Video games get the blame for some of society's problems. Violent games breed violent behavior, it's claimed. We can certainly debate causation vs. correlation on this point. Some football coaches, however, are using video games like Madden '06 to help their players learn their playbooks:
Missouri freshman quarterback Dominic Grooms wasn't sure what to think when quarterbacks coach David Yost handed him a PlayStation 2 controller and asked him to run the Missouri offense.
As Madden 06, last year's version of the popular NFL video game, loaded up with Grooms' team of choice, he noticed the offensive plays were exactly the same as the ones he had spent the summer learning.
"It was like nothing I had ever really seen or used before, I mean not in that way," Grooms said of the video game he had spent many hours playing in high school. "It's got the whole (Missouri) playbook on it, and it helps you with reads and what to do against certain defenses. I wouldn't say it's easier than reading your playbook because you have to do that, too, but it makes it a lot of fun."
It's interactive, so it gets the QB to work on making reads and other things. And it's safe: no-one has to worry about injuries to the QB or other players:
Yost said the video game is not a substitute for film or even studying the hard copy of the playbook. But he encourages his quarterbacks to play for at least 20 minutes a day. He said in that time, a player might get as many as 40 reps, which they wouldn't be able to get on the field without wearing their teammates down.
Other schools use a game designed especially for college football programs.
A few other teams in the Big 12, including Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado, use a similar program made by Gridiron Technologies called Pro Simulator. The game works almost exactly like the Madden game except that it asks the user pre-snap questions about possible blitzers and the proper front calls. It also keeps track of whether the user went through his progressions and threw to the right receiver. Pro Simulator also simulates the team's next opponent -- including each player's height, weight, skill level and speed -- to make it as close to the real game as possible.
Yost said his version isn't nearly as intricate, but it's cheaper. Although the price of Pro Simulator is not listed on the Web site, several reviews of the product state that it could cost upwards of $250,000 as opposed to the $49.82 for Madden last year at the local discount retailer.
Missouri is breaking in a new starting quarterback this year, probably Chase Daniel. Mr. Daniel saw a lot of action last year, usually they first series of the second quarter, not mop-up duty. There is no perfect substitute to in-game action, but video games seem to be a decent, albeit imperfect, substitute.