Marcus Ray to be a DB Analyst?

Submitted by BigShotDave on

Sam Webb alluded to Marcus Ray becoming a DB Analyst for the 2015 football team.  This was the first time I've heard Marcus's name mentioned for a coaching position.  Does anyone know where these rumors are coming from?  What is the difference between a coach and a coaching analyst?

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Sauce Castillo

January 9th, 2015 at 8:20 AM ^

I'm only going off of your comments, I haven't heard anything about this, but my guess is it would be in some form of a volunteer capacity.  Maybe he comes to practice every so often.

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itself

January 9th, 2015 at 8:35 AM ^

During yesterday's round table Sam made quick mention of Alabama's recruiting department in conjunction with the NFL model Harbaugh is using to structure his coaching staff. Part of that discussion, which Sam sourced through Doug Nussmeier, detailed how Alabama's football program has a dedicated recruiting department with several people, non coaches, analyzing tape before passing recommendations/reports on to coaches for further evaluation. I wonder if this is the kind of postion Ray has been offered. If so, I would imagine its a paid position. 

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True Blue Grit

January 9th, 2015 at 9:27 AM ^

the direction Michigan will go (no inside info though).   It makes sense, but it takes extra $$ to pay for the extra staff positions.  Michigan and Alabama have the budgets for it.  I would think though you need people who have some playing or coaching experience since they need to be able to evaluate skills.  We should be able to find the money for these new people by getting rid of the  remaining Brandon yes-people who still might be employed.  

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itself

January 9th, 2015 at 10:10 AM ^

The round table made it sound as if there were little to no NCAA rules governoring these admin positions so long as these staff members were kept in an explicitly non-coaching capacity. 

It seemed like these positions cut a lot of time out of the recruiting process of coaches and made the entire process more effecient for Alabama and its coaching staff. 

How Ray can maintain this position and his BTN broadcasting job is unclear to me. I do wonder if these types of positions are another route into the coaching profession for guys not wanting to go the GA route. 

 

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MGoGrendel

January 9th, 2015 at 9:07 AM ^

My first guess is "no" as that would lead to a number of "coaches" with staff titles. I understand that kids can get together and practice without coaches and this would not violate NCAA rules. Say a group of defensive backs get together and work out. I wonder if a staff member at that workout violates NCAA rules. Anyone know?

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goblue224

January 9th, 2015 at 8:28 AM ^

I believe it means he would be on the staff but not on the coaching staff. I would guess it's a position that breaks down film. Sam talked about how schools like Bama have rooms where people just break down film for the coaches, but aren't actual coaching staff members. It's more of an admin role.

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goblue224

January 9th, 2015 at 8:41 AM ^

I originally thought the same thing, but the way I interpreted it from Sam was that they were staff members doing this. It was from yesterday I believe, he was speaking on Nus' observations of the resource difference between Bama and UM.

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KBLOW

January 9th, 2015 at 9:44 AM ^

This is where I'm at, but at the same time it seems Alabama's recruitng analysts make easy money.  Alabama seems to only offer the 3 star guys who are already blowing up or 4/5 star guys anyway.  I can't remember the last time Saban was given credit for finding some daimond in the rough that no one else already saw the potential of.  But I don't follow recruiting that much, so maybe his staff does do that but just not at the level of, say, a Dantonio.

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goblue224

January 9th, 2015 at 10:11 AM ^

I'm pretty sure he suffered a knee injury early in his career that set him back. Followed by his OC and coach who recruited him leaving for CSU. Him transferring to CSU wouldn't classify him as a bust in my book.

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Magnus

January 9th, 2015 at 8:29 AM ^

The rumors are probably coming from Marcus Ray himself.

Analysts are paid positions, AFAIK. They are not coaches on the field, but they watch film, evaluate players, etc. I don't believe that all positions have analyst jobs attached, so I'm wondering if Ray would be Greg Jackson's help at the defensive back position. That might mean that Roy Manning won't be kept around to help with the defensive backs, but don't quote me on that...

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Space Coyote

January 9th, 2015 at 8:39 AM ^

To add to what Magnus said, coaches don't just breakdown game film, but also practice film, etc. People scoffed a bit about Singletary watching recruiting film, but I bet he's one of the first filters before it actually goes to the coach's level. There is just so much to be done in a college program and only so much time. Watching upcoming oppenents, self-scouting, recruiting, etc. You need these analyst positions to help out in today's game.

My guess, if this is real, would be that Ray would breakdown predominantly practice film so that it was immediately ready to go over following practice. It's another way to teach it while it's still fresh in the players minds, and it's useful to have someone that knows a thing or two about the position because they can pick out coaching points and know the appropriate things to look for.

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wolfman81

January 9th, 2015 at 10:36 AM ^

People scoffed a bit about Singletary watching recruiting film, but I bet he's one of the first filters before it actually goes to the coach's level.

I just wanted to pile on this thought a bit more. I'm a social science researcher (in the education field) and one of the things that we do is study video of classroom interactions. The technology and techniques that we use are not altogether different than those used by athletic departments. In fact, the software that we used in my previous job was the same as the software used by the basketball team at our institution.

The cool thing about having video data is that you have TONS of data to look at. As a scientist (my roots are in physics) I firmly believe that having data is COOL! But a big problem is that much of the data is CRAP. So we collect tons of data, so that we can learn what we want to study. With minimal training, someone who does not have deep expertise in the field can watch the video and code different events, marking them with different labels and create videos which can be watched by others who do have an eye for detail. For example, let's say I wanted to do this with a football game to match a UFR style analysis. An event is a play, which must be labeled with a few important things: Down & distance, who has the ball, personnel, formation, type of play run, was there a penalty, yards gained (lost), etc. And this can be using multiple synced video sources with multiple angles (all 22, line of scrimmage, other angles???) Then they can generate specific video packages for different coaches. For example, the OL coach will want to see the line of scrimmage view for all offensive plays with the run plays and the pass plays sorted out to analyze run blocking and pass protection separately. He may want to generate video to analyze 1st and 2nd string separately. Or label plays where the defense sent a blitz and watch how they picked it up. Then he can take some of the themes that he noticed and bring them to the attention of the OC and even the HC.

Like I said, I'm in science, not sports, but I know how video analysis works. And I think that this is a decent idea of how this might go on in a real athletic setting. (Although, I've made it a little more solitary than it might really be in practice.) I just want to highlight the role of pre-processing in the video analysis process. We don't need to hear Brent Musberger talking about AJ McCarron's girlfriend...we just want to see what happened on the field.

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BlueCube

January 9th, 2015 at 8:44 AM ^

staff in comparison with what Michigan has had. This was from a conversation he had with Nuss. I'm wondering if this could also involve breaking down film on recruits. 

He did mention today that he believe the coaches can have assisitants as long as their isn't coaching being done with the players. I think Michigan will take any means permitted to comptete with Alabama and others.

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FreddieMercuryHayes

January 9th, 2015 at 8:38 AM ^

It would be interesting to hear him break down actual DB play from film. Of the times I've heard him talk about football and the UM program in a more holistic manner...eh, sometimes it sounds like he doesn't have a clue.



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Surveillance Doe

January 9th, 2015 at 9:21 AM ^

Just speaking anecdotally, it seems that going from the NFL to college is generally a move that works out well for coaches, even coaches who weren't especially successful during that NFL stint. I've often wondered what those coaches come away with that other coaches don't have. I wonder if it's exposure to this kind of admin structure that allows them to be more efficient and to better utilize their time once they return to the college ranks.

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