Rob Everett finds his edge over other coaches by using free technology to improve his players in a multitude of facets while also making his workflow more efficient.

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The former assistant coach in the AAF includes the use of Google Forms to evaluate where his players are at in their understanding of their roles on his football team, and he finds it to be quite effective.

Everett, who has taken 2019 off from coaching but has found himself in several advising roles, says, “[I like to] find the tools that are out there for everybody, and the Google Forms stuff is awesome because you can get a lot of information … You can upload video in GIF form, you can upload pictures [and] you can find out a lot from your players.”

Speaking with the host of USA Football’s Coach and Coordinator podcast Keith Grabowski, Everett goes on to say that the evaluation tool also disarms his players in a sense. “You’ll get a lot of honesty when they’re answering on their phone or on their computer. And you’ll get a different response, I believe, than you would face-to-face. There’s a variety of reasons for [that]. Number one is the comfortability part of it, but then there’s also [the fact that] it sort of feels anonymous whether it is or isn’t. I think you can really get some good truths there.”

Everett goes on to say that the answers from the players isn’t the only valuable information that can be pulled from the surveying platform. “You’re able to see when they’re answering these things that you send out,” says the former collegiate defensive coordinator, citing that players may be filling out the forms in the middle of the night when they should be asleep or right before a meeting.

Sending the surveys are a simple evaluation tool for the coaching staff, not necessarily a way to determine if players are capable of playing. “These were never, ‘You need to get 100 percent or you don’t play.’ That’s not the way we approached this. We connected this with achievement and productivity on the field,” says Everett. “So, if you’re a guy that isn’t doing your install Google Form but you’re achieving on the field, you have a process that works for you [and] you won’t hear anything from the coaching staff.”

However, when Everett has used the technology, it does provide an indication as to what players need to put more of an emphasis on learning an install or a certain portion of their role on the offense or defense. “This is what usually happens – if someone is not doing their work to be a part of the process and they’re not achieving on the field, this is where we say, ‘Your process isn’t working here. Let’s get ourselves [to be] a part of our process and see how it goes,’ and that usually [works].”

The benefits are there for the coaching staff and players alike. “All the Google Forms that we send out should be able to be answered in under five minutes,” says Everett. “But there’s invaluable information that can be pulled from it that’s not taxing for the player.”