Friday Morning Practice

By Bruce Wood
www.biggreen alert.com

Sept. 7 a.m.

HANOVER -- Back when Buddy Teevens wore No. 5 in green and white it could be days before film from a scrimmage was processed and the coaches could evaluate what they saw.

When Teevens coached at Dartmouth in the late 1980’s videotape had largely replaced film and the turnaround was quicker. Still, he said after Friday morning’s walkthrough, the process of copying and editing up tape for review was costly, usually required extra help and still took time.

“If you had a morning scrimmage you'd be lucky to get it at 8 that night,” Teevens said. “Generally it would be the next day. It was expensive and you couldn't do it every day. You had to run things all over the place.”

My how the times have changed.

With palm-sized videorecorders, DVDs, computerized desktop editing units and new manager of football operations/videography Jake Kirkendall orchestrating it all, Teevens and his staff had almost instantaneous access to pictures from Thursday’s scrimmage, which ran until about 4:30 p.m.

“The coaches were able to evaluate during the dinner hour and we came in and watched the tape as a team last evening,” Teevens said. “We were able to see pluses and minuses right away.

“Sometimes you are not sure what you are going to get on tape. Sometimes you feel better or worse coming off the field than you do after watching the tape.”

And how did the coaches feel after their TV dinner viewing?

Teevens’ capsule review in three words ...

Click here to find out what they were and to read more on Green Alert Premium.