Film breakthrough: How digital advances have revolutionized the scouting game for Texas high school football coaches

Editor's note: With another school year approaching, we're bringing back some of our top stories from the 2018-19 school year. This story originally published on Nov. 14, 2018.

It's 10 minutes before kickoff, and Hebron's scouts are just pulling into Keller ISD Stadium.

The scouts typically get to games much earlier so they can closely observe teams' pregame routines, but the group of them -- coaches from one of Hebron's feeder schools, Killian Middle -- came directly from a basketball scrimmage.

Hebron's varsity squad hasn't technically clinched a playoff berth yet, but the scouts made the trek to Keller to collect intel on Hebron's potential first-round opponent, the winner of this matchup between Keller Fossil Ridge and Denton Guyer.

Donning electric blue Hebron gear, the four scouts ascend into the scouting booth and divvy up responsibilities. Two coaches will focus on identifying personnel groupings and formations, while the others will try to decipher signals. They get to work right away, identifying injured players on the sideline and, starting at kickoff, begin writing down the shells of personnel groupings.

With some variation based on coaching style and level of detail, the way these Hebron scouts study the game may not differ vastly from how other schools conduct scouting.

But programs have begun to diverge on the importance of in-person scouting in the digital age. Is it necessary to send scouts like the Killian coaches to games, or can coaches gather everything they need from quickly acquired scout tape?

Though the majority of local high school football programs still use in-person scouts, 38 percent rely mostly or entirely on video, according to a SportsDayHS survey with responses from 76 area coaches.

Scouts have studied game tape for years, but recent developments, particularly through a software company called Hudl, allow coaches, teams and players to more effortlessly share, annotate and break down game tape.

"Video has changed the way people scout," said Rudy Rangel, head coach at The Colony. "With Hudl in particular, now you have every view you need, every down and distance."

The digital video evolution hasn't yet eliminated the usefulness of the human eye. Rangel, like most coaches surveyed, still prefers to send out scouts to catch nuances that game film won't show. But even as in-person scouting refuses to become obsolete, coaches are still asking a common question: What's next?

No more all-nighters

Scouting a game used to be an all-night affair for coaches.

Chris Jensen, who got his coaching start nearly 30 years ago and has worked at three-time state champion Euless Trinity since the early 2000s, remembers having to wait for reel-to-reel film to process before meeting up with scouts from an upcoming opponent at a halfway point, like a Dairy Queen, to trade tape.

Rangel, who has spent 12 of his 24 years coaching at The Colony, said he used to stay up all night on Fridays breaking down film and preparing a scouting report to his coaches. Once he finished at 5 or 6 a.m., he'd just sleep in the field house before their 7 a.m. meeting.

Today's scouts are spoiled, Cedar Hill head coach Carlos Lynn jokes. In the last five years or so, Hudl has made it possible for coaches to upload and share film -- often in a district-wide pool -- in matter of minutes and without ever having to leave their desks.

There were several iterations of film recording and sharing methods in between reel-to-reel and Hudl -- VHS, CDs/DVDs, other types of software -- but "Hudl has really revolutionized the whole deal," Lynn said.

According to Zach Claussen, a sales manger at Hudl who works with high school football programs around Dallas-Fort Worth and the nation, 98 percent of U.S. high school football teams -- including the vast majority of local teams -- use Hudl. As Rangel put it, "Hudl has pretty much a monopoly on high school football in the country, especially in Texas."

Beyond improving coaches' workflow, Hudl can track and compile stats, while also allowing coaches to input notes on formations, play calls and practice scripts. Players can more readily access scout film, featuring individualized notes from their coaches, on their own time. In fact, 93 percent of area coaches said that, with the rise of video-sharing systems like Hudl, players are now more consistently consuming game tape.

Deciphering signals

Though Hudl's role in revolutionizing scouting is undeniable, there are still elements to the game that video cannot capture, ones many coaches believe are too valuable to work without.

Sixty-two percent of area coaches said they still send scouts to games in addition to taking advantage of the tools Hudl provides.

Lynn has moved Cedar Hill, which won the 2018 District 7-6A title, away from every-week scouting. To fully reap the benefits, Lynn said, scouts must know how to properly scout in the first place -- which is not always a given considering scouts tend to be younger, less experienced middle-school coaches.

Even if the scouts can handle the job, coaches may have their staff invest valuable time into other, more useful pursuits.

For others, sending in-person scouts is a necessary investment of time to ensure that what is lost on film can be discovered in person.

Game film starts at the beginning of each play and stops at the end of it. Because of that, some coaches tell scouts to watch for quarterback cadence, offensive tempo and the quality of the kicking game, the latter of which may be best observed during pregame warmups. Scouts will also keep an eye out for sideline interactions, player body language and demeanor, momentum swings and even the playing environment and setup of the stadium.

Some scouts try to decipher teams' signals, though they can be difficult to decode. Nearly half of respondents in SportsDayHS' poll said that they try to obfuscate their play-calling or signals either "somewhat" or "a great deal."

Hebron's scouts struggled with this when watching the Denton Guyer-Keller Fossil Ridge matchup, as Guyer's coaches shouted play calls instead of signaling. Fossil Ridge had players hold up towels, attempting to shield their coaches' signals.

"Sometimes you can get caught up in a lot of the details of trying to decipher signals and all that. We believe what the film tells us," Lynn said. "The film don't lie."

Future uncertain

Given the scale of technological change over the last 10-15 years, coaches aren't sure what the digital age has next in store for scouting.

Claussen, the Hudl representative, said that there's room to make content accessibility and sharing even faster and that, in an environment with such a strong football culture, Dallas-area coaches are constantly thinking about what digital tools are still needed in the scouting realm.

Rangel, whose squad went 9-1 on it way to the District 5-5A Division I title, suggests that further advancements could supply coaches with more angles of game film. Perhaps other technologies that are being experimented with at the collegiate and professional levels, like virtual reality, will eventually trickle down to the high school level once they become more cost-effective.

But for the time being, coaches have enough film and in-person observations at their disposal to get the job done.

"It'd be pretty scary if it gets any better than what it is now," Lynn said.

Twitter: @alexaphilippou