Scouting

G

Gamma Gobbler

Well-known member
I am curious to how many teams still use scouts at games. I had a good conversation with my friend last night that is still a scout for a HS but he says its a dying or dead breed and Hudl has basically replaced the scout. He said at one time there was a scout row at the top of stands but now he can go a season without seeing anyone with a clipboard. I can fill in more from our conversation but I am curious, do HS football scouts still exist and are they important anymore?
 
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Gamma Gobbler said:
I am curious to how many teams still use scouts at games. I had a good conversation with my friend last night that is still a scout for a HS but he says its a dying or dead breed and Hudl has basically replaced the scout. He said at one time there was a scout row at the top of stands but now he can go a season without seeing anyone with a clipboard. I can fill in more from our conversation but I am curious, do HS football scouts still exist and are they important anymore?
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There's not really a point, even before Hudl, coaches were exchanging VHS or DVDs early Saturday morning with the next opponent. Over the years it also became extremely difficult to find someone to go scout. Lastly, coaches may go themselves if let's say they played on a Saturday and had Friday off, they would often go watch their next big opponent.

Hudl definitely made things easier. I do not miss the days of hooking up the machines to make copies of the game film Friday night after a game for the rest of the staff and for exchange the next morning. Those exchanges always were at about 7am the next morning. It seemed every other week when making copies something would malfunction when it was 90% done then you'd cuss and start all over again.
 
I can remember when I first started coaching, all of the league coaches would meet at a Bob Evans on Saturday morning that was central and exchange tapes from the previous night's game. At that time, we still had scouts at games to retrieve the previous 1-2 games. This was in 2005.

During the Covid Year, I went and scouted a game because we had a bye round (we were allotted 2 scout tickets), and I really just wanted to go watch a game.
 
Yes, Scouts are still used to this day. Generally, scouts are more prevalent at the bigger games or schools. The majority of scouts today are there to only watch certain players for recruiting purposes. However, great teams or programs with unlimited cash flows still scout teams heavily. At game scouting is so important because you can pick up valuable information not seen on tape. How does a team warm up, patterns or habits certain kids run routes. Where is field goal kicker warming up from. How does team react to adversity when down. Student participation, crowd size, cheering sections. How do coaches and players interact during game , adjustmens, etc. So much information at a live game the video does not show you.
 
Coach22 said:
Yes, Scouts are still used to this day. Generally, scouts are more prevalent at the bigger games or schools. The majority of scouts today are there to only watch certain players for recruiting purposes. However, great teams or programs with unlimited cash flows still scout teams heavily. At game scouting is so important because you can pick up valuable information not seen on tape. How does a team warm up, patterns or habits certain kids run routes. Where is field goal kicker warming up from. How does team react to adversity when down. Student participation, crowd size, cheering sections. How do coaches and players interact during game , adjustmens, etc. So much information at a live game the video does not show you.
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Thats funny to see this post because that is my friends description of what he does.
He arrives at the game around an hour and half early or earlier. He likes to see the kids get off the bus and match sizes to the roster. He gets the punter distance and hang times, the kickers distances, holder and snapper. Watches routes of the QB and receivers to see how they run and if there are any hand signals being used. Offense and Defesive lineups. He talks to parents, especially mothers with "Spirit" pins. He said a mother will spill her guts about her kid and the team, injuries, eligibilities, team dynamic, etc, During the game he captures substitutions and follows the game flow. He did say sometimes the Hudl films the team gets cuts out certain plays and he tries to fill in what is missing.

I know he logged over 1000 miles traveling to and from games this year and sometimes he pays for the ticket but during conference play he has a pass. Never compensated for time, mileage, tickets or programs nor do I think he would take any money. He says, he is allowed to do what he does and loves the team he does it for and that I guess is reward enough.
 
Gamma Gobbler said:
Thats funny to see this post because that is my friends description of what he does.
He arrives at the game around an hour and half early or earlier. He likes to see the kids get off the bus and match sizes to the roster. He gets the punter distance and hang times, the kickers distances, holder and snapper. Watches routes of the QB and receivers to see how they run and if there are any hand signals being used. Offense and Defesive lineups. He talks to parents, especially mothers with "Spirit" pins. He said a mother will spill her guts about her kid and the team, injuries, eligibilities, team dynamic, etc, During the game he captures substitutions and follows the game flow. He did say sometimes the Hudl films the team gets cuts out certain plays and he tries to fill in what is missing.

I know he logged over 1000 miles traveling to and from games this year and sometimes he pays for the ticket but during conference play he has a pass. Never compensated for time, mileage, tickets or programs nor do I think he would take any money. He says, he is allowed to do what he does and loves the team he does it for and that I guess is reward enough.
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Well your friend definitely "Gets It" , what an asset to the program he is with. Hats off to him! Pre games give up some tall tale signs.
 
Schools used to send their junior high coaches to go scout the next opponent or two. Now those junior high coaches are in the press box keeping analytics and stats of the varsity game on their iPad.
 
BigK72 said:
I can remember when I first started coaching, all of the league coaches would meet at a Bob Evans on Saturday morning that was central and exchange tapes from the previous night's game. At that time, we still had scouts at games to retrieve the previous 1-2 games. This was in 2005.

During the Covid Year, I went and scouted a game because we had a bye round (we were allotted 2 scout tickets), and I really just wanted to go watch a game.
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NLL

Hudl made exchanging film, tape, CD's a lot easier.

Sending scouts was always so unreliable. Some were excellent. Some had no idea what they were seeing. Some didn't make much of an effort.

I started coaching in a league with public and parochial schools. Someone had a Saturday night game every week. Our varsity staff scouted someone every week, and so did almost everybody else.

You can still see stuff in person that never shows up on video though.
 
I have watched a lot of H.S football over the years. It has been pointed out, there are a lot things that can be seen/heard in person that the film doesn't show. Gamma's point of his friend sitting in the stands and getting the "feel" of what is going on with the team is sometimes just as important as the actual game.
 
I know JH coaches are probably the happiest people with the advent of HUDL!

I sorta miss sit tho.....i would get a first hand scouting a report for each playoff game from a scout and man, he was always dead on. There were times most thought it would be a romp but he stated it would be close....and it was, and vice versa!
 
Best scouting story I remember is a junior high coach coming back and raving about how dominant a team's defense was. One of the varsity coaches looked at the notebook and said, "No wonder they are so good. They are running a 5-4-3." That coach was not asked to go scouting again after that.
 
chs1971 said:
NLL

Hudl made exchanging film, tape, CD's a lot easier.

Sending scouts was always so unreliable. Some were excellent. Some had no idea what they were seeing. Some didn't make much of an effort.

I started coaching in a league with public and parochial schools. Someone had a Saturday night game every week. Our varsity staff scouted someone every week, and so did almost everybody else.

You can still see stuff in person that never shows up on video though.
Click to expand...
How’d you know it was the NLL
 
Youngest guy on the staff so I had to go exchange tapes every Monday. Coach gave me the tape said take this to National Trail. I said ok where is that? Coach says I don’t know just go to Indiana and it’s somewhere around there. My wife of three months and I spent and evening cruising around until we stumbled upon the school.
 
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