Drones are becoming key in the technology industry, and especially across the world of sports. This is especially true in Lawrence, Kansas, home of the Kansas Jayhawk varsity football team.
That’s right, Kansas University is using drones on their football practice field, equipped with video cameras to give the team a unique spin on developing players and game plans from intricate angles.
If it was not for head coach, David Beaty and his hiring of Jeff Love as the director of football technology this summer, the drones may have never hovered above the Jayhawks’ practices.
Love was asked if he could bring a “new and cool” implementation this season and the use of drones has not looked back since. Every practice, the drones record special teams, seven-on-seven, offense versus defense and other portions of practice with, of course, no one other than Love at the controls.
The university uses four white DJI Phantom 4s drones which connect directly to an iPad on the sidelines in Love’s hands. This gives Love a live look through the drones’ lens as they buzz across the field.
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
The footage covers multiple positions, but across the board Love believes drones make for a great teaching point.
“There’s no real angle in football where you’re right on top of them,” said Love. “So as a receivers coach I can see, ‘Where does the DB’s leverage start. Do I stem him correctly? Am I leaning in or out of the route on time?’ With the high sideline camera, you really can’t see, ‘Is he sticking his foot at the right spot? Has he attacked the angle with leverage yet?’ This gives them the ability to now see that, where the kid might not even know he’s doing it, ’cause you never have that angle.”
This isn’t the first time that the use of drones has been targeted in the game of football. In fact, close to a year ago in September of 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration granted permission to the NFL to use drones to film.
Unfortunately, for the moment, filming can only be done in an empty stadium so fans will have to hang on the edge of their seats in anticipation for the day a drone soars around the nosebleeds.
Drones could arguably change the way we study, watch and experience a football game. The future of multiple sports are truly up in the air, and drones seem to have a practical use in sport. For now, the implementation of drones has been limited. Kansas’ use of the flying contraptions provides the “guinea pig” tester theory, exposing unique viewpoints for the university and insight for other organizations flirting with the idea.
Every position group on the field is benefiting, including the most important position on the field, the quarterback. “I feel like it’s been great for us. In the meeting room we have that view of being able to see everything from the top,” said red-shirt junior, Montell Cozart to KUSports, “and being able to recognize different coverages and what the corners are giving away in the coverages.”