“Next Man In” takes team video to new level

Last season UC head coach Brian Kelly was hailed from coast to coast as he played five different quarterbacks in game action on the Bearcats way to winning 11 games and their first Big East title. In 2007 though, his philosophy of “Next Man In”—a saying which adorns the side of the Big East title ring that each member of the 2008 team received—was put to the test when the team traveled to Rutgers in the first weekend of October.

Coming off a huge 48-28 win over San Diego State the Bearcats were ranked in the top 25 for the first time in many years. Kelly’s new style of offense and transfer quarterback Ben Mauk had the Bearcats sitting at 5-0 heading to Piscataway for the first Big East matchup for UC in the 2007 season.

The Bearcats will be in Piscataway on Monday afternoon to start their Big East title defense

What’s even more stunning is that Kelly had to start a true freshman in that game in a position that he had no prior training at. But the story wasn’t covered by any writers, the kid wasn’t heavily questioned by the media, and very few people even knew about how he got into his position. The reason…?

The true freshman was me. And, I wasn’t playing. I was just thrust into a spot I was very unfamiliar with, shooting the endzone copy of the UC/Rutgers game.

It’s a position that I have rightly held for the past season and a half since that date. How it came about is a story in and of itself, but here is the short version. Our fifth year senior endzone guy, Josh, had an appendectomy on Tuesday of game week.

Someone needed to do the endzone, but I had never done endzone in my life. When the news was broken to us by Director of Football Operations John Widecan, I offered to take over in the endzone, even though I had no idea how to do it. I watched the tape of previous games that Josh had done that season, learning exactly how to film from the endzone, and practiced by shooting endzone film at practice—a position I still hold today.

After the game video coordinator John Sells and I waited in line at the airport, copying files on our gameday laptops, with Coach Kelly waiting behind us. Widecan walked up and had to tell Kelly that I took over in the endzone for this game because of what happened to Josh.

His response, “Next man in,” as he chuckled and looked at special teams coach Mike Elston. Elston echoed, “Next man in.”

My dad often jokes that his son is a first team starter at a major college football program. When people ask him what he means he has to explain that all I do is stand behind a camera, but technically I’m still a starter.

We won the game that night 28-24 thanks to a big game from QB Ben Mauk and WR Dominick Goodman

As unimportant as some of my co-workers try to make our job seem, the job of gameday film is very important. It’s not just important for our coaches to watch and make improvements to the gameplan, but it’s also important for other teams who scout our team off of our film.

We won the game in Piscataway that night, improving to 6-0 on the season. It was a night that very few people know the backstory to; the true freshman taking over as a starter at a position he had very little practice at. But, it was the start of a mini-career for me, a mini-career that will continue this season, my second full season in the endzone.

The post game handshake between the two teams in 2007... from my endzone view

There’s no better spot to start than the place I first started—at Rutgers.
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Tomorrow you’ll get two posts, one featuring the NASCAR boys who travel to “Hot-lanta” this weekend for the penultimate race in the “regular season” in the Sprint Cup Series. Eight drivers battle for six spots in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

You’ll also get a bonus post about Big East football and video technology, featuring someone mentioned above, who will be a minor celebrity come tomorrow morning.