Stanford Game Plan Analytics

[FloridaHawk82]

Yes, we are dropping passes, playing terrible football, and getting flat-out outplayed, but I'm going to throw out something I've thought about for a long time.

My work background is 25+ years in IT, and I've always theorized (and fantasized) that advanced computer analysis of an opposing team's tendencies could provide game plans that would provide advantages.

With that said, obviously we were beat physically and athletically in the first half, but based on how Stanford's offense and defense seemed to know exactly what we were going to do, I would bet a LOT of money that they employed the legion of IT geniuses at their disposal to devise game plans that exploited our tendencies.

No sour grapes here, because as far as I know, that is legal, but given the immense analytical resources available to Stanford, its just a theory? If so, kudos to them.

 

[uiowa08]

Of all the teams in the country to accurately predict tendencies, I would think Iowa would be one of the easiest, if not THE easiest. It isn't ever a secret what Iowa is going to do, you don't need advanced analytics to figure it out!

 

[rivercityjazzman]

Yes, we are dropping passes, playing terrible football, and getting flat-out outplayed, but I'm going to throw out something I've thought about for a long time.

My work background is 25+ years in IT, and I've always theorized (and fantasized) that advanced computer analysis of an opposing team's tendencies could provide game plans that would provide advantages.

With that said, obviously we were beat physically and athletically in the first half, but based on how Stanford's offense and defense seemed to know exactly what we were going to do, I would bet a LOT of money that they employed the legion of IT geniuses at their disposal to devise game plans that exploited our tendencies.

No sour grapes here, because as far as I know, that is legal, but given the immense analytical resources available to Stanford, its just a theory? If so, kudos to them.

Interesting thought. Analytics is (are?) certainly gaining a foothold in pro sports like baseball and basketball, so I could see it happening in football as well. Regardless of how they scouted us, they did an outstanding job. They knew our tendencies and exploited them incredibly effectively.

 

[Arbor1]

The embarassement isnt in losing it is the inability to even slowdown the complete destruction of your vaunted system. Shocking and disturbing all game long.

 

[Herdcyclones]

Good post FloridaHawk. I've been pondering a Moneyball approach to football as well. I don't see it in the NFL as much, but in college football and high school football I see the need for a math coach. The extent of that now is some coach having a chart on whether to go for one or two if you go up by 18 points.

And maybe big time colleges have guys doing that. But being a Cyclone fan, and seeing the utter incompetency of the end of the K-State game in trying to run out the clock, I don't see why teams don't have the math coach standing on the sidelines. This would include things like telling the punt returner where to stand based on a punter's abilities and tendencies or knowing how many more seconds you can kill by having a QB roll out from a shotgun and knee the ball vs. doing a fullback dive at the end of the game.

I would think somebody would have an easier time to plan against Kirk. And that is not a dig on Kirk, it is simply on his longevity. There is a bigger set of information on what the guy does in certain situations.

I do think it is a little easier to "Moneyball" baseball, just because there are more "events" to watch. A batter may see 3000 pitches in a MLB season. A little easier to find a trend there that what play somebody will run on 3rd and 5 from their own 20.

 

[HawkAttackDial911]

I've always thought the Statistics Department should be more involved with the school's team sports. There's all kinds of valuable information there waiting to be uncovered. Alas, there are so many more important things to do than to analyze sports.

 

[doughudd]

Yes, we are dropping passes, playing terrible football, and getting flat-out outplayed, but I'm going to throw out something I've thought about for a long time.

My work background is 25+ years in IT, and I've always theorized (and fantasized) that advanced computer analysis of an opposing team's tendencies could provide game plans that would provide advantages.

With that said, obviously we were beat physically and athletically in the first half, but based on how Stanford's offense and defense seemed to know exactly what we were going to do, I would bet a LOT of money that they employed the legion of IT geniuses at their disposal to devise game plans that exploited our tendencies.

No sour grapes here, because as far as I know, that is legal, but given the immense analytical resources available to Stanford, its just a theory? If so, kudos to them.

Iowa uses it too. They are now doing what a lot of NFL teams do by placing a GPS device on the players during the week to track how much energy they expend in practice. They know how much they can do to get the optimum performance on game day and will hold them back during the week so they don't exceed that.

But really how good is tracking another teams tendency's? Most all are doing it to themselves now. Iowa got help with that this year. Any good staff is going to know how to use that data against you. Better to read the keys the O gives you on the play.

 

[DallasIAHawk]

This is what they are up to. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[DUpHawks]

Oh Dear God, make it stop.

Threads like this are almost as bad as the ones bashing the refs. If only that spot on the 2nd drive had been better, we woulda won.

 

[HawkLogic]

KF for years hasn't blitzed and in past hasn't substituted out of his base defense. What is he going to do with statistics? A lot of his problem is he is too predictable himself.

I want to think that B. Ferentz is bringing in some new knowledge, but that OL performance was so shitty yesterday, you have to wonder about how great the OL coaching really is.

It really does come down to 1st controlling the trenches. The OL was abused and Beathard was getting sacked and Iowa couldn't run the ball. The DT had zero pressure from front 4 and those holes McCaffery was running through were huge.

 

[BigHawk]

I would bet a lot of money that they didn't use analytics....don't sell their coaches short.

The Hawks are an easy team to prepare for...inside/outside zone running scheme with a very simple passing scheme with no proven playmakers in the WR's.

It's amazing how good your team looks when it dominates both lines of scrimmage. That's what KF is trying to do, and when someone turns the tables on us......you get what we saw yesterday.

 

[CAhawki]

Stanford's prep was never more evident than when we motioned Wadley out of the backfield late in the game and their defense didn't even blink. No audible or motion. Nothing. The result was 2 LBs getting to CJ in touched.

 

[FloridaHawk82]

Of all the teams in the country to accurately predict tendencies, I would think Iowa would be one of the easiest, if not THE easiest. It isn't ever a secret what Iowa is going to do, you don't need advanced analytics to figure it out!

Oh Dear God, make it stop.

Threads like this are almost as bad as the ones bashing the refs. If only that spot on the 2nd drive had been better, we woulda won.

On the contrary, this was meant in no way as an excuse... just the opposite, and simply looking at things from an analytical point of view, as opposed to so many chicken-little-sky-is-falling BS.

 

[bhawk24bob]

On the contrary, this was meant in no way as an excuse... just the opposite, and simply looking at things from an analytical point of view, as opposed to so many chicken-little-sky-is-falling BS.

There's nothing analytical about your guess

It wouldn't take IT geniuses to build some kind of model to predict what Iowa is going to do on either side of the ball - every team that Iowa plays knows what is coming. The difference yesterday was that Stanford dominated the lines of scrimmage.....and no predictive model is needed to do that

 

[Run&Blade]

It isn't that difficult to understand.

Nobody should make it to the Rose bowl when their two best wins are Northwestern and Wisconson.

Iowa simply wasn't that good.

If the west and east were even close to balanced in terms of talent Iowa would not have been in the game.

The best three teams in the Big Ten are all in the West.

 

[Hans81]

So the 3 best teams are in the West? Look, we've tried the stupid Legends and Leaders divisions, so the geographical East and West divisions is best way to go to preserve some semblance of rivalries. Also, as someone else pointed out (I'm too lazy to look it up now), the overall records between East and West in head-to-head match-ups this year was very close, with West maybe even coming out with higher win total.

Run& Blade, I know your a Nebraska fan, but you're comments don't make much sense.

 

[Run&Blade]

Iowa didn't play a top team from the West in the regular season. Wisconson didn't play a top team from the West in the regular season. Northwestern played one top team from the west in the regular season and got fricking hammered 38-0.

It isn't difficult to see how it went down. Iowa took advantage of a sweet scheduling fluke. If they had played Notre dame yesterday they might have pulled off the charade for the entire season because the Irish are a beat up football team.