High Tech Hits the Football Field

A.M. 110 students, take heart. The next time you're unable to log into the computer system you could be making a sacrifice for the University.

Instead of the computer running your final project, it might be running a Dartmouth or Yale tailback or fullback through the one, two or three hole, analyzing each play in an effort to give Harvard's gridders the edge each fall Saturday.

Harvard football has used a computer program for over 10 years, but only since 1977 has the computer been fully utilized. And the Crimson coaches are currently putting the program through an annual spring revision. In the next few weeks, Assistant Coaches George Clemens and Leo Fanning will look like typical Applied Math majors, poring over printouts and analyzing statistics.

The program displays opponents' formations, a hit chart (where the ball was run or thrown), opponents' plays from different field positions, and downs and distances. From these raw statistics fed into the computer comes a printout displaying opponents' tendencies under certain circumstances. Says Defensive Coordinator Clemens. "We try to produce a program that can be manipulated, one that coaches can use to communicate with the players."

Unfortunately, in the past, the program results have not here as coherent and as useful as hoped. Thus, the Crimson defensive coaching staff searches to delete redundancies in an effort to streamline the system. (There is no offensive program due to budget problems and the desire to avoid having Harvard's weaknesses inadvertently displayed on some freshman's screen during a data test.) The results seem impressive, the coaches often show up with a printout nine inches high during Monday night scout meetings

From this somewhat imposing source of information the defensive staff forms a strategy for each game.

"We put a lot of stress on frequency and the likes and dislikes of our opponent," Clemens says. "We call things according to percentages and their weaknesses."

While the computer cannot readily pinpoint personnel weaknesses, it does evaluate team strengths upon which most of the defense is formulated.

Harvard is not the only Ivy team to utilize a computer. Yale maintains a computer program that is in its infancy. But Eli defensive coordinator Dave Kelly boasts. "Within two or three years we will have a system a la the Dallas Cowboys."

A recent Wall Street Journal article dealt with a Yale professor's attempts to program a computer to behave exactly like a coach When asked whether they thought a computer could replace humans on the sidelines or on the field, both the Yale and Harvard coaches quickly dismissed the idea Said Kelly. "A computer is never going to replace a 6'4". 235-pound fullback that is fast."