Wanted to wait to write this story until I was able to actually use the program so I could write a first-person account of it. That's below. The main story is at the link.
LINK: VR
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As soon as Tim Lester mentioned on ‘Gold and Black LIVE’ he was bringing the virtual reality program he used for his quarterbacks at Syracuse to Purdue and promised I’d get a chance on the goggles, I was ridiculously and, probably unreasonably, excited.
I’ve always been a touch obsessed with the Xs and Os of football, even though I’ve never had an opportunity to play it at any real level — being a female kind of limits that — other than the backyard variety, anyway. And, then, we only drew routes in the air with our fingers, and the only coverage tactic on defense was don’t-let-him-get-open.
Sure, I’ve played Madden. We all do that and feel like we’re in control a bit, that we can take advantage of certain matchups. But this program was going to offer an entirely new view: A 3D look from the “eyes” of a quarterback in the pocket. It was a chance to see plays and identify defenses and then make the right decision based on those factors in real-time with consequences.
Nearly every time I saw Lester after that, I was asking for updates on the software, asking when I would get to the opportunity to see what a QB sees.
Finally, once spring ball was finished, I got the go-ahead and set up a meeting with Lester in his office.
The cool thing about the program this year is it’s an app version for a cell phone instead of something that needs to be run with Lester sitting behind his computer. (That’s what he had to do at Syracuse, manually running the program for each QB who wanted extra reps. So this certainly frees up Lester’s time.) It also allows Purdue’s QBs to use the program literally any time they want. Each player has his own set of goggles, so one could plop down on the couch in his living room at midnight and get an hour in, if he felt so inclined. Just open the end of the goggles, fire up the app on the phone, slide the phone into the front of the goggles, close ’em and all ready to go.
Lester handled the set up for me — initially he put the phone in upside down, which made reading the plays a tad more difficult — and sat me down in a chair and off we went.
Obviously, I knew there would be challenges.
I don’t know any of Purdue’s plays. So having a group of words signifying formation, protection and routes flash across the screen before the snap didn’t give me any kind of real indication what was happening. There was essentially a cheater tab at the bottom of the screen that had diagrams of the plays (it’ll serve the incoming freshman well), but that’d have taken too much time for me to look at that each play.
So Lester facilitated the process. He asked what the play was, I read it to him and then he started asking me questions — a checklist of what the QBs would look for on the defense depending on the play.
How many deep safeties are there?
At what depth are they playing?
Then I’d look to the left, and there’s a low-poly version DeAngelo Yancey on the outside with a cornerback on him. How tight was the corner? Is he in press-man?
Look to the right, there’s Cameron Posey in the slot and Domonique Young on the outside. Where are those cornerbacks? How much of a cushion are they giving? Does it look like there's safety help over the top?
Where’s the weakside linebacker? Is he lined up outside the tight end?
After ruling out certain players based on the defense, it's time to take the snap. A quick look down at the "snap" button activated it and a countdown, beeps, 3, 2, 1, and out came the ball.
In a certain look — an under-center play-action play with max protection — I was feeling Yancey’s matchup without a safety over the top. So I stared him down to indicate he was my target. The ball released.
Wrong.
Like, it actually tells you. INCORRECT. In red.
Slowly I turned my head back to the right and ... “Oh." A safety is right in my face. A linebacker right there, too.
The defense shifted late and brought a weakside blitz and I wasn’t looking and now …
“I’ll visit you in the hospital,” Lester says.
Thankfully, I was able to peel off the goggles instead of peeling myself from the turf.
“You were lulled into thinking that you were going to throw a touchdown, which happens quite a bit,” Lester said after the play. “There was a hot (read) and you didn’t get it. What you learn eventually on (that play), there’s really no reason to look over there. All you’ve got to do is make sure that safety stays. As long as he’s back there, you’re good. That’s just for me to train you just to check them. You better check him every time. Because there’s going to be three other ones in the other quarters that you better keep checking him. You’ll just take one short little peek at him and the moment you see the ball is snapped, then you go back and do what you want to do, but at least you’d be looking at him just to make sure you live. For self preservation.”
I was probably the only one to get blown up, but Lester said Elijah Sindelar did text him soon after he got his hands on the goggles and said, "You brought the safety!" about that specific play. Sindelar noticed it, but Lester's point in choosing certain defenses for the program was, really, about tricking his players. He wants them to see as many varieties of defense as possible, from the basic coverages they'll get most often on first and second downs, to more disguised blitzes or coverages that may look like one thing but actually are another.
Certainly my knowledge is incredibly limited vs. those QBs, but there were times in which a defense looked like a Cover 4 but not quite, and that was because Lester wanted it to look one way but have it really be something else.
Lester doesn't want it to fool his guys forever, obviously. But the quicker they're able to see things, the quicker they're able to eliminate certain reads, the quicker they're able to get the ball out of their hands after the snap.
There is a certain bit of satisfaction, even for a novice, when the correct read is made and the screen flashes "right" when you've thrown to the correct target. And even though players aren't required to be with Lester when they use the system anymore, he still gets emailed results so he knows how the guys' did.
"The question is how many plays does it take you? Because you’re not going to be done until you get all 20 right (in a quarter)," Lester said. "So it might take you 25 plays. It might take you 30. If it just takes you 20-for-20 plays, that’s 100 percent, and that’s hard to do. Sometimes that circle won’t go on the right person or something. That’s going to happen, but it’s good because you have to do it again then."
LINK: VR
-----
As soon as Tim Lester mentioned on ‘Gold and Black LIVE’ he was bringing the virtual reality program he used for his quarterbacks at Syracuse to Purdue and promised I’d get a chance on the goggles, I was ridiculously and, probably unreasonably, excited.
I’ve always been a touch obsessed with the Xs and Os of football, even though I’ve never had an opportunity to play it at any real level — being a female kind of limits that — other than the backyard variety, anyway. And, then, we only drew routes in the air with our fingers, and the only coverage tactic on defense was don’t-let-him-get-open.
Sure, I’ve played Madden. We all do that and feel like we’re in control a bit, that we can take advantage of certain matchups. But this program was going to offer an entirely new view: A 3D look from the “eyes” of a quarterback in the pocket. It was a chance to see plays and identify defenses and then make the right decision based on those factors in real-time with consequences.
Nearly every time I saw Lester after that, I was asking for updates on the software, asking when I would get to the opportunity to see what a QB sees.
Finally, once spring ball was finished, I got the go-ahead and set up a meeting with Lester in his office.
The cool thing about the program this year is it’s an app version for a cell phone instead of something that needs to be run with Lester sitting behind his computer. (That’s what he had to do at Syracuse, manually running the program for each QB who wanted extra reps. So this certainly frees up Lester’s time.) It also allows Purdue’s QBs to use the program literally any time they want. Each player has his own set of goggles, so one could plop down on the couch in his living room at midnight and get an hour in, if he felt so inclined. Just open the end of the goggles, fire up the app on the phone, slide the phone into the front of the goggles, close ’em and all ready to go.
Lester handled the set up for me — initially he put the phone in upside down, which made reading the plays a tad more difficult — and sat me down in a chair and off we went.
Obviously, I knew there would be challenges.
I don’t know any of Purdue’s plays. So having a group of words signifying formation, protection and routes flash across the screen before the snap didn’t give me any kind of real indication what was happening. There was essentially a cheater tab at the bottom of the screen that had diagrams of the plays (it’ll serve the incoming freshman well), but that’d have taken too much time for me to look at that each play.
So Lester facilitated the process. He asked what the play was, I read it to him and then he started asking me questions — a checklist of what the QBs would look for on the defense depending on the play.
How many deep safeties are there?
At what depth are they playing?
Then I’d look to the left, and there’s a low-poly version DeAngelo Yancey on the outside with a cornerback on him. How tight was the corner? Is he in press-man?
Look to the right, there’s Cameron Posey in the slot and Domonique Young on the outside. Where are those cornerbacks? How much of a cushion are they giving? Does it look like there's safety help over the top?
Where’s the weakside linebacker? Is he lined up outside the tight end?
After ruling out certain players based on the defense, it's time to take the snap. A quick look down at the "snap" button activated it and a countdown, beeps, 3, 2, 1, and out came the ball.
In a certain look — an under-center play-action play with max protection — I was feeling Yancey’s matchup without a safety over the top. So I stared him down to indicate he was my target. The ball released.
Wrong.
Like, it actually tells you. INCORRECT. In red.
Slowly I turned my head back to the right and ... “Oh." A safety is right in my face. A linebacker right there, too.
The defense shifted late and brought a weakside blitz and I wasn’t looking and now …
“I’ll visit you in the hospital,” Lester says.
Thankfully, I was able to peel off the goggles instead of peeling myself from the turf.
“You were lulled into thinking that you were going to throw a touchdown, which happens quite a bit,” Lester said after the play. “There was a hot (read) and you didn’t get it. What you learn eventually on (that play), there’s really no reason to look over there. All you’ve got to do is make sure that safety stays. As long as he’s back there, you’re good. That’s just for me to train you just to check them. You better check him every time. Because there’s going to be three other ones in the other quarters that you better keep checking him. You’ll just take one short little peek at him and the moment you see the ball is snapped, then you go back and do what you want to do, but at least you’d be looking at him just to make sure you live. For self preservation.”
I was probably the only one to get blown up, but Lester said Elijah Sindelar did text him soon after he got his hands on the goggles and said, "You brought the safety!" about that specific play. Sindelar noticed it, but Lester's point in choosing certain defenses for the program was, really, about tricking his players. He wants them to see as many varieties of defense as possible, from the basic coverages they'll get most often on first and second downs, to more disguised blitzes or coverages that may look like one thing but actually are another.
Certainly my knowledge is incredibly limited vs. those QBs, but there were times in which a defense looked like a Cover 4 but not quite, and that was because Lester wanted it to look one way but have it really be something else.
Lester doesn't want it to fool his guys forever, obviously. But the quicker they're able to see things, the quicker they're able to eliminate certain reads, the quicker they're able to get the ball out of their hands after the snap.
There is a certain bit of satisfaction, even for a novice, when the correct read is made and the screen flashes "right" when you've thrown to the correct target. And even though players aren't required to be with Lester when they use the system anymore, he still gets emailed results so he knows how the guys' did.
"The question is how many plays does it take you? Because you’re not going to be done until you get all 20 right (in a quarter)," Lester said. "So it might take you 25 plays. It might take you 30. If it just takes you 20-for-20 plays, that’s 100 percent, and that’s hard to do. Sometimes that circle won’t go on the right person or something. That’s going to happen, but it’s good because you have to do it again then."
