Why should I use a computer for football scouting?

Answer: You may be able to, save time, get more and possibly better information about your opponent or yourself, or a combination of both.

Some History

When the first "Easy-Scout" program for personal computers appeared in 1983, even VCRs were few and far between and the Computer (PC) Age was still on the horizon. Most scouting information was gathered by doing a "live scout", which made gathering scouting information and drawing formations and plays as a game progressed rather difficult.

Nonetheless, the rewards were significant to those who were able to determine basic Down and Distance and Formation tendencies by hand. A common practice was to draw plays in small boxes - usually 4 or 6 to a page, listing the down, distance and Hash at the top. The plays were then cut up with scissors, and the small squares were then organized into stacks.

Offenses in the early 1980's were much simpler than they are today - dominated by I and Wing T attacks with much more running than passing.  "Stacks" of play drawings could be organized into just a handful of formations - indicative as was the typical box score of an era in which Defenses had the upper hand.

Even with today's pass-happy offenses and rule changes that favor offenses, an attack-style Defense that "adjusts", slants and blitzes based on game plan preparation can present big problems for Offenses. This is especially true when the offense uses multiple formations AND particularly at the High School level.

Scouting, Tendencies and Game Planning still relevant today

"Twenty couple years later", structured "film exchanges", videotaping an opponent, or a combination of the two, equip today's football coach with enough opponent video to perform a "breakdown" of the plays in two or ideally three games. 

The payoff for an investment of an hour or two (depending on the number of games analyzed) to enter the results of the "breakdown" into a program like Easy-Scout XP Plus or Easy-Scout Professional is more, better-organized information and more time to use it to increase your chances of winning. 

Specifically :

1. You and your team will take the field each week with more confidence, and that confidence builds throughout the season as your opponent validates your thorough preparation and game plan assumptions. 

2. You and your staff will exude that confidence as you introduce your game plan during the week. Once you get "into your opponent's head", you have a competitive advantage.

3. Most importantly, your Defensive team will line up, adjust and play with the kind of confidence that comes from great preparation. This is an endless loop - and it feeds on itself.  

Its work, but the truly successful coaches know that it pays off, and most have been doing it for years and years, even before the computer age.

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