Blogging a Blog

People often don't appreciate the effort required to maintain a blog on a regular basis. Obviously, I have done a poor job in modeling good blogging as seen in my sporadic posts.

This entry is composed in reaction to having this blog mentioned in another blog, one of a larger caliber, The Warrior Beat. This came as a surprise to me as I expected to lay under the radar as I went about with my involvement with the Warrior football team.

As I mentioned in my response post, it has truly been a wonderful opportunity to be a small part of the team and enjoy the successes experienced over the season. How many other people can say they work alongside Coach Jerry Glanville in HIS office without getting the ol' boot?!

I'm responsible for entering the data into the computer program that aids in scouting the opponent (for the defense) that we play next week. For this week, Oregon State film had been broken down and entered by last Thursday. I take pride in doing this work, all on my own time, while juggling classes and a graduate assistantship with the University's Center on Disability Studies. I would estimate that each game takes at least 2 hours to enter into the computer's system, and on average we breakdown at least 2 games of an upcoming opponent.

Coaches George Lumpkin, Cal Lee, Rich Miano, Jeff Reinebold, and Glanville himself first watch the footage and provide me with the data to input into the computer. Down and distance, yardage, hash, personnel, formation set, play, and result of play are all accounted for when entered into the computer system. The computer program then allows us to capture specifics, which then can provide insight on a team's tendencies. For instance, perhaps a team might run their red personnel set only for short yardage situations and might use only run formations given that personnel. This information can prove very helpful when preparing a gameplan to stop an opponent's offense.

In case you're curious, Dan Morrison is the offense's computer guy. In the ideal world, a program would have a specific person assigned to doing ONLY breakdowns and entering the data into the computer. But the University's program isn't as wealthy as other schools and can't afford any more positions than they currently have. So we make the best out of what we DO have, committed individuals willing to do anything to ensure the team is in the best chance to succeed.

I'll write more later, but it is after 1:30 in the morning, Tuesday, and I have to be up in a few hours. I'll enjoy morning practice and then will head up to the football office to "get better," as Coach Reinebold likes to say!

Thanks for reading and feel free to read my older entries...they're interesting reads (I think!).