Earlier this year, UCLA football started using drones during practice and now the Miami Hurricanes have followed this sports technology trend.
By attaching a camera to a drone, Miami coaches have gained a new and unusual perspective from their scrimmages that enables them to learn and gain knowledge about a particular play.
What is interesting about the Miami program and its use of drones is that for them, it is a new stepping stone in the use of technology compared to other more technologically advanced programs.
We’ve always been behind in sports when it comes to technology,” Miami’s Offensive Coordinator, James Coley, told The News Tribune,
“Coaches don’t like change. Nobody does this, not the way we do this.”
Drones really do provide coaches another perspective during scrimmages. By viewing film from different angles, coaches can adjust their plays during practice accordingly, and apply their newfound perspectives on plays to an actual game. Which, theoretically, in such a competitive college football landscape, could mean the difference between winning and losing.
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Take for example footage caught during a Hurricane’s practice. Coley tells The News Tribune that he noticed an adjustment made by the quarterback on one of the scrimmages and explains that watching the footage from the drone camera revealed that it was the exact play the quarterback should have called.
The usefulness of a drone that can oversee plays during football practice should not come as a surprise. It provides coaches with crucial information that they may have not have had otherwise. We will certainly monitor the drone usage in college football and see what other teams adopt drones into their programs.