Thursday, August 23, 2007

XOS changes the way we view X's and O's


I grew up drawing football plays in class trying to figure out an offense that could not be stopped.
I would diagram the X’s and O’s on each and everything imaginable. Of course, my mother couldn’t figure out why my grades were suffering and I wasn’t about to tell her what I was doing.
I would also bring home the little colored pencils from the golf course and use an ink pen to write numbers of my favorite Dallas Cowboys on the pencils. I would then get down in the floor or on a table somewhere and conduct a football game with play-by-play and the crowd cheering.
I was so far ahead of technology and just didn’t realize it.
Yeah right!
I grew up wanting to be a football coach like Tom Landry. But I honestly don’t think I ever wanted to wear that hat he wore.
I studied under Dal Shealy, Charlie King, Fred Sorrells and Ken Sparks at Carson-Newman College. Lynn Murdock first taught me football at Rossville High School in Rossville, Ga.
I still have my Coaching Football 301 Playbook that I used to learn the split-back veer offense that Carson-Newman has been running since the early 1970’s.
That makes me qualified to coach the 6-under Boynton Bruisers and my hard-hitting linebacker grandson Austin Taylor Chastain.
But if I had the technology that is available today I can't imagine how good of a six-year-old coach I would be today.
That’s why I was astounded Tuesday when Tennessee unveiled its latest training tool. It's an inovative quarterback simulator that was demonstrated during an exhibition at the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center.
My friends from XOS Technologies, Inc., who provide this website for Varsity Sports Media and also for many colleges across the nation, have taken coaching football to a step that is almost unbelievable.

The Tennessee Volunteers football team is the first to leverage the XOS PlayAction Simulator Powered by EA SPORTS for virtual-reality training consistent with EA's Madden NFL Football and NCAA® Football video game engines.

This is the same type stuff I do when I play Madden NFL 07 and NCAA Football 07 on my X-box. A University of Tennessee press release said the XOS PlayAction Simulator Powered by EA SPORTS debuted in May with a series of athletic training tools built upon EA's TDT Engine -- the same engine used to drive EA's top-selling Madden NFL 07 and NCAA Football 07 video games.
The release states that by using the XOS PlayAction Publisher, UT head football coach Phillip Fulmer and offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe have uploaded their custom playbooks into EA's familiar 3-D video game, fully engaging the Vols in tactical skill development via a well known and frequently used medium.

On Tuesday, Vols quarterbacks Erik Ainge and freshman B.J. Coleman manned the game controls and talked of the benefits of the virtual simulator.

Fulmer said, "We're leading the nation by taking advantage of this cutting-edge technology and we couldn't be more pumped about it. UT football has a long and storied tradition of success and because we look to pioneer groundbreaking concepts before anyone else, we'll proudly continue that history. The XOS PlayAction Simulator begins a new chapter for UT and we're pleased to add it to our football training regiment."

This is a breakthrough that will allow the football players today to go deeper in the game than those of us who came along decades ago.

No comments: