GEORGETOWN, Texas — The sport of football is always evolving. This year, for the first time, the UIL allowed Texas high school teams to use in-game technology in press boxes and in locker rooms during halftime.
That meant schools like Georgetown High School could look at footage on tablets and make immediate adjustments.
“Our guys are already in my ear because they’re watching that film in the press box and already saying, ‘Hey, we need to come to this. They’re giving us this, we’re seeing it on film, let’s confirm it.’ And then we get to halftime, and we’re out there, outside the locker room, meeting as a staff and it’s easy,” said Jarrell Flores, Georgetown’s offensive coordinator.
With the rule change, coaches are able to look at plays at halftime, make adjustments and then relay it to their players. And players can now watch their mistakes in-game, thanks to companies like Answers, which provide the visual component.
“I mean, Answers is an incredible program. I don’t even think we’re scratching the surface on it really,” head coach Chuck Griffin said.
“It helps a lot because like, I can see it on the screen and then, as soon as I get on the field and I see that same thing, well, I know it’s coming and I can be able to make adjustments off that play like, in the moment,” quarterback Kaleb McDougle said.
“The ability to be able to create our cut-ups and be able to come down to halftime and say, ‘Look, we’re wanna see every play over 7 yards,’ or ‘we wanna look at all our zone plays’ and be able to see that film right away, is really impressive,” Griffin said.
The visuals help the coaching staff communicate with the players and vice versa.
“They understand why we’re making those adjustments, to understand, you know … ‘I thought I had that’ or ‘I thought I saw this,’ and we can show them, ‘Hey, this is actually this front’ or ‘here’s what we’re seeing in the back-end – what are you seeing from a quarterback perspective?” Flores said.
“Like, we make those adjustments as a team so we all stay as one unit,” McDougle said. “And that’s one thing we talk about is unity, and that’s how we’ve been playing our season. Everybody’s bought into that.”
“To be able to show our kids those kind of things and then be able to have a plan of, ‘Hey, this is what we gotta do.’ And look at those, diagnose the issues that we have and the problems that we have,” Griffin said. “It’s incredible to be able to do that at halftime.”
From the players, to the coaches on the field and in the press box, the question is always: How can we improve in the second half? Now, it seems teams have found their answer.