National Science Foundation opens the Internet to commercial applications
1994 First PC-based systems integrating non-linear editing technologies, game analysis and recruiting/player personnel systems. First installed at West Virginia and Wisconsin (Athle-Tech).






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