FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1966 THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY, NQVEMBER 18, 1966 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Woverine IBM Gridde Ps By GRETCHEN TWIETMEYER Computers for football? "Augh, it would take all the fun out of it," decided Michigan quarterback Dick Vidmer when as- sistant frosh coach (and former player) Jerry Mader approached him on the Diag one day. Michigan football coaches didn't share Vidmer's first reaction and 1. started exploiting IBM anyway. Through data processing, the Wol- verines get the play-by-play de- fense of their next week's oppon- ent which makes scouting im- measurably easier. For example, Michigan has taken all of Ohio State's defen- sive plays in their last few games and arranged them in various ways to give them a clear picture of OSU defense patterns and ten- dencies. For backfield coach Hank Fon- de, who is responsible for scout- ing, the time saved by data proc- essing amounts to hours. Nothing Different Grinned Fonde, "We're not do- ing anything different, were just condensing into a few hours what used to take days. Now we have more time to practice more ef-r Plays to Programs This is the IBM print out from an actual game played this season, sorted by formation. The IBM cards can also be sorted by down and distance; down and vertical field position; down and defense; and hash and defense. The columns signify (left to right) sequence of plays as run in the game, down, yards to go for a first down, hash mark, vertical field position, offensive formation, offensive play, de- fensive formation, yards lost or gained, and game code reference. Good luck! -Daily-Thomas R. Copi fectively because we have a bet- "smash 3" and a "bendback," but compiles the data from every play. ter idea of what needs empha- who could feed a computer. He relays it to a very devoted sis." Industrial Engineering student keypunch girl, Denine Tarras, The idea for using data proc- Jim Bilbie first started workingw.a essing was incepted last spring on the project but the compli- who spends her Sundays in the by Fonde and Prof. Y. F. Al- cated football jargon flummox- University's Computer Center mu- len, chairman emeritus of the In- ed him. Enter duex ex machina tilating IBM cards. And on Mon- dustrial Engineering Department, Prof. Clyde Johnson, who propos- day, Mader or Bilbie rummage but almost stagnated because a ed to Mader (an industrial en- through math students' drab pen- certain type of person was need- gineering grad student) that he tilled labels to find a blue box ed-someone who not only could work with Bilbie just as Mader magic-markered "football." tell the difference between a was suggesting the idea to Bilbie IBM cardsare extracted and himself. placed in a metallic mud-colored hts and insults From there the project ran card sorter, devoid of "M Go smoothly and paid dividends for the participants. Mader is writ- ing his masters thesis on comput- ers and football mand using the re- sults as experimental proof. Bil-r bie is using the program as forU credit for his industrial engineer-, Blue" stickers or anything except time. It's frustrating enough fingerprints. From there they are now." printed and handed over to the By frustrating he means that coaches. the technical process has its Not Computerized quirks. There's a good possibility The football side has no prob- l "I'd like to get it down so that lems at all. Fonde, with a de- the coaches would only look at gree in aeronautical engineering, game films to see what the play- deciphered the "print out" infor- ers looked like. Everything else insjg CHUCI It's not exactly "computer" football. But "data processing" as Prof. Johnson accurately calls it, is, in a sense more practical. Says Mader, "In a computer, the whole, operation is done in one step. You couldn't find a mistake till the end, and if the thing were wrong, you'd have wasted a lot of E. KICKS of a keypunching error or two, or the machine might decide to be finicky. Once someone jammed a card without telling anyone and when Mader went to sort his plays, the mechanical monster chopped them all in half. Frustrating. Frightening better expresses the coaches' view. They've become pretty dependent on the hulky machines and a minor problem could induce paroxysms of fear. Last Monday night a coach called me at 11, worried about why he couldn't find the information,", chuckled Mader. "I just told him whose desk it was on." Translation Problem The biggest problem all through the project has been reconciling football language to IBM lan- guage. Mason went a long way towards minimizinghthe communi- cations problem with a blackboard lecture for all industrial engineer- ing people involved. But even with fairly well-defined terms there are, still problems. "For example," interjected Bil- bie, "they'll give us a three wordj mation immediately. Expanded Use So far only the offense is us- ing data processing, but the In- dustrial Engineering Department sees no reason why the use of machines couldn't be expanded.- The Industrial Engineering De- Fonde cites one reason, that "the rm u' i1nd e ronle- opponents' offensive set-ups would partment's small and controlled be harder to plot because there research approach, and the un- are 32 formations and quite a derstandable cautiousness of the few more complicated plays." football staff make automation But Mader says that ys mevolutionary instead of radical. ButMadr sys hatprogram- ming the offense "could easily But who knows how soon Bump be done," and also sees the fa- Elliott may be replaced by a jolly cility of using computers to stand-, pink "brain" with maize and blue ardize scouting and football terms. eyes. could be done by machine. But right now, I'd like to figure out a way to get rid of the keypunch- ing process." Computerization isn't really in demand for Michigan football. Kr; WithCoach Cutler Recently there has been a lot of student unrest about Vice- president Cutler's supposedly unwarranted display of authoritarian leadership. Many malcontents sneer that Dr. Cutler is power-hungry and wants to be president of the University. I'm not close to such happenings, but if he really is trying to extend his control, I don't think it's the presidency he's after. Most likely, Cutler really wants to be athletic director. If he got the job, naturally his first step would be to assume the duties of head football coach rather than let someone -else run this important post. This could lead to some problems. Like what happens during halftime of a big game .. . Dismally Coach Cutl.er leads the team into the locker room and addresses the players. "We're behind 7-0, children. We've got to be better the second half. What's wrong with all of you anyway?" One player stands up and shouts, "First of all we don't like being called children. Can't you remember you're not talking to the student body any more. And besides, no wonder we're losing. Who ever heard of a one man coaching staff?" "I'm sorry about that," the coach replies. "But this job is too important to share with anyone. That's not the issue anyway. Why aren't the plays working?" At this point the quarterback complains, "I'll tell you why. All we ever use is a power sweep. And why do you have to call all the plays. After all, I'm the quarterback. You don't even let me hold a huddle." Of course not," Cutler answers. "If you had a huddle, people might not realize I'm in charge. Besides, I don't support any of those radical meetings. Sure, you call it a huddle. Who knows what you do, Besides, I thing the problem is a poor attitude." ""No wonder," groans a big lineman. "Here we are playing a home game, and there's not one person watching us. That's your fault, coach." "I must agree with you," Cutler sighs. "I guess it was a mis- take to ban sit-ins in Michigan Stadium. But you're wrong about nobody being here. There are thousands of photographers along the sidelines." "Yeah and I can bet where they came from," bellowed a voice from the back row. At this point a messenger runs into the room and yells, "Coach Cutler, Coach Cutler, the Wolverine Spirit Club is in a rage! They claim you never mentioned anything about changing team strategy at the last pep rally. They are threatening to burn all their season tickets. What should I tellthem?" "Don't worry about it Bumpy. We don't have to report to anyone." Cutler now turns his attention back to the team, and says, "Well, half time is almost over. Do you have any real complaints?" Shouts one "You didn't give the pros our statistics. Now none of us can get drafted." "There, there, I know what's in your interest better than you do," Coach Cutler replies. "Anything else?" "You always make us eat spinach at training table just because you like it," cries a hefty fullback. "It's good for you," the coach roars. "Well, this it. Time for the second half. Look, forget' about tradition the. Rose Bowl, winning for the Gipper and that stuff. I want you to go out there and win for me. And remember one more thing., . we can't do anything without teamwork." * . ing project. Standard Schedule The weekly job starts when of- MILT BRUHN, who twice led fensive end coach George Mans Wisconsin to. the Rose Bowl, re- r- signed as the Badgers' head coach yesterday after three straight los- ing seasons. He will stay on for tomorrow's season finale against Minnesota. No successor has been named. A west coast fixture could be taking in some new scenery too. The AssociatedePress reports that the Los Angeles Dodgers' base- stealing shortstop and captain MAURY WILLS is going to be traded. The wire service says team owner Walter O'Malley is quite irked because Wills left the team's Japan tour in the face of O'Mal- ley's denial of permission and, sec- ond, because Wills relaxed and appeared in nightclubs in Hono- lulu instead of returning directly to Los Angeles to have his ailing knee treated. NEILL DUGGAN is another Californian in the dog house. The Hancock College cross - country champ was ticketed for running a red light while jogging across the street in sweat clothes. He will appear in Santa Maria city court next week. Today's Ralph Nader award goes to land speed king ART ARFONS. His car flipped over while whip- ping through the Bonneville Salt Flats at 580 mph. His doctor said he wasn't as bad off as an average driver in a rear ender, When Ar- fons was asked about trying again, he replied, "Well, I've got a new engine at home." The post season Bowls game sit- uation is beginning to take shape. The Dallas News said yesterday that GEORGIA will oppose' the Southwest Conference representa- tive in the Dec. 31 Cotton Bowl game. So what happens to un- defeated Georgia Tech which plays the Bulldogs next week? And a Los Angeles Times report claims that the professional chain- U I U DUE TO LACK OF RESPONSE THE ACADEMIC CONFERENCE HAS BEEN POSTPONED I I term like 'I pro right' and then say something like 'right I pro.' An IBM machine can't interpret FROW it and neither can I." To Scores, NBA Detroit 123, New York 108 Baltimore 120, Chicago 102 NOVEMBER 19 FEBRUARY18 pions11ip matening the. National and American football leagues- modestely called the Super Bowl -will be played in LA's Memorial Coliseum on Jan. 15. 'I I w * L MR. 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