Virtual reality has caught up with the gridiron on some campuses. And athletes are finding ways to put themselves on the field through video games.
By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 23, 2006
Day after day, Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter would go through the steps, walking up and lining up behind center, calling the play out loud, looking over the defense and making his reads.
Then a question would pop up on the video screen in front of him: "Who is your primary blitz threat?" and he'd thumb the buttons of the controller in his hands, highlighting the correct player.
All summer, with 100-degree heat outside and no organized practices, Carpenter went through his reps in front of a computer, an hour or so a day, rolling through a script of 100 or more plays without breaking a sweat, without a single coach or teammate with him most of the time.
The future of college football is in his hands, with high-tech computer simulation programs popping up on campuses across the country. Some embrace the same technology you see in big-budget Hollywood movies, and all have the look of football video games athletes are playing in their free time.
"You can only practice so much, and this allowed me to get reps while I'm sitting in a chair," Carpenter said. "It made a big difference for me, and I think it could take off where all college football programs would have something like it."
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Across the state in Tucson, Ariz., quarterback Willie Tuitama has been even more deeply immersed in technology this summer. Standing in a 45-by-30-foot area of the Wildcats weight-room facility called a SportMotion Studio, he's wearing a motion-capture marker suit - with a hat, shirt and leg straps covered with sensors that relay information to a central computer, creating a realistic 3D animation that can be instantly analyzed and compared from any perspective.
XOS Technologies, based in Sanford, created SportMotion, using the same motion-capture technology that gave realistic looks to computer-generated characters in movies such as Lord of the Rings and Polar Express.
The system has been used to analyze flaws in golf swings, and Arizona has a one-year exclusive contract with XOS, testing a new application. Not only can a quarterback's throwing motion be analyzed, but the passer can also put on a pair of virtual-reality goggles, seeing himself lined up in his own offense, the next opponent's defense staring at him from across the line of scrimmage.
And as he goes through a play, a coach watching a flat-screen TV nearby can see the field from his quarterback's perspective. Before the snap, he sees where the player's eyes are - is he picking up a defensive change? Is he seeing all his downfield options or telegraphing his passes?
"This is way high-tech stuff, very involved, but it's just another tool for our coaches," said Greg Shaffer, director of information technology for Arizona athletics.
Rick Lewis, product market manager for XOS, said the system has benefits beyond wins and losses. The former college football player at Kansas State whose playing days were limited by a knee injury said it can be used in rehabilitation, comparing a recovering athlete's running motion to the images recorded before an injury.
"The applications are endless," said Lewis, whose company will officially launch its product at the national coaches convention in January. "The technology is a little intimidating at first, but once the coaches start using it, they pick it up fast. Technology is always difficult when you're pioneering."
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The simulations boast amazing attention to detail. Arizona State's system, created by Scottsdale-based GridIron Technologies, allows a coach to input all his players so they show up with exact height, weight, 40-yard times and even skin color, with correct names and numbers on players' jerseys.
That both companies use video games as a vehicle to reach players is no accident. When college football players aren't practicing or studying, they're often lost in hours of Xbox and PlayStation 2. John Madden, Pro Football Hall of Fame coach, has been surpassed by John Madden, video-game namesake.
"These kids are practically born with (controllers) in their hands, so it's a comfortable interface," said Jason Sada, 35, president of GridIron, which tested its product at Arizona State last year and has 15 college clients across the country.
The technology can be expensive. Maryland paid roughly $250,000 for GridIron's Pro Simulator package, but coaches who have used the system, like Colorado offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, say it's a smart investment.
"It's the best tool I've seen at simulating the reality of college football," said Helfrich, who coached Carpenter at Arizona State last year. "Practicing 11-on-11 is still the best way to learn, but players can learn a lot with this. You could run through 1,000 snaps and not a single player sweats or gets so much as a bruise."
The NCAA limits the amount of time a player spends on a practice field in a given week but sets no restrictions on time watching video. It's also an efficient use of time; in practice, after each play, all of a player's teammates must come back to the line of scrimmage and reset, but on the computer, the next play is ready in seconds.
"You know the other 21 guys are going to do exactly what you want them to do, so you can focus on improving one player," Sada said.
For a backup quarterback not high enough on the depth chart to get reps in practice, the simulator brings a chance to learn the offense. A university with three systems could rotate in 12 players in a span of two hours, each running about 100 plays in a half-hour.
"The great thing is you can do it real quick," said Maryland senior quarterback Sam Hollenbach, who has used the system during breaks between classes. "Say during practice, if you make a mistake, you can go in afterward, pull up the same play against the same defense and run through it until you get it right."
None of the Florida colleges have simulator systems in place, but all have been approached. XOS has other services for colleges; Central Florida uses its video editing software, and Florida and USF use XOS with their official sites for multimedia and e-commerce applications.
St. Petersburg's Jamie Newberg, who also works as a recruiting analyst for scout.com and has written a recruiting column for the Times, helped sell GridIron's system to two ACC schools and four in the SEC in the past year. He also ran demonstrations for the Bucs and Jaguars and said the NFL, with complex offenses and larger budgets, is another expanding market.
"Once you get one or two NFL teams to sign on, it'll be a snowball effect," he said.
To see the rewards of the new technology, look no further than Carpenter, who led the nation in pass efficiency rating as a redshirt freshman last fall, throwing 17 touchdowns with just two interceptions.
Helfrich said the biggest change he saw in Carpenter was a greater awareness, both of his own offense and how to read defenses. Take the quarterback away from the video games and back on the field, he says, the game isn't over; it's just beginning.
"Watch a quarterback's head, and if he doesn't know what he's doing, you'll see a random scanning type of deal," Helfrich said. "With the kids who have worked on the simulator, you see a very deliberate moving of the head, like they know where everyone is supposed to be."
