Five Useful Custom Columns

We’re no strangers to success at Ben Davis High School, reaching the Indiana 6A Final Four this past season. But we also play a lot of teams with incredibly creative coaches, which makes film analysis super critical to any success we have.

The ability to add custom columns to our breakdown lets us tailor the reports we need to the specifics of each opponent. Here are a few of the custom columns we get the most use out of:

Route Thrown — This is pretty self-explanatory. You can also create a separate column and chart who was target on the throw (which we usually do). This gives you a very good idea of how the play caller likes to use each weapon in his arsenal.

RB Depth — This can be a major run-pass tip for teams that operate primarily out of shotgun. We spend a lot of time scouting backfield alignments, depth and personnel for tendencies. Not every team has these tells, but many do. We’ll mark most depths as “Up”, “Even”, or “Back”.

Defender — Use this column to chart the number of the nearest defender to the pass when it was caught. (Ex. “29” if the DB defending the pass is No. 29). When a man is wide open, we’ll mark it “uncovered”. This helps you understand whether your opponent likes to pick out specific defenders to attack with the pass.

Signal — We don’t film opponent signals, but sometimes opponents will send film with their own signals visible during the flow of the game. It’s not something we spend a lot of time on, but we’ll mark an “X” in this column if there’s visible signals on film. Depending on how many there are, sometimes we’re able to decipher certain calls that help us.

Scramble Drill — We’ll mark an “X” in this column whenever the quarterback is forced to move around in the pocket (other than designed boots and rollouts). We’ll pay attention to whether he actually takes off, gets sacked or just has to run around a bit and throw it away. This gives us a good gauge of how he responds to pressure, and which receiver is his go-to option in these situations. 

Kirby's deep analytical dives fuel Ben Davis as one of Indiana's top programs. His book, Breaking Into Coaching With No Experience: Everything You Need to Know To Provide Value on Day One, is available here.