With the transfer portal era of college athletics being in full swing, so are the needs to set yourself apart. For West Virginia and their specialists, technology is doing just that.
If you have ever recently found yourself watching golf and you see the ways the ball is tracked, or watching kickers kick on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, then you know what TrackMan technology is. While the name might be new, the concept is not. That concept is something the Mountaineers are using to their advantage in more ways than one.
West Virginia is in the midst of a kicking competition between now and week one against Penn State. West Virginia is tasked with replacing Casey Legg and TrackMan has made that decision easier to make for special teams coordinator Jeff Koonz.
“We’ve got some technology that not a lot of people have right now with this TrackMan system, where these guys can go out there and they can get instant feedback,” Koonz said. “To be one of the only schools in the country that have that and these guys can see the difference in leg speed, strike, where they hit the ball, how far it went, where it would have been good from, they have really, really, dove into that.”
During practice, they are able to see exact things, and correct any issues at that exact time. From something that may have taken days previously, now can happen within seconds.
“It’s how fast of feedback we can give them with that technology,” Koonz added. “Now it doesn’t take two days to get it corrected. We don’t watch it on film, they see it instantaneously and they can go work on that within two seconds. That’s the beautiful thing about it that it’s instant feedback. There’s positive and negatives in today’s world with technology, but that’s definitely a positive.”
This offseason, the Mountaineers brought in Michael Hayes to compete for the kicking duties replacing Casey Legg. Koonz said the West Virginia coaching staff sells the technology to recruits which to him makes them a sought after option in recruiting.
“When you have something that nobody in the country has — when you have the TrackMan system that we’ve invested in — that sets you apart,” Koonz said. “That’s like going to a school to play golf and they have the nicest practice facility in the country, well when those guys go out there and they can have that to their ability right now and nobody else has that, that kind of levels the playing field a bit. That’s been a huge help for us.”
The Mountaineers are currently figuring out whether it will be Hayes or Danny King who earns the kicker position come fall and are hoping TrackMan will help both kickers reach their full potential before that decision is made.
“I’m excited about him,” Koonz said of Hayes. “He’s got experience in a live setting, big crowd, big environment, big atmosphere. The cool thing is Danny King’s competing with him and having his best spring that he’s had since I’ve been here and I’m excited about that.”
