Last week, GoRout presented its findings from a pilot program with the Division III Liberty League to the NCAA Football Rules Committee. The company, which piloted its Gridiron play-calling communication tech with the seven Liberty conference teams, has partnerships with more than 640 NCAA teams for its baseball and softball products.
The GoRout proposal for NCAA-wide usage was not approved, but chief partnership officer Drew Robinson said the effort will continue to find GoRout’s place in college football and ultimately, help define how wearables fit in the game.
“We are going to spend quite a bit of time over the next year trying to get the committee and the NCAA to realize that one wearable, it defeats the purpose of what we do,” Robinson said, referencing the conversation around the 2024 approval of in-helmet comms at the FBS level. “... The hot topic is coach-to-player communication – we are coach-to-players communication. So why limit it?”
GoRout provided 10 wristbands and two tablets per team for last season’s experimental deployment, which allowed coaches to send in play calls for players to read on their wearable digital displays during conference games. The Liberty League allowed for three devices to be on the field for offensive and defensive units with no limits on special teams.
Jon Drach, head coach of Union College and a member of the previously mentioned committee, saw a dramatic impact on the transmission of plays to his players – he said the time between selecting plays (Drach also calls Union’s offense) and the transmission to players was between a quarter second and a half second.
“I think that it helped a lot of teams within our league,” Drach told SBJ. “[I was] disappointed that we could use it in the NCAA playoffs and in our out-of-conference stuff, but still, it really was a successful trial as far as that goes.”
GoRout tested its Gridiron product first during the 2023 bowl season, working with the Georgia Tech and UCF at the Gasparilla Bowl due to early interest in wearable tech from the Big 12 Conference, according to Robinson.
Drach mentioned that GoRout is much more useful than just showing a play. He shared that during the season, his defense leaned on a young safety for significant playing time, with the Gridiron device becoming a way to clearly communicate that player’s responsibility on any given play.
Thanks to the feedback from this season, Robinson said that future enhancements to the GoRout football system will include more options for messaging to players (for quick coaching points on top of play calling) and trying to make coaches’ play-call sheets a clickable document in the Gridiron system.
Here are a few stats from GoRout from its football deployment with the Liberty League:
- More Liberty League teams used the devices on defense (six out of the seven) than on offense (five of seven). Only two used it for special teams. “I’ve always thought this was an equalizer tool for defensive coaches,” Robinson said of the higher defensive usage. “They always have to wait until they see the offensive personnel, offensive formation ... with the GoRout system, one button – now everybody’s getting that call instantly up until the snap of the ball.”
- The majority of coaches had high praise for the GoRout deployment – following the first week, 80% of coaches polled by the company expressed happiness with both the technology’s performance and its durability on the field.
- Fifty percent of coaches sent in plays from the press box. The remaining coaches either sent plays from the sidelines (33%) or did a combination of both (17%).
- Five devices broke and required warranty claims during the season (representing 7% of total devices issued for the Liberty League). The most common issue? Broken wristband clips. GoRout only had to field two support calls during the 2024 football season.
