In his first months as Notre Dame's head coach, Brian Kelly has introduced the XOS PlayAction Simulator as a virtual training tool.

Whereas in the past this image may have been construed as the idle passing of free time, now there is some value behind the activity.

Since Brian Kelly was introduced as the Irish head coach last December, Notre Dame has incorporated the use of the XOS PlayAction Simulator, a product from XOS Digital, Inc. that combines the look and feel of EA Sports’ Madden and NCAA Football franchises with technology that the company has developed as a virtual training tool.

Albert Tsai, Vice President of Advanced Research and Development at XOS Digital has seen the number of programs using the product grow in recent years. After having six Division-I teams use the XOS PlayAction Simulator in the first two years of the project, there are five more installations scheduled for the upcoming season.

Kelly, who was one of the first coaches to use the software at Cincinnati, has now brought the system to the Irish program.

“Look at Coach Kelly,” Tsai said. “One of the first things he did when he went from Cincinnati to Notre Dame was make sure that they got the simulator in house.”

Notre Dame officials did not return requests for comment.

At first glance, the simulator resembles any other football video game. The players use controllers, watch the action on a screen and make decisions based on the actions of the computer’s artificial intelligence.

“From the players' perspective, it’s just like the game they would play, Madden or NCAA,” Tsai said. “We actually use the same underlying engine from EA Sports. What we’ve done differently is made it PC-based so they can integrate with our technologies a little more cleanly. In terms of using a controller, the way you select plays and the way you actually run the game for the simulator, it’s virtually identical to what they’ve grown up with. That was on purpose. So the learning curve from the players is almost zero.”

The first difference comes in that the developers at EA Sports do not craft the digital playbook that an athlete would use in the XOS PlayAction Simulator. Instead, Coach Kelly’s offensive and defensive systems are installed, giving the Irish players an actual look at the team’s playbook in a virtual environment.

“They can pick it up and load up the set of plays the coach wants them to run and from that point on, it’s almost like you’re playing a game, except you’re playing over real content, scripted opponents and things like that,” Tsai said.

However, there are some modifications that the developers at XOS Digital have implemented to make the game simulations more authentic than the commercial EA Sports versions.

The software’s value comes in the decision-making process of executing plays.

XOS Digital has a partnership with EA Sports to minimize the learning curve when using the simulator.

“We go so far as to give coaches, when they’re scripting the session, to specify who can and cannot catch a ball,” Tsai said. “For example, on a given play against a certain defense, if my read is to the X receiver, and I throw to the Z, we can actually force an incompletion, interception or whatever, to ensure that wrong receiver doesn’t get the ball. That’s just another mechanism to provide feedback for the player.”

In fact, in an effort to make the XOS PlayAction Simulator as real as possible, a coaching staff can adapt the personnel in the simulator to their actual jersey numbers, height and even skin color. Otherwise, a coaching staff can order the product with generic player appearances, but still use the team’s playbook if the program wants to keep the simulator simple.

In any case, a coach’s role in the use of the technology is paramount. Some staffs have used the XOS PlayAction Simulator in cross-country plane flights as training sessions taking place during normally inactive occasions.

In 2007 under then-head coach Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee installed the system in offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe’s office so that he could be present when a player was using the simulator.

“The coach’s role is obviously critical,” Tsai said. “Because it’s the coach that actually scripts and provides the training content to the player, much like coaches sit down as a staff and they figure out what they want to run and gameplan for an opponent, and they’ll script practice everyday to achieve some kind of learning for that portion of the gameplan.

“We have tools that integrate with our video editing systems and all the tools that the Notre Dame staff is already using. You take those plays and turn them into things that they can run in the simulator for a player.”

While he was with the Bearcats, Kelly would also use the PlayAction Simulator to present a test for his players in Friday’s routine preparation for an upcoming opponent.

“At Cincinnati with Coach Kelly, they kind of did a mixture,” Tsai said. “Early in the week, as the gameplan is being formulated, they would need to give each quarterback the session of the plays that they would be running for an upcoming opponent, scripted against the defenses that they would see.

“It’s up to the players to take that information and familiarize themselves with it because on Friday, the night before the game when they’re in the hotel, they would actually kind of have a test or an interactive session with the coaches to make sure that they had picked up what they needed both from the field and the simulator and make sure they were game ready for Saturday.”

With any coaching change, one of the main obstacles comes in the implementation of the new playbook.

Now, as Kelly looks to install his schemes as seamlessly as he can into the Irish locker room, the PlayAction Simulator will have an additional benefit throughout the spring and fall camp.

“The one thing that it’s going to do is accelerate that initial learning curve when a football player has to learn a new system,” Tsai said. “Even at a place where a staff has been in place for a long time, transfers or incoming freshman can have difficulty picking up the terminology and understanding the basic concepts of the scheme. Where historically, it’s been kind of paper X’s and O’s and you had to watch a lot of video, now you have something like the simulator. You’re able to interactively show them the formations, the personnel, the basic route concepts against a generic defense just like you would have in a playbook, so it gives them a more interactive way to pick up that material.”

Once the season gets underway in the fall, Tsai believes that the PlayAction Simulator also offers backup players a unique opportunity to experience a digital lesson that has similar effects to practice reps.

Since only a limited amount of time can be spent on second-string players, many times backups fall behind in the grasping of a playbook. Then, when an injury or external circumstance forces a reserve into action, there is often a period of initial confusion.

The process of decision-making through the virtual simulator, Tsai believes, is one of the quickest ways to get an unseasoned player some experience.

Although it resembles a video game, the PlayAction Simulator is helping athletes gain experience without using valuable practice reps.

“The main benefit there is, your starting quarterback, he’s going to get most of the reps on the practice field,” Tsai said. “But your second-stringers and the younger guys, that can just sit and observe and watch film, they’ve got a way now, where they can train and go through that decision-making process in a virtual environment.”

In fact, Tsai believes that the PlayAction Simulator was one of the reasons for Zach Collaros’ success when Bearcat starter Tony Pike missed three full games and the majority of a fourth in 2009's Big East Championship run under Coach Kelly.

“I think that was a big part of Cincinnati’s success last year,” he said. “Because when Pike came down, Zach went in and it looked like they didn’t miss a beat. I think a significant part of that is due to being fully engaged in the simulation process the whole length of the season.”

The first versions of the XOS PlayAction Simulator were quarterback-specific, but Tsai said that the company has now expanded the software to all positions and phases of the game, including special teams. However, the best results, according to Tsai, come at positions in which there is more pre-snap reading or decision-making seconds into the play.

Additionally, the XOS Digital developers are constantly working with the coaching staffs and using their feedback to alter minor changes to improve the simulator’s efficiency.

Sometimes, these updates come on a week-to-week basis.

There is no doubt that the sport of football has drastically evolved.

Helmet technology is making the game safer.

More emphasis is being placed on film study.

And now, players are using video games to prepare for their opponents.

Although it may seem unorthodox and a little implausible for a simulation to effectively prepare an athlete for competition, the growing trend and player response indicates otherwise.