{"id":144276,"date":"2022-02-10T12:43:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T17:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=144276"},"modified":"2022-04-22T16:07:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T20:07:22","slug":"part-of-the-new-guard-bates-grad-sam-francis-17-puts-analytics-into-super-bowl-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2022\/02\/10\/part-of-the-new-guard-bates-grad-sam-francis-17-puts-analytics-into-super-bowl-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Part of the new guard’: Bates grad Sam Francis ’17 puts analytics into Super Bowl spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl, Sam Francis \u201917 will handle his job with the Cincinnati Bengals the way he handled faceoffs as a Bates lacrosse player: with accurate information and intense preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now just 26 years old, Francis is the head data analyst for the Bengals, who face the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Along with other assistant coaches working high above the SoFi Stadium turf, Francis will have a direct headset line to head coach Zac Taylor, helping to advise him on what the team could, or should, or might, do in any given situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early in his Bates career, Francis was asked by head coach Peter Lasagna to handle faceoffs, a highly specialized and pivotal job, sort of like being a long snapper in football, except way more important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sam Francis ’17 looks to secure another faceoff vs. Middlebury during the Bobcats’ 15-12 victory on April 8, 2017. Francis “became a metric analyst on faceoff techniques,\u201d says his coach, Peter Lasagna. (Brewster Burns for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Francis attacked the task \u201clike he attacks everything in his life [and] became a metric analyst on faceoff techniques,\u201d Lasagna told ESPN last fall. Francis went from beginner to excellent by studying the task. By senior year, The Boston Globe<\/em> was calling him the \u201cfaceoff king.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tell people I\u2019m the same as any analyst at any company, but my focus is football.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to the rise of analytics in professional sports, what books and Hollywood films like Moneyball<\/em> get right is the trust factor. Nothing happens unless a coach trusts both the information and the person giving it. And Francis clearly has Bengals head coach Zac Taylor\u2019s ear. \u201cI\u2019ve got a high degree of trust with the information [Francis] is giving me, and how he gives it to me,\u201d the Bengals head coach told ESPN last fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A major in economics and mathematics at Bates who played football and lacrosse, Sam Francis ’17 is now head data analyst for the Cincinnati Bengals, who will face the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl. (Rene Roy for Bates College) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The \u201chow\u201d is very important. When Francis and others describe the work of a data analyst, they emphasize communication skills just as much as chops with numbers and spreadsheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tell people I\u2019m the same as any analyst at any company, but my focus is football,\u201d Francis told WCPO television reporter Keenan Singleton in 2020. \u201cWe have the data available like any company does that pertain to what they do. Based on whatever question or problem we\u2019re trying to solve, I\u2019ll study that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that sense, Francis is \u201cpart of the new guard,\u201d as Pro Football Focus director of research and development George Chahrouri told ESPN. \u201cHe\u2019s pushing things forward and not afraid to make the necessary statements \u2014 not just about having an analytically savvy mind but communicating it in such a way that makes sense,” Chahrouri said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bates Names New Football Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bates recently named Matt Coyne\u00a0as the 22nd head football coach<\/a> in the program’s 127-year history.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Another member of that new guard \u2014 with whom Francis has connected with \u2014 is Michael Lopez \u201904. He went from college math professor to senior director of football data and analytics for the NFL, and is part of the wave of accurate data that is \u201ctaking over NFL strategy,\u201d according to ESPN<\/a>, like this year\u2019s trend of coaches going for a first down on fourth down rather than punting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A tweet from the NFL’s Mike Lopez ’04 about the sea change in fourth-down strategy in 2021<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 2021 NFL season set modern day records in:

4th-and-1 go for it rate (69%)
4th-and-2 go for it rate (39%)
4th-and-3 go for it rate (19%)
Two point conversion attempt rate (11%)

The revolution arrived and it was on your television<\/p>— Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) January 12, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>