Really, Ryan Kennedy made the suggestion almost as a joke. Libertyville wanted to install an option play, to whip up formations and the blocking schemes promptly, and offensive coordinator Karl Jennrich asked his senior quarterback for ideas.
Kennedy’s mind immediately fixed on the pixels of the big-screen television in the Wildcats’ locker room, on a play he encountered in Purdue’s virtual playbook from the video game NCAA Football ’07. Jennrich has coached at Libertyville since 1972 and probably wouldn’t know an Xbox from a box step, but Kennedy proffered the play anyway.
The virtually stunning result: Kennedy soon was running the play in reality. Libertyville needed an option–it just didn’t figure a video-game playbook was one.
“He kind of took it and ran with it,” Kennedy says of Jennrich. “I guess I just threw it out there. He liked my design–or, actually, the game’s design–better than he liked his own. That’s the play we’re running now.”
Drawing up plays in the dirt with a stick? Try the new phenomenon of drawing up plays with joysticks, as ubiquitous video games like Madden Football and NCAA Football ’07 blur the boundary between simulation and real life.
Opinions regarding the effect of video games on the on-field product are mixed: Some coaches see them as detrimental, some can’t pinpoint a correlation, some see them as a means to team bonding and even as an additional teaching tool.
“I know everybody from pros to the Little Leaguers, they all play,” Naperville North coach Larry McKeon says. “Whether that affects their performance or not, how could you measure it?”
You can start with a case like Kennedy’s. Or that of Geneva, which has delved into virtual playbooks for offensive formations. Using the feature that allows a gamer to create a playbook, Plainfield South quarterback Rey Aguero installed his team’s pass plays to practice against computerized defenses–a tactic Aguero says works “just as good as film, if not better.”
“When I’m out on the field, I actually pretend I’m playing a video game,” says Geneva quarterback Shaun Ratay, who has led the No. 8 Vikings to a 7-0 start. “If a team is playing Cover-2, I’ll be able to visualize what Cover-2 looks like because of what I’ve seen in the game. I’ll look at the play we’re running against [an opponent], and if they play it right, I’ll know what spots should be open when.”
“There’s some stuff you learn that can be applied to the football field–defensive and offensive formations and what they’re called,” Wauconda running back Brad Wisniewski says. “The best part is the quarterback vision. You learn how to make the calls.”
The potential teaching benefits indeed might be reserved for a few positions. Quarterbacks and receivers can run through something of a virtual tutorial on reacting to defenses. The right guard? Probably not.
But as exponentially more complex games than their ancestors, the Maddens and NCAA Football ’07s might be a more pervasive version of future technology that could simulate entire games. Nazareth coach Tim Racki heard of such a tool from Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick at a coaching clinic in 2004: A program that, using video goggles, essentially plays out a game before a quarterback’s eyes.
“Whether they’re watching it or playing Madden or whatever game–if it’s football, I’m happy,” Racki says. “That’s where we’re headed anyway. I was blown away when I heard Billick introduce that concept, being able to play a virtual game, to program that kind of stuff in. That’s wild. I don’t think it’s too far from happening.”
Predictably, there are downsides to a “football” activity that involves as much sitting down as first downs. After a recent mistake-filled game, Lane coach Rich Rio implored his team to get away from video games and watch televised contests for “football smarts.”
But teams can get closer playing games. Such is the case with Libertyville, when players up and down the roster gather around the widescreen TV in the locker room.
“[Coaches] love it, because we’re bonding as a team,” Kennedy says. “There might be things you can learn, but more than that, it’s the guys getting to know each other better.”
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bchamilton@tribune.com.
