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About Louisiana State University Football

The LSU Tigers football program represents Louisiana State University in college football. The Tigers compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). LSU ranks 11th best in winning percentage in NCAA Division I FBS history and claims four National Championships (1958, 2003, 2007, and 2019), 16 conference championships, and 39 consensus All-Americans. Scott Kuehn is LSU football’s Manager of Applied Sport Science. 

"[Smartabase] has allowed us to spend more time on relationships, and we’re making sure that we build out this sport science ecosystem the right way, so everything is digestible for all the stakeholders and departments. The biggest benefit is that everyone has the ability to come into a system like this and get out of it exactly what they need relative to their role because it’s so customizable.”
Scott Kuehn
Manager of Applied Sport Science

Key Takeaways

Opportunity

The Opportunity

LSU football saw the potential to bring together performance, wellness, and availability information in a unified athlete management system (AMS). Doing so could help the team fulfill its ultimate mission of graduating champions via a “process over outcome” approach to maximize player availability and preparedness. Centralizing player information and presenting it in an easily understandable way also supports decision-making processes by key stakeholders throughout the organization to better quantify the KPIs underpinning the ultimate mission.

The challenge

The Challenge

LSU football had a lot of disparate data streams coming from various devices and systems and each had their own proprietary interface, making it difficult to look at the big picture of player performance and wellness.  Manually processing this data in Excel spreadsheets was time-consuming and delayed the availability of this information, making it less actionable. To successfully engage coaches and athletes, the sport science team needed a way to create personalized, easy-to-digest, visual representations of the data.

Solution 1

The Solution

LSU football is using Smartabase to proactively manage players’ load via GPS and performance assessments conducted via force plates, speed gates, and strength and imbalance testing systems. Wellness surveys enable the sport science team to monitor physical and mental wellbeing, while smart scales provide simple, tailored hydration recommendations. Dashboards improve accountability and engagement with current players and recruits and empower coaches to optimize practice planning.

Impact

The Impact

During camp, LSU football reduced its rate of season-ending and serious injuries by 80 to 90 percent. The team has seen performance improvements in speed and velocity, driven by greater player engagement in the training process. Athletes have also taken greater responsibility for their nutrition, hydration, sleep, and other aspects of wellness. Data visualization is enabling coaches and staff to make quicker and more informed decisions, while automated data processing gives the sport science team more time for relationship building.

Next Up

University of Oregon

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