Football Camp: The Eye in the Sky Never Lies
8/13/2015 4:23:00 PM | Football
The season opener at West Virginia is less than a month away.
Buy season tickets | 2015 Schedule | 2015 Roster | Preseason Camp
STATESBORO, Ga. – Two lifts and two towers adorn the practice fields on the banks of Beautiful Eagle Creek, and members of the Eagles video staff use three more wireless cameras at field level catch the low-angle view.
Add two more cameras used by the staff that puts together the popular videos for GATA Lifestyle, and there are nine cameras recording every minute of Georgia Southern football practice.
"One of the things we tell our guys, and they know it, is we watch every single play," said Georgia Southern coach Willie Fritz. "I've never been any place where we've been able to video tape every drill, everything that we do and sometimes with multiple angles, and we watch it all."
The coaching staff uses practice footage to evaluate personnel and find out what is working well and what needs work. Seven cameras operating for practice, which runs an average of two hours and 15 minutes, means the video staff captures nearly 1,000 minutes of film per practice.
That is quite a bit of footage for video coordinator Chris Ball to weed through, which is why he gets an early start. When practice gets into the later stages, the staff in the towers and lifts take out their memory cards, insert them into a tennis ball and drop them down to Ball, who heads off to video suite in the Ted Smith Family Football Center.
His goal is to have film cut and edited for each position coach by the time they get back from practice. Coaches use it to grade the personnel for their position and decide what techniques still need to be mastered. It all gets shared on a cloud-based server so coaches and can pull it down onto a tablet from anywhere. Coaches also have the ability to make clips of each student-athlete and send them to the guys.
"We try to grade quite a bit too, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder," said Fritz. "Sometimes, you think a guy is really doing a great job, and you grade it and he's grading out at 50 percent and another guy you think is struggling is grading out at 80 percent."
Ball and his staff have a 52 terabyte server, and he says he will hang onto to stuff for five years or more. He said their server still has film from 2008 on it. Ball said with the improvements in technology and video compression, HD copies of games that used to be 12-15 gigabytes are now 3-4 gigabytes. That means he has access to a lot of video, which is perfect for Fritz and his staff, who watch hours of film a day.
"I probably watch two or three hours a day," said Fritz. "I try not to watch film with my coaches because I don't want to influence their evaluation, and I don't want them to influence mine."
Friday's practice is slated for 8:15 a.m. on the banks of Beautiful Eagle Creek. Dates, times and locations of football practices are subject to change and may be impacted by weather conditions. Practices are open to the public, but any filming, recording or photography is limited to members of the media only.
Georgia Southern won the 2014 Sun Belt title in its first season in the league, finishing 8-0 in the conference and 9-3 overall. The Eagles return 58 lettermen and 13 starters to the 2015 squad, were picked to win the Sun Belt in the league's preseason coaches' poll and are receiving votes in the USA Today Amway Top-25 Coaches Poll.
Fans can purchase 2015 season tickets and select their seats online, by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS or by visiting the ticket office in the Cowart Building adjacent to Paulson Stadium (203 Lanier Drive). Ticket office hours are Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Season tickets prices start as low as $75 for all six games. Season ticket sales have exceeded last year's total and are expected to reach an all-time high.
Preseason Football Practice Schedule
8/14 - 8:15 a.m.
8/15 – 9 a.m. (Paulson, Scrimmage, Meet the Eagles)
Hop on the Bus
Join the Georgia Southern Athletic Foundation for its football bus trip Sept. 4-5, and watch the Eagles take on the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Click here for more info and to register online.
Upcoming Events
Aug. 13 – Women's Football Clinic – Ted Smith Family Football Center – 6 p.m. – Ladies will learn Football 101, tour the Ted Smith Family Football Center and participate in field activities. There will also be door prizes, food and beverages.
Aug. 15 - Meet the Eagles Fan Fest – Paulson Stadium - 9 a.m. - Fans can watch the final football scrimmage of preseason camp at Paulson Stadium. Concessions, the Adidas Store and inflatables for kids will be available. After the scrimmage, at approximately 11 a.m., student-athletes from the football, men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball and cheer team will sign autographs on the North Concourse.
Aug. 17 – Day 1 – Paulson Stadium – 9 p.m. - Students will fill up the entire student section in Paulson Stadium for Day One to learn our traditions, chants, fight song and alma mater. Coach Fritz and Director of Athletics Tom Kleinlein will speak at the event.
Aug. 22 - Erk Russell Classic – Paulson Stadium - 5 p.m. – The fourth annual Erk Russell Classic has North Oconee High School taking on Coffee County at 5 p.m. and Statesboro facing Burke County at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. Fans can purchase tickets to Georgia Southern Athletics events by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS or by visiting GSEagles.com.
STATESBORO, Ga. – Two lifts and two towers adorn the practice fields on the banks of Beautiful Eagle Creek, and members of the Eagles video staff use three more wireless cameras at field level catch the low-angle view.
Add two more cameras used by the staff that puts together the popular videos for GATA Lifestyle, and there are nine cameras recording every minute of Georgia Southern football practice.
"One of the things we tell our guys, and they know it, is we watch every single play," said Georgia Southern coach Willie Fritz. "I've never been any place where we've been able to video tape every drill, everything that we do and sometimes with multiple angles, and we watch it all."
The coaching staff uses practice footage to evaluate personnel and find out what is working well and what needs work. Seven cameras operating for practice, which runs an average of two hours and 15 minutes, means the video staff captures nearly 1,000 minutes of film per practice.
That is quite a bit of footage for video coordinator Chris Ball to weed through, which is why he gets an early start. When practice gets into the later stages, the staff in the towers and lifts take out their memory cards, insert them into a tennis ball and drop them down to Ball, who heads off to video suite in the Ted Smith Family Football Center.
His goal is to have film cut and edited for each position coach by the time they get back from practice. Coaches use it to grade the personnel for their position and decide what techniques still need to be mastered. It all gets shared on a cloud-based server so coaches and can pull it down onto a tablet from anywhere. Coaches also have the ability to make clips of each student-athlete and send them to the guys.
"We try to grade quite a bit too, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder," said Fritz. "Sometimes, you think a guy is really doing a great job, and you grade it and he's grading out at 50 percent and another guy you think is struggling is grading out at 80 percent."
Ball and his staff have a 52 terabyte server, and he says he will hang onto to stuff for five years or more. He said their server still has film from 2008 on it. Ball said with the improvements in technology and video compression, HD copies of games that used to be 12-15 gigabytes are now 3-4 gigabytes. That means he has access to a lot of video, which is perfect for Fritz and his staff, who watch hours of film a day.
"I probably watch two or three hours a day," said Fritz. "I try not to watch film with my coaches because I don't want to influence their evaluation, and I don't want them to influence mine."
Friday's practice is slated for 8:15 a.m. on the banks of Beautiful Eagle Creek. Dates, times and locations of football practices are subject to change and may be impacted by weather conditions. Practices are open to the public, but any filming, recording or photography is limited to members of the media only.
Georgia Southern won the 2014 Sun Belt title in its first season in the league, finishing 8-0 in the conference and 9-3 overall. The Eagles return 58 lettermen and 13 starters to the 2015 squad, were picked to win the Sun Belt in the league's preseason coaches' poll and are receiving votes in the USA Today Amway Top-25 Coaches Poll.
Fans can purchase 2015 season tickets and select their seats online, by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS or by visiting the ticket office in the Cowart Building adjacent to Paulson Stadium (203 Lanier Drive). Ticket office hours are Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Season tickets prices start as low as $75 for all six games. Season ticket sales have exceeded last year's total and are expected to reach an all-time high.
Preseason Football Practice Schedule
8/14 - 8:15 a.m.
8/15 – 9 a.m. (Paulson, Scrimmage, Meet the Eagles)
Hop on the Bus
Join the Georgia Southern Athletic Foundation for its football bus trip Sept. 4-5, and watch the Eagles take on the West Virginia Mountaineers at Milan Puskar Stadium. Click here for more info and to register online.
Upcoming Events
Aug. 13 – Women's Football Clinic – Ted Smith Family Football Center – 6 p.m. – Ladies will learn Football 101, tour the Ted Smith Family Football Center and participate in field activities. There will also be door prizes, food and beverages.
Aug. 15 - Meet the Eagles Fan Fest – Paulson Stadium - 9 a.m. - Fans can watch the final football scrimmage of preseason camp at Paulson Stadium. Concessions, the Adidas Store and inflatables for kids will be available. After the scrimmage, at approximately 11 a.m., student-athletes from the football, men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball and cheer team will sign autographs on the North Concourse.
Aug. 17 – Day 1 – Paulson Stadium – 9 p.m. - Students will fill up the entire student section in Paulson Stadium for Day One to learn our traditions, chants, fight song and alma mater. Coach Fritz and Director of Athletics Tom Kleinlein will speak at the event.
Aug. 22 - Erk Russell Classic – Paulson Stadium - 5 p.m. – The fourth annual Erk Russell Classic has North Oconee High School taking on Coffee County at 5 p.m. and Statesboro facing Burke County at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics, iOS app Georgia Southern Eagles and Android app Eagles GATA. Fans can purchase tickets to Georgia Southern Athletics events by calling 1-800-GSU-WINS or by visiting GSEagles.com.
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