Player Film Study

Submitted by Ziff72 on

Reading 3&O I was interested when I read about the players film study.  

Bacon points out RR's frustration with Tate and Denard's lack of film work in year 1 and then in year 2 when Bacon  follows Denard around he recounts the player "film session" that seemed like a disorganized half party/half film session.

I know most people won't be able to answer my question here, but are you surprised by this? For those that do know I'd love to hear what the norm is. 

 I'm not sure what's allowed by the NCAA but it seems in this modern age that players could get all sorts of video cut ups to study sent directly to their computers so they could study them in their own room with direction from their coaches because most of them probably don't know what they are looking for.  

Not sure what the leaders on the team were doing when Tate wasn't studying, but I'm surprised RR didn't send Molk to his room for a "code red" to get him refocused.

Magnus

October 31st, 2011 at 9:52 AM ^

I've read a lot recently about players getting iPads that have film cutups of opponents and their own plays.  I'm not sure how quickly that technology caught on, so maybe it wasn't easily available in 2009 when Denard/Tate first arrived on campus.

However, kids often don't know how to watch film, so if coaches aren't present (and sometimes if they are), I can see it being unproductive.

maizenbluenc

October 31st, 2011 at 9:52 AM ^

I think this is a symptom of one of the key problems during Rich Rodriguez's time: youth.

Think about it: when you come into college as a freshman, it really takes a year or more to get organized about studying (i.e., figure out the proper pace and synchronization between socializing, and studying). Usually, somewhere in there, you get to know a few upper classmen, and you learn a thing or two from them (like party hard on Friday night, but lighter on Saturday night so you can study on Sunday).

I think the low number of seniors on the football team, really hurt the team in the areas of leadership, and voluntary non countable activities like watching film. This is where -- if you had a upperclassman QB in the room -- they would be running the film session, and showing the freshmen what to focus on, etc.

Magnus

October 31st, 2011 at 9:59 AM ^

...and perhaps "youth" was a symptom of a larger problem, which might have been Rich Rodriguez's inability to keep older players around.  Whatever the reasons were, many of the older players left and there was a high rate of attrition amongst the 2008/2009 recruits.  The 2008 kids would have been juniors by the time Rodriguez's final season rolled around, but lots of them (Feagin, Witherspoon, Hill, O'Neill, Wermers, etc.) were gone.

maizenbluenc

October 31st, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^

While I agree somewhat with your point, I wouldn't list Feagin, Wermers, and maybe Witherspoon as Rich's inability. Also, as we have seen the past few months: attrition happens in any coaching change (and it happens in general).

My view: recruiting the last few years of Carr did drop off because hey, it was Carr's last few years, there was no clear successor, and everybody knew it. And attrition was bound to happen in a non-succession coaching change, to the spread, because: all new coaching staff, and the spread de-emphasizes the skills of the QB, and wide receivers we had onboard (not to mention what the shift to 3-3-5 does to DT recruiting). (Also notice that the one place where we had continuity in coaching staff, running backs, we did not suffer attrition.)

So rather than assigning blame, I am suggesting there is a situationally expected outcome.

MGlobules

October 31st, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^

film study ought to be a rigorous practice with guidelines laid out by coaches for players, whether they are going to be in the room or no.

Bacon's picture does go against our sense of a really diligent Denard, but who knows how much of the rest of the time he spent on prep or how much time--as a (still) very young guy--he needed to de-escalate given all that was going on. 

justingoblue

October 31st, 2011 at 9:55 AM ^

Bacon did mention that RR was scared beyond belief of violating another practice time rule and that probably contributed to his being less than strict about Tate and Denard watching a ton of film. I'm not that far along in the book yet (just finished 2008 Wisconsin, sigh) but I did read it on the front page here, I believe.

justingoblue

October 31st, 2011 at 10:31 AM ^

I know I would be. People inside the program talking on record with journalists, crazy media attention, upcoming NCAA hearing and meeting with investigators. If I was RR I'd probably be submitting my weekly schedule to compliance at that point, and if you're a player, how scared are you about inadvertently adding another violation to a program so proud of its cleanliness?

justingoblue

October 31st, 2011 at 11:10 AM ^

But the distinction between "expected" and "mandatory" was very blurred at the time. If I'm reading it correctly, RR was very afraid of saying something to the effect of "you need to watch more film and get better prepared" out of fear of investigators hearing those statements and including these "mandatory" film sessions against countable hours, when in reality there should have been leadership within the team saying these things to Tate and Denard and making it clear what the expectations were.

Elmer

October 31st, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^

Mattison said earlier this year (I believe it was at a coach's clinic) that he was surprised the players didn't even know how to properly watch film.  So maybe it was not only an issue of spending the time, but also doing it the right way and learning from it.

thisisme08

October 31st, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^

My take is that the majority of it can be attributed to the youth of the team.  While I agree w/ Magnus's assessment that RR could have done more to keep some of the upperclassman around rather than just handing them papers alot of it seems to point to the fact that the cupboard was very much bare to begin with coupled w/ an extreme program change. 

 

Side note;

Anyone else suprised that JT Turner was that bad of an apple from the get go? From his work ethic to his ego and letting a 47 year old coach beat him in conditioning.

SWFLWolverine

October 31st, 2011 at 11:47 AM ^

I attended a session with Dick Trickett at a coaches convention last winter. Trickett is the OL coach at FSU and worked on staff with RR at WVU. He spoke about having players turn in a scouting report of their own to him weekly outlining what defenses were run, stunts, blitzes, etc. in down and distance situations against specific formations.  Additionally to what techniques each of the players they might face used, and their strengths and weaknesses.