Over the last few years, analytics in sports has grown exponentially. The Indianapolis Colts have taken advantage of that growth while putting the statistics and information to good use.
And while there are analytics-only truthers to go along with the detractors of the movement, Colts head coach Frank Reich believes the best way to go about it is to have a balance of the two.
It’s never easy, especially when the analytics might go against what his gut is telling him. Even so, Reich strives to find that balance between using the information and his own experience to make the right call.
“I’m glad you asked that Kevin (Bowen) because I really do try to be very balanced. I had good experience with analytics but maybe because of my age and because of my playing experience – the gut feel, the traditions of football and what you feel in certain situations, that part has not left me,” Reich said Friday. “I’m not an all in on analytics – I’m all in on using everything to be informed to make the best decision at the time. That’s the difference between the art of it and the science of it. There is no perfect formula.”
Having been a former player, it can be tough for Reich to fully buy-in to analytics. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t given his trust to the analytics department over the last few years.
“I have a great relationship with our analytics guys, John Park and George Li. They do a phenomenal job of giving me information during the game,” Reich said. We meet twice during the week to go over the charts, to look at certain tapes together, to look at what’s happened around the league, what other decisions have been made.
“You guys know I’ve talked to you about this before, all of that stuff – we’ve done so much of that over three years, it’s just built into the relationship that you can almost start thinking for each other in that regard. When I talk to those guys in a course of a game, they are cool, calm and collected. They give me the information. We’ve worked out the kinks of our communication on what exactly I want to hear and what I don’t want to hear to make the decision in that moment. They do a phenomenal job, but at the end of the day it’s kind of a balance between the two and I really do try to keep a healthy tension there.”
The Colts are seemingly one of the more forward teams when it comes to using analytics and having a coach like Reich should help the organization find a balance between the two.
It will always be a tough call, especially when Reich’s gut tells him the opposite of the numbers, but he will continue to find a balance in using both sides of the coin.
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