Husker Analytics Looking to Expand

[Mavric]

Which is why Zeleny, who earned his doctorate in statistics from Nebraska in May 2015 and became NU’s director later last summer, is perfectly OK with adding people to his department. Nebraska might get another full-time staffer and a graduate assistant who can work 20 hours per week. Then, undergraduate assistants looking to work in the field volunteer their time during the school year.


Every mind helps in the world of analytics.

Receptive coaches help, too. Coaches who are hungry to learn more, who want Zeleny to dig deeper into topics. Zeleny said Nebraska has that. One coach is at the top of that list.

“Tim Miles is pretty into it,” Zeleny said of the Husker men’s basketball coach. “Everybody’s embraced it, but he’s the one coming up with a lot of good ideas and throwing stuff back and forth with us.”

Zeleny plans to meet with women’s basketball coach Amy Williams. He wants to get more involved with the national champion volleyball team. He’s in regular contact with several Nebraska football analysts, and meets with assistant coaches and Mike Riley when necessary. Zeleny scours stat sites like sports-reference.com and teamrankings.com, both sites that analyze a variety of sports, including college football and men’s college basketball. Each week during the football season, he gets a stat download from Pro Football Focus, which also looks at the college game.

During spring practice, Riley cited a study done by Zeleny on turnover margin that he found illuminating. Zeleny said he actually did that study prior to Riley’s arrival, when Bo Pelini was still NU’s coach. Zeleny started working more with Nebraska’s athletic department in September 2014. He said the Huskers’ previous football coaching staff was also receptive to analytics.

OWH

 

[Thanks_Tom RR]

Someone went from being a graduate student to becoming a director of a department as his first job? Amazing! That has to be a first (a bit of hyperbole, but not much).

The normal academic track would include several years as a postdoc then an assistant professor position for 5-6 years to make tenure and move into an associate professor position and number of years after that getting full professorship, and sometime between associate and full professor being eligible for a department chair or director position.

 

[Sargon]

Tom, his new department is not an academic department. He's not on any academic track.

That said his appointment as head of the new department makes perfect sense.

His topical skill is excellent and his management skill is irrelevant so far, and not of much relevance any time in the near future.

If he does well, quickly, he could be in a way a next Boyd Epley for NU. NU needs to be the BEST in some things to get to the top as our recruiting location problem is permanent and significant. I'm starting to wonder (and hope) if NU's increases in recruiting wisdom/effort/tactics/spending may not also become an important "best."

 

[Mierin]

Someone went from being a graduate student to becoming a director of a department as his first job? Amazing! That has to be a first (a bit of hyperbole, but not much).

The normal academic track would include several years as a postdoc then an assistant professor position for 5-6 years to make tenure and move into an associate professor position and number of years after that getting full professorship, and sometime between associate and full professor being eligible for a department chair or director position.

Like Sargon said, you're thinking of the academic world. The Sports Analytics department is a sub-department of the athletic department. A friend of mine has a similar position with a pretty big company and she only has her Master's. Statistics is new for quite a few companies and Tucker made sense because he'd done his dissertation with Nebraska sports data (weightlifting if I'm remembering correctly).

 

[Thanks_Tom RR]

Well, good for him, and good luck.

Sargon, unless you think his department will remain a department of one, his management skills as a director are quite relevant.

Moiraine, if you want someone with experience with Nebraska sports data, hire his doctoral advisor, who would clearly have more experience with such data. In truth, experience with Nebraska-based data sets does not seem like a relevant evaluating criteria for a new hire, as I cannot imagine data collected from athletes at Nebraska is anything novel compared to data collected from athletes from another university.

 

[Gobigred44]

Analytics indicates that coaches should go for 4th down a lot more often than they do rather than always sending the punter or FG kicker out. Not sure what else football analytics indicates. Well I'm sure analytics indicates that NU sucks at hiring coaches ever since Osborne left but you don't need an analytics department to figure that out.

 

[Mierin]

Well, good for him, and good luck.

Sargon, unless you think his department will remain a department of one, his management skills as a director are quite relevant.

Moiraine, if you want someone with experience with Nebraska sports data, hire his doctoral advisor, who would clearly have more experience with such data. In truth, experience with Nebraska-based data sets does not seem like a relevant evaluating criteria for a new hire, as I cannot imagine data collected from athletes at Nebraska is anything novel compared to data collected from athletes from another university.

Ok, I'll put it this way. Lots of graduate students from outside of Nebraska join the UNL Statistics department because they have a focus/specialization in sports statistics. It was a very good place to hire from for this job. On top of that, due to the fact they attract people with this interest means he'll have lots of potential GAs and future employees to pick from.
His advisor retired last year. Even if that were not the case, statistics is a rapidly changing field and hiring a new grad isn't necessarily worse than hiring someone with decades of non-sports statistics experience. It depends largely on how up to date the person stays. Sports analytics is a pretty new field. Most potential candidates are going to be young.

 

[Mierin]

Analytics indicates that coaches should go for 4th down a lot more often than they do rather than always sending the punter or FG kicker out. Not sure what else football analytics indicates. Well I'm sure analytics indicates that NU sucks at hiring coaches ever since Osborne left but you don't need an analytics department to figure that out.

The possibilities are practically endless. Injuries can be predicted with a high success rate. Weight lifting regimens can be optimized. + over 9000 more thingies.

 

[Thanks_Tom RR]

Well, good for him, and good luck.

Sargon, unless you think his department will remain a department of one, his management skills as a director are quite relevant.

Moiraine, if you want someone with experience with Nebraska sports data, hire his doctoral advisor, who would clearly have more experience with such data. In truth, experience with Nebraska-based data sets does not seem like a relevant evaluating criteria for a new hire, as I cannot imagine data collected from athletes at Nebraska is anything novel compared to data collected from athletes from another university.

Ok, I'll put it this way. Lots of graduate students from outside of Nebraska join the UNL Statistics department because they have a focus/specialization in sports statistics. It was a very good place to hire from for this job. On top of that, due to the fact they attract people with this interest means he'll have lots of potential GAs and future employees to pick from.
His advisor retired last year. Even if that were not the case, statistics is a rapidly changing field and hiring a new grad isn't necessarily worse than hiring someone with decades of non-sports statistics experience. It depends largely on how up to date the person stays. Sports analytics is a pretty new field. Most potential candidates are going to be young.

You're doing a better job of selling the quality of the program as opposed to the qualifications of the individual, which in reality you don't even have to try as Sargon already illuminated the hiring standards for this field. Let's just welcome the guy, and move on.

 

[Mierin]

Well, good for him, and good luck.

Sargon, unless you think his department will remain a department of one, his management skills as a director are quite relevant.

Moiraine, if you want someone with experience with Nebraska sports data, hire his doctoral advisor, who would clearly have more experience with such data. In truth, experience with Nebraska-based data sets does not seem like a relevant evaluating criteria for a new hire, as I cannot imagine data collected from athletes at Nebraska is anything novel compared to data collected from athletes from another university.

Ok, I'll put it this way. Lots of graduate students from outside of Nebraska join the UNL Statistics department because they have a focus/specialization in sports statistics. It was a very good place to hire from for this job. On top of that, due to the fact they attract people with this interest means he'll have lots of potential GAs and future employees to pick from.His advisor retired last year. Even if that were not the case, statistics is a rapidly changing field and hiring a new grad isn't necessarily worse than hiring someone with decades of non-sports statistics experience. It depends largely on how up to date the person stays. Sports analytics is a pretty new field. Most potential candidates are going to be young.

You're doing a better job of selling the quality of the program as opposed to the qualifications of the individual, which in reality you don't even have to try as Sargon already illuminated the hiring standards for this field. Let's just welcome the guy, and move on.

They're pretty similar things. If the program is high quality, the people who got their degrees from it are probably high quality, so it's a good place to hire from. That's what I was trying to say. I'm not sure why you're asking me to move on or telling me Sargon's post was illuminating about the field. All he said was this wasn't an academic position. I was trying to inform about something I know a lot about. I didn't realize this was a tense conversation but I guess internet words can be read in a different tone than they're intended.
Anyhow, this is something I'm passionate/knowledgeable about so I wanted to talk about it. I don't want people to get the wrong idea that they're not hiring the best just because he's from Nebraska and recently graduated, because that's not the case.

 

[Thanks_Tom RR]

I am not upset Moiraine, just not interested in continuing the conversation. I was not criticizing his qualifications based on his education rather his limited experience. Sargon cleared that up for me when he noted this position is independent of the academic track.

No harm, no foul here.