KNOXVILLE – Brad Roll has been around football for decades, watching the game change and changing with it.
A former strength coach for four NFL franchises, he is now roaming the football complex at the University of Tennessee, having evolved into a technology guru with the job title of GPS analyst.
“Data is king,” he said this past week.
Roll is in his second year overseeing Tennessee’s Catapult GPS and Zebra satellite tracking systems that record the effort exerted by players at practice and in games. Roll tracks distances and speeds run by using modules placed in players’ shoulder pads or helmets and can hone in to decipher how far and how fast a certain player ran on a given play.
He uses the data to build detailed reports that can span weeks in some cases and give position coaches insight on their players. The technology can help reveal who is at risk for overworking in practice and those who are not getting the amount of work they need to continue developing.