Posted on 09/13/2009 11:17:31 PM PDT by kingattax
WASHINGTON (ISNS) -- Football coaches are famous for their dedication to winning. Video studies of upcoming opponents begin so early in the morning that most people are still dreaming about their first cup of coffee; strategy sessions run past the time insomniacs fall asleep.
But a new computer model may be able to take the play calling load off of the coach and, through fast, real-time analysis of all the offensive and defensive possibilities, dictate the best play to call in any game situation. The program takes the human element out of play calling and instead uses mathematical and statistical techniques.
Operations researcher Sharif Melouk and applied statistician Marcus Perry , both from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, collaborated with a graduate student to apply techniques often used to allocate resources in contexts like business and antiterrorist protection efforts to football play calling. "We're at Alabama, we're pretty serious about football here," said Melouk.
"We're avid sports fans ourselves, so we like to look at the quantitative side of the analysis as opposed to the subjective analysis you might get, say on ESPN," said Perry.
Their model analyzes what the opposing team is likely to do and chooses the play that will best counter it in a given game situation.
"The offense knows all the different sorts of plays they could call for a particular situation, and they're also going to know what all the different types of defenses that the defense could throw at them," said Melouk. "The end result of the procedure is that you come out with some reward or some value to that particular play."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Too many egos to allow this to happen.
If there wasn’t any human thought allowed in game situations, what’s the point of having a coach?
If computers are going to take over football, then they can watch it.
Great idea. Except that once you go algorithmic, it would be pretty easy for the other team to reverse model the algorithm the other team is using. Then you know what play they are going to run.
Oh come on,now. I can call most of the plays. It’s logic. To use a computer? Fail/fail situation. The other team has the same computer program. You gotta see the tired look in a lineman’s eyes to really know where the weaknesses might be. After watching the game tonite, I was very impressed with the run blitz.
Just load up Madden and there ya’ go.
Can we get one for the Carolina Panthers?????
Hmm....let me guess...
3rd and long....computer recommends “pass”
3rd and short...computer recommends “run”
“...Can we get one for the Carolina Panthers?????...”
Or the Detroit Lions. Might help them win ONE game at least.
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