Coach Potatoes

What coaches look for while watching film
by: David Purdum
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More than 83,000 Crimson Tide fans just got real excited. They were packed in Bryant-Denny stadium to see the first ever No. 1 team visit Tuscaloosa. Alabama had just capped off a six-play, 80-yard drive with a Brodie Croyle 20-yard touchdown pass to Triandos Luke, cutting top-ranked Oklahoma’s lead to 13-10 midway through the third quarter.

With the momentum clearly on their side, ‘Bama’s defense forced the Sooners into 4th and 11 from their own 31. The Tide was rolling, and so was that crowd. Sooner punter Blake Ferguson took the snap and, to the dismay of that riled up sea of Tide fans, executed a perfect fake, completing a 22-yard pass to cornerback Michael Thompson for a first down. The next play, Jason White calmed the crowd for good with a 47-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Jones. Oklahoma escaped with a 20-10 victory and marched on to an undefeated regular season and an eventual berth in the BCS Championship Game.

Faking a punt on 4th and 11, on your own 31, leading on the road, and having one of the nation’s top defenses in your back pocket? Sounds risky, gutsy, to some stupid, but actually, it wasn’t that big of gamble. The Oklahoma coaching staff had seen something through hours of preparation and watching game film. The Tide’s punt team had a tendency to be a little careless off the corners. And when the Sooner staff noticed it happening during the game, they took advantage. A risky fake was actually just pitch and catch.

“We felt, if they were going to be that reckless off the corners, we were going to use it,” Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops told reporters. “In games like this on the road, you need to make something happen. You have to have the guts to go with it, and it worked.”

Exactly, how many clich´es are there referring to preparation – 83, 000? “Preparation is 50 percent of the battle.”

It’s hard work and extremely time consuming, but without it, your team has no chance. Successful staffs spend hours in front of the T.V. Rumor has it Florida State’s staff evenfalls asleep to game film.

“Every member of our staff watches film,” said Seminole video coordinator Billy Vizzini. “I’d say they spend at least 40 to 50 hours (a week) watching film.”

That makes for a long workweek. How hard could it be? Watch a re-run of a game; try to catch on to a few tendencies of your opponent; and form a game plan.

Former Tulane defensive back Trey Godfrey watched his fair share of film as a player. He’s got a bachelors’ degree in science. And now, along side his duties as a graduate assistant for the Wave, he’s pursuing his masters in liberal arts. Could watching film as a player be that different or much more difficult than dissecting it as a coach?

“My first year off the field after my senior season, I was pretty lost. I had no clue,” said Godfrey, who is now entering his third year working with Tulane’s defense. “The first part of the season was an adjustment. Then, the second part of the year was just pure catch-up.”

“You can’t imagine the amount of detail that goes into breaking down film,” said the Green Wave’s video coordinator, Will Davis. “Results from different field zones with certain plays; tendencies with different personnel, favorite first-and-10 plays and from every angle. It goes on an on.”

Vizinni says the Seminoles coaching staff will look for 30-40 different statistical categories on each play, anything to find a tendency. “Our offense’s stat sheet has 38 columns; the defense’s has 32. Some schools have up to 100 columns on their sheets,” he said.

“Every member of the staff will look at film at some point during the week. I know at some schools, the individual coaches will go into their meeting rooms and watch it. But here the majority of the guys sit in on the staff meetings and go over it.”

Southeastern Louisiana quarterbacks coach Matt Mumme says the Lions only have approximately 16-20 columns on their offensive chart sheet and 40-50 on defense.

“I think it’s important not to complicate things,” said Mumme, who played for his father Hal – now the head coach of Southeastern – at Kentucky. “Understand that your opponent is in a defense because of the offense’s set and personnel. We don’t run a lot of two-tight end sets, so we don’t really have to worry too much about a defense trying to stop that.”

Practice film also helps

Vizzini uses four cameras to film the Seminoles’ practices.

“We shoot an end zone angle and from the side line, just like in a game,” he said. “Practice film is more about positioning, and keying in on making your scout team give a good look of the different plays your opponent may throw at you and how your defense reacts to them.”

Godfrey says the Tulane staff will chart all the plays in practice and then sort them out by the calls made.

“With practice film, we want to be sure our alignment is correct for plays that opponents might run and could hurt us. Then see how many things we need to change,” he said. “If they like to run the counter of 1 and 10, and we’re not reacting to it very well in practice with our base defense, then we’ll change it.”

At Southeastern, Mumme says his quarterbacks learn a lot watching practice film.

“The biggest thing about practice film, speaking from an offensive standpoint, is that you get to see how your team is going to react to a certain coverage thrown at them,” he said.

“We’ll sit in with the quarterback and talk about and watch practice tape. ‘What are we going to do with this defense?’ We don’t want our QBs to ever get caught with the ball. So we’ll show them every blitz package in practice, and then go over on film the defenses they saw that day.”

Still, film of practice receives little attention compared to the time spent dissecting the upcoming opponent’s game film from last week as well as any previous year’s games against a familiar foe. Long nights and many hours are spent trying to locate that valued tendency that you can take advantage of during the game.

“We spend more than double the amount of time looking at opponents’ film than looking at our own film,” said Godfrey. “We’ll spend about two hours just breaking down our opponents’ game film when we first get it. Then about eight preliminary hours forming a game plan from it. From there, I’d say we’re watching film around 40 hours.”

Florida State’s preparation begins almost directly after the horn sounds at the end of that week’s game..

“Sunday night and into Monday is where you get your first chance to totally look at your opponent,” said Vizzini, who, in his spare time, also coordinates video for seven other sports at FSU. “You’re going to spend an entire day building and going over the scouting report from the stats off the film. Then, once you’ve got the film broken down, you’ll spend a lot of time the rest of the week going over situational stuff. We like to include the game (against the upcoming opponent) from last year, more than we do last week’s game.”

So what does Bobby Bowden want to see on film?

“Coach, he’s more of an old-school coach,” Vizzini said. “He prefers to watch the straight game from the offense, and the straight game from just the defense.

“But he really stresses short yardage and goal line situations. I think he feels that’s where the game can be won or lost, so that’s what he focuses in on. The first “cut-ups” he wants to see each week are the third and short and goal line situations; those are the key plays; you win those third and fourth downs and you usually win the game.”

Each coach has his favorite way to watch film. Some watch it all the way through to get the feel of the game; others watch individual positions or certain situations – again, anything to discover an opponent’s tendencies.

“When we make a “cut-up,” it definitely does not look like you’re watching it on T.V.,” Vizzini said. “You may have a “cut-up” of just 1 and 10’s or just running plays. We have videographers that break down the film, two full-time guys and two students, that assist in shooting practice.”

Godfrey says Tulane head coach Chris Scelfo has a habit of popping his head in on film sessions and pointing out something that he expects his coaches to be able to stop.

“Memphis ran the flare screen real well. So he might pop his head in and say, ‘how are we going to stop this?”

“Tulane defensive coordinator Eric Schumann doesn’t care how he watches film, just as long as he’s watching it,” according to Godfrey.

“He watches more film than anyone. He’ll get here a 5:45 a.m. and start watching. He’ll watch the whole game straight through to get the feel of the game, how it’s flowing. Then, we’ll get together as a staff, and just look at the running game, or just the passing game. We’ll do all sorts of breakdowns. Those are the times you can pick individual weaknesses. If the left guard is weak in an area, or if we can attack something.”

How about if the punt team is coming off the corners recklessly? All that from just watching a replay.

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