At times on the sideline last season, 47-year-old John Tillman looked like a Millennial in an elevator: face down in an iPhone. Well, in his case, a tablet.
The 2017 Maryland men’s lacrosse team’s legacy is no doubt cemented as the group of 50 that ended the program’s 42-year NCAA championship drought, the one that finally emerged victorious in the team’s fifth Memorial Day Monday appearance in Tillman’s first seven seasons leading the Terps.
But when they look back at the on-field highlights of their 9-6 championship game win over Ohio State — Matt Rambo’s diving backhand goal that gave them an 8-3 lead with 10:36 left, Dan Morris’ low save with under two minutes to go that ended a Buckeyes three-goal run, Tim Rotanz’s empty-netter from beyond the box with 59 seconds remaining to ice it and Jon Garino’s faceoff wins in between — there’s also bound to be a few clips of Maryland’s physically fit head coach tapping and scrolling on a black-encased piece of technology. He was looking at some of those same images, except almost immediately after they happened.
Yes, that was a tablet in Tillman’s hand, or tucked under his armpit, or in the back of his pants, or covered with plastic when it started to rain. Looking just like an NFL coach with a Microsoft Surface to the 30,000 fans at Gillette Stadium and more than 400,000 watching on TV.
Tillman is not the first lacrosse coach to use video capabilities, even during games. But as a head coach and figurehead of a program utilizing such technology liberally in the postseason, he may have become the game’s most visible user. The Maryland program will be considered a trailblazer of sorts, taking advantage of the broad language added to the NCAA rulebook last offseason that allows for technology to be legally used on the sideline for coaching purposes.
As part of a creative and innovative cloud-based system designed by a third-party provider called DVSport, a Pittsburgh company that provides services for teams in many sports and replay technology in college football, Tillman and the Maryland staff reviewed plays almost immediately after they occurred on the field.
“You can basically watch parts of the game,” Tillman said. “Any team could do it if they wanted to. You can’t get too caught up in watching, because you won’t watch the game, and our game is really fast. But I try to pick my spots where maybe I can catch something.”
Last April, during the first of three eventual meetings between Maryland and Ohio State, a TV camera panned to Tillman in the immediate moments after Buckeyes midfielder Johnny Pearson’s overtime goal. He was head down in the tablet.
In a timeout with about seven minutes left in the tense late moments of Maryland’s 9-8 semifinal win over Denver in the NCAA semifinals, Tillman called over Rambo, Colin Heacock and Jared Bernhardt after the Maryland offense had just failed to convert on a possession. Tillman demonstrated a pass, based on what he just watched.
Nearly every time a TV camera showed the coach during a break of the title game, he was browsing the technology before him, and showing a player something.
“I wouldn’t say I watch a million things on it,” Tillman said. “But for me, what’s helpful is [looking at] spacing. Sometimes when you’re on the field and you’re watching the far end [of the field], it’s hard to see how far guys are relative to each other. How far out was that shot? Are we spaced properly on offense? Little things like that. There’s some pros and cons to it. Sometimes the game is so fast, you just don’t have time to use it. Sometimes, it just confirms what you think.”
The language specific to technology on the sideline in the NCAA rulebook is basic; only arguing calls by using your own video is prohibited. “The use of technology on the sideline is permitted for coaching purposes. Such technology shall not be used to dispute officiating decisions,” it reads, leaving a lot of room for implementation — and innovation.
It’s hard to quantify exactly if or how Tillman’s tablet directly contributed to Maryland breaking its championship drought. But it was certainly part of the story, important enough for the coach to protect his baby from sprinkles of rain like a teenager would shield a smartphone, concerned about missing a text message from a friend.
And this from an “old guy,” in Tillman, he said, who is not the most tech-savvy, and still has a VCR and a malfunctioning microwave in his campus office. Even luddites can come around eventually in the name of winning. USL
A version of this article first appeared on Paul Rabil’s website after the 2017 final four. Check out more industry news, product and service recommendations from Paul and his team at pulse.paulrabil.com.