Although collegiate football teams’ play signalers can be seen in stadiums around the country, most fans are unaware of what they are actually doing.
Although collegiate football teams’ play signalers can be seen in stadiums around the country, most fans are unaware of what they are actually doing.
Every school is different. Some have backup players hold signs and signal to those on the field, but Ohio utilizes its student assistants in a role that helps them, as well as the team, on their journey to working within a college football program.
All programs relay offensive coordinator Tim Albin’s calls to the players through a communication chain, which is finalized by a series of signals secret to the offense. Those calls are portrayed through different colored sleeves and large play cards split in quadrants of pictures.
Alex Beurket, a senior in his third year as a student assistant, explained the process is similar to sign language in that each means something different.
Although they are signing for a specific group of players, each player has to look at all four signalers to read the call.
Essentially, each signal is a word and when together they form a sentence, or the play.
“You have to understand the whole sentence and not just one word or two words,” Beurket said. “So the players have to look at the people who are giving signals, no matter how many of us there are, and get the whole sentence.”
The five signal callers play a vital role in Ohio’s production on the field. Although the group of three undergraduate and two graduate students isn’t in pads running through tackles, everything they do has an impact on the game.
He said they feel pressure on gameday but don’t have a problem with handling their emotions because they “want to freakin’ win as bad as anybody else.”
“If we’re just nonchalant and we’re kind of lazy with what we do or what our job is, it will kind of reflect on the players,” said Connor Spies, a senior in his first year as a student assistant.
“They have no sense of urgency if we don’t. (We) keep that focus so that the players see that since we’re focused and we care, they should as well.”
The assistants initially began working in the program by shooting video from the end zone lifts, but have worked their way through the ranks. And their only responsibility isn’t just to relay plays between coaches in the press box and players on the field, they are also there to help if problems arise.
When Albin sees something he wants to tell the offense, for example if he wants the quarterback to stay in the pocket or run more, he can tell a signaler to personally communicate at field level. It’s more efficient than players needing to call coaches from a sideline phone.
“We can directly connect with them there and we can also give them insight on what we hear from the coaches and give that directly to them instead of having them go through a phone,” Spies said. “Especially coming off the field and going on more than anything.”
When the student assistants receive that responsibility, they are aware of their position with the team. Although they’re interested in becoming a coach in the future, for now they’re simply communicators and motivators.
“The coach’s job is to teach the players, correct them and to tell them the things they need to do differently,” Beurket said. “We’re not really in that position and I think we do a pretty good job of trying to be positive with the players, motivate them and be the cheerleaders of the group.”
Nine games into the season, redshirt junior quarterback Derrius Vick says the Bobcats are all on the same page and it’s a simple process at this point.
“A lot of our signals kind of look the same, so if you just assume, then yeah you have some trouble,” Vick said. “But at this point in the season, you kind of already know what plays we’re about to run, so once you see it you just go with it.”
@Alex_Busch91
ab109410@ohio.edu
A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled the last name of one of the Ohio football team’s special assistants. His last name is spelled *Beurket*
