I am entirely convinced that some of the teams in college football are using AI review of game videos to analyze offensive formations, and possibly even sideline signals, to detect patterns that defenses can key on.
Watching York change the defensive plays after audibles come in from the sideline this season, I am 100% convinced that the Ags are utilizing some sort of AI analysis of other teams signals, formations, etc to anticipate plays. It doesn't have to be actually stealing the signals. It could be something similar, like a combination of a signal coming and and a change to a certain formation on certain down / distances could also be very accurate in anticipating the audible.
It's not just A&M that sometimes seem to anticipate the exact play being called by the opposing offense. Kiffin apparently told Hugh Freeze that Veneballs was picking up on Auburn's signals, too.
I deal with AI and video analysis, and the capabilities are very impressive. You give these things enough data with patterns, and they will find some correlations between the signals and the plays being run that a human would not be able to pick up on from one week to the next.
Some takeaways if this is correct:
1) A&M is likely doing this better than most other teams. After watching how well we embraced NIL and improved our recruiting overnight, I think that the A&M program has a history of being innovative to get an edge. But, the rest of CFB is going to address this issue this offseason, so I think that this edge is likely limited to this year. We really, really need to take advantage.
2) This might change college football a little bit. The cadence of lining up in a formation, signaling for a snap, then turning to the sideline for the new call will likely go away. It's just too much exposure for a good D-Coordinator to anticipate what you are about to do.
3) It would not surprise me if teams start using this against teams like A&M and OU that seems to be anticipating plays. If I was A&M, I would be running a similar analysis on my own team, with a grey-hat team that is paid to try and anticipate A&M's plays, and report what they find to A&M after each game. Keep them behind a curtain from the rest of the program, and pay the team a bonus for each tell that they are able to pick up to anticipate what A&M is doing. With the amount of money in CFB today, I would be shocked if this doesn't become SOP for most programs. If I was on OC facing the A&M defense, I would try to take advantage of this by baiting A&M to change into a formation that exposes them to a big play. Sort of like a bluff.
I think it is all very fascinating.
Watching York change the defensive plays after audibles come in from the sideline this season, I am 100% convinced that the Ags are utilizing some sort of AI analysis of other teams signals, formations, etc to anticipate plays. It doesn't have to be actually stealing the signals. It could be something similar, like a combination of a signal coming and and a change to a certain formation on certain down / distances could also be very accurate in anticipating the audible.
It's not just A&M that sometimes seem to anticipate the exact play being called by the opposing offense. Kiffin apparently told Hugh Freeze that Veneballs was picking up on Auburn's signals, too.
I deal with AI and video analysis, and the capabilities are very impressive. You give these things enough data with patterns, and they will find some correlations between the signals and the plays being run that a human would not be able to pick up on from one week to the next.
Some takeaways if this is correct:
1) A&M is likely doing this better than most other teams. After watching how well we embraced NIL and improved our recruiting overnight, I think that the A&M program has a history of being innovative to get an edge. But, the rest of CFB is going to address this issue this offseason, so I think that this edge is likely limited to this year. We really, really need to take advantage.
2) This might change college football a little bit. The cadence of lining up in a formation, signaling for a snap, then turning to the sideline for the new call will likely go away. It's just too much exposure for a good D-Coordinator to anticipate what you are about to do.
3) It would not surprise me if teams start using this against teams like A&M and OU that seems to be anticipating plays. If I was A&M, I would be running a similar analysis on my own team, with a grey-hat team that is paid to try and anticipate A&M's plays, and report what they find to A&M after each game. Keep them behind a curtain from the rest of the program, and pay the team a bonus for each tell that they are able to pick up to anticipate what A&M is doing. With the amount of money in CFB today, I would be shocked if this doesn't become SOP for most programs. If I was on OC facing the A&M defense, I would try to take advantage of this by baiting A&M to change into a formation that exposes them to a big play. Sort of like a bluff.
I think it is all very fascinating.