Purdue QBs to train with virtual reality
At each of Purdue football’s spring practices, three players in bright yellow jerseys cycle through their turns under center.
Boilermaker quarterbacks David Blough, Elijah Sindelar and Aaron Banks try to make the most of the snaps they receive every day. With each practice lasting about two hours and recurring a couple of times per week, physical reps come at a premium.
Now, Purdue’s three young quarterbacks will take unlimited virtual reps the same way a lot of college students spend their free time — playing video games on their phone.
Purdue is one of six teams nationally — and the only one in the Big Ten Conference — using EON Sports’ virtual reality trainer. The program allows the quarterbacks to run the Boilermakers’ own plays against various base defenses and make decisions. The whole thing runs through a smartphone app, which tracks the frequency and duration of the players’ usage, and the results, and sends a report to quarterbacks coach Tim Lester.
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“Right now this is purely a trainer, because we’ve got young guys and I want them to be able to get millions of reps against every coverage I want them to see, and see if they can react fast and have answers to where they’re going with each ball,” Lester said.
Purdue’s program is the latest example of professional and college sports teams — primarily in football and baseball — embracing virtual reality. EON’s product, based on virtual reality headset software called SIDEKIQ, also shows how quickly that technology is advancing.
Purdue coach Darrell Hazell said his only experience with a similar program came as Army’s wide receivers and tight ends coach in the late '90s. At the academy’s Center for Enhanced Performance, players could stand in front of a giant screen and watch plays develop in real time.
Lester said he was turned on to virtual reality training by Noel Mazzone when the now-Texas A&M offensive coordinator was at UCLA. Bruins quarterback Josh Rosen was a Freshman All-American last season.
“He has thousands of reps before he ever took a snap,” Lester said.
Lester used virtual reality as quarterbacks coach at Syracuse last season. However, that program was not portable, and required Lester to be in the room sitting in front of the quarterbacks to help them use the program.
Purdue’s quarterbacks will download a smartphone app, log in to the Purdue-specific program, then put the smartphone inside the SIDEKIQ headgear. The program can read eye movement as the quarterbacks decide who they’re throwing to as the play unfolds.
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As of the start of spring practice, Blough had only run the program using UCLA’s plays. However, he was already excited about the arrival of Purdue-specific software.
“You look to your right, and I can see Domo (Young), and look to my left and I can see (DeAngelo) Yancey,” Blough said. “You have all your motions and all the pre-snap stuff. You see your coverage and you should know where you should be going with the ball based on what the defense is giving us.”
Lester said the program includes about 85 plays, which actually consists of the same group of plays run against four or five different defenses. He had to draw up the plays and send them to the software developer, who designed the program and sent it back to Lester for review. He could then tweak receivers wider or closer or deeper in their formations.
The virtual reality program isn’t meant as a replacement for old-fashioned football reps, either on the Beimel practice field or in the Mollenkopf Athletic Center. Instead, Lester wants his quarterbacks training their mental reflexes, cutting the time between thought and arm motion.
“I give them all the base coverages they might ever see to see if they know how to react in each play, which saves so much time,” Lester said. “When they start thinking like that, when they start seeing unique coverages, their reaction time is much faster.”
Hazell has referred to Lester as “the quarterback whisperer.” Senior receiver Yancey said he’s already seen a different attitude from the quarterbacks this spring under the former Western Michigan, XFL and Arena League quarterback.
Virtual reality isn’t the only technology Lester has employed. Boilermaker quarterbacks have occasionally worn GoPro cameras during offensive drills. Lester wants to see — and, perhaps more importantly, hear — how they’re approaching their job.
The quarterbacks wear those bright yellow jerseys as a reminder of their importance to the team. Purdue’s coaches see virtual reality as another way to enhance those already valuable assets.
“It’s a way to study their mind, and Tim is really good with that and he’s studied it and done it before,” receivers coach Gerad Parker said. “Being the quarterback he was, the quarterback coach he is, and playing at a high level, I think it’s going to be neat for those guys to have that technology to see what they need to see to practice the mind.”