Aug. 30, 2009
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Archive: Long Snapping | Training Table | Punt Returning
1. Bowl games provide other advantages: In the SEC, we have a completely open exchange policy. We can request any game at any time, present or past, from any other SEC team. With other schools, we have to contact them and have to negotiate a certain number of games. This year is nice because we will come across some schools that didn’t play in a bowl game and typically we are the ones being told, `we’ll exchange 12 games, but not all 13 because of the bowl game.’ This year, we are able to say, `we aren’t going to give you the bowl game.’
2. Every angle is covered: For practice, we have four different camera angles. There are two main shots from the sideline and end zone for the turf (field) and two cameras setup to capture the sideline and end zone on the grass field. Every day, offense and defense give us a highlighted schedule of what they want shot. The structure typically stays the same for each practice. There will be some variations from day-to-day, especially during the preseason. Once we get into game week, the schedule is almost identical from week to week. Every now and again, they will throw us a curveball during practice. Somebody will move a drill from turf to grass or grass to turf when it is scheduled to be the other way. For games, we shoot the end zone and sideline angle for every game. We also have three or four cameras on the field for home games and two for road games.
3. Film is ready by the time coaches have changed: During practice, there is always someone in the office loading all the tapes into our editing system, so that everything is ready as soon as the coaches change clothes and shower. All we have to do is mark the beginning and end of every play, so all the coaches actually see are the plays that are run. If they run 15 plays, there are 15 clips. We are constantly going out to practice to get tapes of every single section we shoot. If we shoot, 7-on-7, there will be a tape from sideline and a tape from end zone and we will go pick up those tapes, bring them back in and load them in and have 7-on-7 ready to go. We will use radios to communicate when a tape is ready to be picked up. People operating cameras will sometimes run (the tapes) to the bottom of the tower. If someone is done early on the grass field, we will use them to run tapes.
4. Everyone gets home earlier from games: This year will be a little different after games because of a new XOS system we have. Before, we would have to wait to get back in the office and then load in all the tapes, which would take close to three hours to get everything done and ready for the coaches to watch. This new system allows us to capture live through the laptops while we are actually at the game, so on the way back we can have everything marked and ready to go, so all we have to do is upload it to the server, so we should be done in 30 to 45 minutes.
5. No more 6 a.m. runs to the airport: Just about every school has moved online with film exchange and it is mandated in the SEC. It has really revolutionized the job being able to do it all online. If we play a night game and our opponent plays a morning game, we can actually get their game film loaded in before we even play our game. When the coaches get off the field, our game is in as is the next opponent.
