Okay, here’s my blog post about the Kentucky vs. Georgia 2023 game, written from a personal perspective, just like you asked:
Alright, so I’ve been wanting to really get into tracking college football stats, like, really get into it. So, I picked the Kentucky vs. Georgia game in 2023 as my starting point. I figured, big teams, lots of action, should be a good test, right?
First thing I did was, you know, actually watch the game! I mean, duh. Gotta see what’s happening to record it, I grabbed a beer. It was intense!
Then, I started trying to jot down every play. I started with a simple notepad, pen and paper, old school. I quickly realized that was a terrible, I mean terrible, idea. Things happen way too fast. I was missing stuff left and right, fumbling with the pen, my notes were a big scribble.
Next step, upgrade the tools. I switched to my laptop. Much better! I opened up a plain text document and started typing like a madman. Still tough, though. I was trying to keep up with the play-by-play, the yardage, who made the tackle, penalties…man, it was a lot. I used different ways to * to make notes easier to read.
- player’s number
- simple description of the play
- resulting yardage
I felt like I needed to be five people at once. It made me have whole nother to those sports statisticians. It’s way harder than it looks!
After a while, I realized that it’s not just,what’s happening on the field. The commentators, the crowd, the atmosphere…it all kind of adds to the story, I also record the commentators words.
By the end of the game, my text document was a MESS. It was long, it was rambling, it was full of typos and half-finished thoughts. But…it was something. I had a record, however imperfect, of the entire game, start to finish. But I was really exhausted. I also realized that the game result that is important. Go Dawgs!
Georgia won the game by a large margin!
So, what did I learn? Couple of things. One, tracking sports stats is HARD. Two, I definitely need a better system. Maybe some kind of spreadsheet or database would be smarter. Three, I have a newfound respect for anyone who does this for a living. It takes serious focus and *, I will improve myself to make better in next time.
