Computer Playbook

[zoogs]

Sounds great but the Univ needs to buy the technology and not let it get out to other teams.

 

That's never going to happen, and you know it shouldn't.

[skersOVRsc]

To be the best you must do things better than anyone, and this is a great way to do that. In 3 years this will be every where and we will be able to say we started the whole thing! Stupid hicks my a$$. Eat that you USC Bi*ches!

[hastingshusker]

Wait a minute. There are computers in Nebraska? I didnt know that. Heck I still go to the outhouse and ride my cow to work. Looks like I need to upgrade.

[Husker Runner]

After the Nebraska football program installed a new video system last season, one coach said it saved his marriage.

 

Kellen Clemens has said the new Huddle video system allows him to watch game film at home.

 

That was beyond what David Graff, one of its developers, expected. The program, called Huddle, was conceived a couple of years ago by three Nebraska students whose obsessions were technology and Cornhuskers football.

 

The result is part video library, part picture montage, part video game, part instant messenger, part calendar, part playbook — essentially an online community, like Facebook for football.

 

Nebraska, under Coach Bill Callahan, used Huddle for the 2007 season to rave reviews. The Cornhuskers finished 5-7, and Callahan was fired. But he took Huddle to his interview with the Jets, and he was hired as assistant head coach.

 

The system has been praised by the likes of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Coach Eric Mangini, whose Jets are the first N.F.L. team to use it. Graff said he hoped Huddle would eventually change the way teams store, access, edit and use video.

 

“There is a world of possibility,” he said during a recent visit to The New York Times.

 

Jeff Raikes, the president of Microsoft, who will become the chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in September, agreed. Like Graff, he grew up in Nebraska. Like Graff, Raikes obsesses over Cornhuskers football. He even installed a satellite dish to watch the coach’s show, and he still subscribes to Huskers Illustrated.

 

“Football in Nebraska is about state identity,” Raikes said. “Other places, they have other things. In Nebraska, it’s Cornhuskers football.”

 

Like Graff, Raikes knows something about technology. He started at Microsoft at 23; during his 27 years there, he helped create Microsoft Office and tablet PC technology.

 

Raikes has long been a supporter of Nebraska’s computer science and management program, which now bears his name. Students in that honors program are required to do nine-month projects.

 

Raikes wondered, Why not create a project for Nebraska football? So he approached three students who shared his interest in computer science and the Cornhuskers: Graff, Brian Kaiser and John Wirtz.

 

The project became Huddle, and Graff, Kaiser and Wirtz founded Agile Sports Technologies with the help of investors, including Raikes. Ever the Nebraska fan, Raikes had only a few conditions about teams the company would not approach, “like Notre Dame or U.S.C.”

 

Graff had previously worked in the Nebraska sports information office, so he was acquainted with Callahan. Graff, Kaiser and Wirtz sat down with the coaches and asked one question: What is the ideal system?

 

Then they worked on reducing the time it took to reproduce video onto DVDs for home study, protecting the notes that previously would have been lost during replication and developing one system to run everything.

 

Graff said he roomed with Cornhuskers quarterback Zac Taylor, the 2006 Big 12 offensive player of the year, who helped the tech people with the football side of the system. When Callahan saw a prototype in 2006, “he fell in love right away,” Graff said.

 

Taylor said of Graff: “When he showed me the basic program they’d come up with, I was stunned. I was shocked at how much they can do with it.”

 

Huddle uses the same technology that powers the Xbox 360 video-game console, and the same controller. Raikes said Gates had been “blown away by the sophistication of the application.”

 

Huddle’s main screen looks like a member’s home page on Facebook or MySpace. But instead of listing hobbies and interests, it features scouting reports, news feeds and lists of top performers, along with photographs (which draw players into the system), messaging and a calendar that can be accessed by trainers, doctors and nutritionists.

 

Coaches can leave notes or voice messages, even draw on the screen; players can access that data from anywhere with an Internet connection. The full playbook is available, in color, eliminating the need for paper versions. Coaches can test players’ knowledge of assignments instantly by having them draw on the screen.

 

Coaches can keep track of the players’ usage of Huddle, and can also send text messages to players when new video is in the system. They can send individual plays or instructions to all running backs or all offensive players or everyone on the team. They can run meetings with one computer.

 

The main questions potential clients seem to have involve security; coaches cite the spying controversy involving the New England Patriots as heightening their concerns. Graff said that Huddle was tested by experts from Harvard and Microsoft, who pronounced it safe. He added that a player would be denied access to the system as soon as he was cut.

 

The Jets liked Huddle so much that they signed an exclusivity contract to be the only American Football Conference East team to use it this season. In May, Graff said, the Jets watched about 20,000 video clips and spent more than 600 hours logged into the system.

 

“It’s an interesting concept,” Mangini said Saturday. “It’s the ability to watch tape over the Internet. It’s still a secure line. As a coach, you’re always looking to be more efficient, and sometimes if you’re not at the office and you haven’t told the video guys, ‘Hey, I need X, Y and Z,’ then you have the ability to access that stuff through this system.

 

“It’s not at the same speed as our normal operating system would be, but it does give you a vehicle to study when you aren’t necessarily in the building.”

 

Graff said that Jets quarterbacks Kellen Clemens and Chad Pennington had told him that they loved Huddle because they could watch more film at home, allowing for more time with their families. Rookies like linebacker Vernon Gholston and tight end Dustin Keller were able to log in while still in college so they could start learning the Jets’ playbook.

 

Heading into this season, Graff said he hoped to have a few more teams on board. Eventually, the company wants to branch into all sports, at all levels. It may add an interactive Madden-style video game component.

 

Raikes went one step further.

 

“Think about the base technologies created,” he said. “Those could be used in how surgeons train for surgery. It could be used to get sports fans more engaged. There really is a lot of possibility.”

 

LINK

[Husker Runner]

dp

[awestphalen]

This was created by a bunch of guys from my fraternity, and the reason that Nebraska is the only team using the software currently is because they are a Beta client for the program. I believe the Seattle Seahawks are another beta client using the software. I haven't seen the program or know all that much about it, but it sounds pretty impressive.

[newenglandhusker]

This was created by a bunch of guys from my fraternity, and the reason that Nebraska is the only team using the software currently is because they are a Beta client for the program. I believe the Seattle Seahawks are another beta client using the software. I haven't seen the program or know all that much about it, but it sounds pretty impressive.

You know what else sounds impressive? DP.

 

But on a series note, this looks like a completely badass company and product. GBR.