“You’re not going to get that rush anywhere else”: The Video/Analytics team at work

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ post-game playbook often calls for everyone — not just the running backs — to accept handoffs.

Members of the CFL team’s Video/Analytics department make it a priority to hand iPads to players and coaches with remarkable efficiency so they can review what has happened on the field.

If the Roughriders are on the road, the edited, tagged footage is available for perusal even before the team bus leaves the stadium and heads to the airport.

It happens that quickly, that often.

“It goes back to trying to save them time,” says Nick Bowley, the Roughriders’ Manager, Video Analytics. “If they can work on the plane ride home, now they can sleep an extra couple of hours or they can work on something else the next morning. They’re not watching the video for the first time.”

The tireless efforts of Bowley and the Roughriders’ two Video Assistants — Nathan Schellenberg and Mike Woytowich — make it possible for the players, coaches and football-operations personnel in general to easily, breezily access any play from any game, at virtually any time.

This allows the team to effectively dissect a game that has just been played or evaluate an opponent that looms on the schedule.

“It takes the preparation of players to a whole other level,” Roughriders quarterback Shea Patterson says.

Between games, every practice is filmed from multiple angles. The editing and sorting routinely takes place on the fly so the images are available as soon as possible after the team works out at Mosaic Stadium.

While games are in progress, Bowley concentrates on compiling and editing the video.

Woytowich tags the video in real time so it can be instantly analyzed for in-game corrections — a crucial step in the race against time.

Schellenberg’s invaluable in-game role is to capture footage from an end-zone camera. The other images are shot from the press box.

After each quarter, the end-zone and press-box video cards are given to Bowley.

“Then I start importing it into my computer,” he says. “We’ll get the fourth quarter shortly after the game and I’m just spitting out files after that. I tag it Offence, Defence and Special Teams so we can split it up.

“They’re different files, so we spit out a file for the computers and then we spit out a file for the iPads. We have a high-speed thumb drive to copy it to coaches’ computers more quickly.”

Hence the post-game copying flurry, with Bowley and Woytowich both attaching thumb drives to iPads.

During the game, though, the two of them have different vantage points.

“I’m usually on the sidelines, especially for road games,” Woytowich says. “I’ll have an iPad that is cutting up the game differently from what Nick’s doing. We have the in-game video and then the out-of-game video. They’re two separate platforms.

“For the in-game video, there’s a sensor on the field and it’s linked to my iPad and all the other iPads. I just hit ‘Record’ and, before the play finishes, I have to put down field position, run or pass, offence or defence. I’m basically tagging it.

“We do it live. There’s about 25 seconds and, in that time, I’ve got to get six or seven variables of data in and it sends to the iPad. That way, the coach can be like, ‘I want to see Series 4 — all passes,’ and he can filter that live.”

The result is that Woytowich often has an iPad in each hand.

One device allows the coaches easy and immediate access to the game footage. The other iPad is used to label plays, mere seconds after they are run, to make the editing process as quick and effective as possible.

“The one iPad that I use, no one can touch, because that’s the master,” Woytowich says. “If anyone touches it, it could mess everything up, so I’ve got to make sure I carry the rock on that one.”

The role is not suited for someone who is averse to pressure.

“That’s what I live for — that high-stress situation where you can’t afford to miss something,” Woytowich says. “It’s so exciting and I love it.

“That’s why I don’t think I’ll ever be able to work a normal job again. You’re not going to get that rush anywhere else.”

But it is akin to walking a tightrope without a net. Like a quarterback, a Video/Analytics specialist is always on the clock and reliant on state-of-the-art equipment that simply cannot malfunction … or else.

“The worst case is, ‘I don’t have anything for you. Do you want to watch Netflix on the flight home?’ ” Bowley says with a chuckle.

During the football season, the division of labour and distribution of video is orderly. Bowley assembles the special-teams footage. Woytowich is in charge of the defence. Schellenberg handles the offence.

“Nate also does our big draft board for us,” Woytowich points out. “He does a lot of the data analytics for the drafts and the season studies and whatnot.

“He’s very detail-oriented. When you get a large set of numbers, he’ll make sure we get the right outcomes out of them.”

That is the other side of the equation. It is fine to have a treasury of footage and organize it in expeditious and logical fashion, but what does it all mean?

Welcome to the ever-evolving world of analytics.

Bowley, Woytowich and Schellenberg will be responsible for providing reports that Head Coach Corey Mace and his assistants can use for formulating and executing game plans.

Schellenberg, for example, will examine a seemingly infinite amount of offensive data, study the tendencies, and provide information that the coaches can use to their advantage.

“That can be a matter of me going to the coaches and saying, ‘What do you guys want for reports? What kind of information do you need?’ ” Schellenberg says.

“They’ll tell me what they want ahead of time so that every week, once we get the games broken down that they are using for that week, they’ll be able to use it right away.”

The forward-thinking extends much further.

For a considerable portion of the Roughriders’ season, for example, Schellenberg pays close attention to U Sports and NCAA football while creating and updating a prospects list for the CFL Draft. The objective is to track every Draft-eligible player.

On top of having comprehensive information available for Vice-President of Football Operations/General Manager Jeremy O’Day and his colleagues for use leading up to and during the 2024 Draft, Schellenberg and Woytowich have already cut up footage of players who are eligible to be chosen in 2025. Those files, already extensive, will be updated as the 2024 college football seasons unfold.

Schellenberg and Woytowich are both heavily involved in ensuring that the Roughriders’ reservoir of information on U Sports players is overflowing.

Woytowich is also responsible for breaking down footage of American-born NCAA players.

“The NCAA is a big one, because there’s 1,600 games per year,” he notes.

“I think I’ve got 18 games left that are messed up that I’ve got to fix and then we’ll have every game from the NCAA from last year. If you’ve got a good relationship with the college and they send it to you, a lot of it’s automated so it’s just a matter of double-checking.”

As the head of the department, Bowley has the accompanying role of ensuring that the proper equipment is in place, first of all, and functioning without glitches.

All the computers, servers and software programs — such as Catapult, SkyCoach and Pro Football Focus — fall within his purview.

“Nick’s the overseer,” Woytowich says. “He does so much work behind the scenes that we don’t even notice.

“He doesn’t take credit for anything, so sometimes we have a job done that we don’t know that we needed to do, because he just did it.”

That can entail an expansion of the video archives to include CFL and NFL games, for example, that can date back two decades or even further.

Roughriders practice footage is also stored and labelled in a manner that allows the coaches or video personnel to call up a specific play from, say, 2016 in a matter of seconds.

Everything is integrated so that each member of the Video/Analytics trio can access what is required in short order.

“We’re all on the same page,” Schellenberg says. “We all want to do the job to the highest standard possible, but we also all understand what needs to be done and when it needs to be done. And we’re always willing to help each other out. If someone needs help, no problem.”

And that, to Bowley, is music to the ears.

“It’s great to have such a good group,” he concludes, “and hopefully we provide an advantage for the team.”

(Part 2 of 2)