Final Project component — Reflection column

For the blog component of my final project, I've decided to exercise what I've learned about column writing the past couple of weeks and write one about what I got from working on the story I wrote.

First to give you all a basic idea, it's about the video staff for the Iowa football team and what a typical week is like for them during the season.

Now in high school, I played football my freshman and sophomore years. My sophomore year especially, I remember Mondays when we'd have light practices and then spend about an hour watching film — 45 minutes of our most recent game, and 15-30 minutes of our upcoming opponent's recent contest, just to get a feel for what we could expect to see during practice the rest of the week as well as in the actual game.

What I learned from writing this story is that college football is a completely different beast.

As I look back on this, I've grown to have an appreciation for what guys like Matt Engelbert and his video staff do. These guys are at every Iowa football practice filming from all different angles the coaches want, and the team breaks down every practice it has. I can't even begin to imagine having played in high school what that would have felt like being filmed every single day. I'm sure none of the Hawkeye players actually are thinking about being filmed all the time when they're out on the field running drills, but knowing that you can go back afterwards to critique yourself on a regular basis is amazing.

I began to think about something Engelbert told me when I interviewed him about how it's unique to have the access to the football team no one else has, quite frankly, but that the uniqueness of it wears off over time when you film practice after practice after practice. (If Allen Iverson's reading this, yes, I'm talking 'bout practice.) The average fan probably would love to get an inside look into their team as it prepares for an upcoming game, but then there's that question of "How much is too much?" If this is what you do as a job, you obviously don't care about that because you probably enjoy what it is your doing.

It's similar in a sense to being a sportswriter because on one hand, you can be a passionate sports fan as all of us who took this class are and getting access to stuff the normal fan doesn't see is certainly enticing, but at the end of the day, it's still a job and there's still a lot that goes into it.

In the case of these guys, it would be setting up the equipment before the start of practice or game, making sure the end zone cameras are set up at the highest point possible so that way coaches, as one of the students on Engelbert's video staff told me, can get a glimpse of what the offensive and defensive lines are doing as far as footwork and technique are concerned.

As for games, I found it incredible that the Iowa video staff only began shooting its own video at road games as recently as 2004 (Engelbert said the first non-bowl game his staff traveled to was that God awful Arizona State game that season). Now those guys are at every game, home or away.

It's an indicator to what everyone I spoke to on the staff said, how the video they get and put on hard drives for the team has become essential in terms of being more competitive.

I interviewed three players — I only quoted one and referenced another, however — and it didn't take long to realize that they eat up the film as much as the coaches. When I spoke to Rick Stanzi about it, he told me he'll stay down at the complex sometimes until 11:30 p.m., simply because watching film has become such a hobby of his when he has that down time. A.J. Edds mentioned how he'll watch 5-6 hours of film per week on average.

Considering how the study of game and practice film is even more complex in the NFL, major college programs such as Iowa get players accustomed to it as early as possible so that way if anyone does have an NFL career, they'll be ready for what we'll be expected of them at the level in terms of how much film they have to watch in order to succeed.

Writing this story also showed me how much football has become as much of a mental game as physical. It used to be that you'd line up, hit the guy in front of you, and make plays — simple as that. Now, coaches are looking to pick up on any flaws they might see in any individuals and either expose that weakness if it's an opponent, or if it's one of their own, point the flaw out to them and help them correct it in time for the next game.

In football, there's always that cliché of "one game at a time, one day at a time." This is truly how the Hawkeyes operate, as well as their video staff. It's an ongoing day-by-day process.

This also makes me believe that part of the reason why teams like Iowa tend to have success towards the end of seasons and peak in November is because a routine is eventually developed with everything that goes on during the week, and at that football complex, everyone regardless of position, sticks to the regimen.

I truly enjoyed writing this piece. I was interested in finding out what players are looking for when they watch themselves on that final product put together by the video staff. I was just an interested to hear about how the guys on the Iowa video staff go about their jobs and how much time and effort is put into what they do.

Some of these ins-and-outs that people aren't as aware of are things I know I'll probably have in the back of my mind from now on whenever I watch a game, whether it be in the press box or as a fan.

— Brendan Stiles