Wearable technology could be helping Lions collect valuable data on their QBs

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- During the Nittany Lions' first day of camp, Trace McSorley went through the standard quarterback warmup, tossing footballs back and forth to the Lions' backups from his knees.

Offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead kept a watchful eye on his quarterbacks as they progressed to taking snaps and rolling out, but with each of the Lions' signal callers sporting a black compression sleeve of sorts on their throwing arm there could be more being monitored than meets the eye.

It's certainly not a fashion statement, but Penn State began experimenting with a product known as the MotusQB at various points last season during the product's debut, a product representative told DKPittsburghSports.com. This year during camp the black compression sleeve with the 3D sensor has been a staple at practices. With the product capable of measuring the quarterback's arm slot, arm speed, fingertip velocity, total throws, shoulder rotation, number of high-effort throws and the elbow valgus torque, Penn State has the option to collect a lot of valuable data on all of its quarterbacks.

"We're not sure if they're going to use it in games, but they're certainly getting very, very comfortable with it," Will Carroll, media relations director for Motus Global told DKPittsburghSports.com. "Penn State was an early adapter and we've got about 30 NCAA Division-I schools and some smaller schools that are using it now."



While it's unclear what metrics the Lions are most interested in, or how many of the measurements they're even monitoring -- and per non-disclosure agreements with the schools the company can't release any findings -- but the ability to export the data to an app that tracks the quarterback's progress during practices is an interesting idea. At a time when every team is trying to find an edge and most are pushing the envelope with sports science every little detail matters.

With a sensor the size of a match book built into the compression sleeve, data from the quarterback's throws can be transmitted immediately to an iPhone or an iPad with Bluetooth technology, allowing the coach to quickly see if tweaks made to the quarterback's throwing motion yielded a better result.