How ANSRS Is Changing Football Film Study and Game Planning for Coaches
March 10, 2026
The coaching profession is notorious for grueling hours, tedious data entry, and endless film evaluation. For decades, young coaches have paid their dues by spending countless nights in the facility breaking down practice tape. But Jon Shalala, a former coach turned software founder, is actively changing that paradigm with his revolutionary data and video management system, ANSRS.
The Early Grind
Jon Shalala’s journey into the coaching ranks began after his playing days at Grand View University. Following stints with the AFL’s Iowa Barnstormers and junior college program Arizona Western, Shalala got his big break in the SEC. The opportunity came through sheer luck and right-place-right-time timing: while he was cleaning the office and straightening picture frames in the Arizona Western football facility, a recruiting contingent from the University of Tennessee walked in. After a brief conversation, they essentially hired the 22-year-old on the spot to be a graduate assistant.
Shalala went on to work under prominent head coaches and coordinators at Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Arkansas State. It was during these roles that he recognized a fundamental flaw in the coaching development pipeline. As a young assistant, he was tasked with generating weekly scouting reports, manually tagging film, and sorting countless hours of data. Shalala noticed that many young coaches became “lifetime GAs” because they were excellent at running computers, but never actually had the time to learn how to coach players on the field.
Determined to provide value to his coordinators while also freeing up time to actually get out on the field and develop as a coach, Shalala began building complex Excel spreadsheets and scripts to automate the film breakdown process. His ability to rapidly produce data became a staff inside joke: “Just go to Shalala… he probably has the answers”.
The Mike Leach Catalyst
The turning point for Shalala came during his time at Mississippi State under the late, legendary head coach Mike Leach. When the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down spring football in 2020, Leach delivered a very direct message to his staff: if there was ever a passion project they wanted to pursue, the shutdown was the time to do it.
Shalala took Leach’s advice, retreated to his mother’s house in Houston, and began compiling all his automated scripts and spreadsheets into a unified vision. He eventually teamed up with James Waters, a brilliant engineering student at Mississippi State, to transform his messy spreadsheets into a robust software platform.
A Dynamic Game-Planning Tool
Today, ANSRS has evolved from an analyst’s secret weapon into a fully-fledged product company used by over 300 high school and college programs. The software does not replace existing video infrastructure like Catapult, Hudl, or DV Sport; rather, it supercharges them.
Instead of coaches spending hours manually tagging practice scripts, ANSRS auto-populates offensive and defensive huddle calls and immediately translates them into data points. The true power of the software lies in its dynamic filtering capabilities. In traditional film study, coaches often fall down “rabbit holes” trying to find specific play scenarios. With ANSRS, if a coach wants to see a specific formation, a customized hit chart, or every play run to the left hash on third down, they simply click a data point, and a video cutup is generated in a few seconds.
Winning on the Sidelines with ‘Adjust’
Beyond weekly game planning, ANSRS has made massive waves on Friday nights and Saturdays with its in-game product, Adjust. Running on an iPad over a local area network, coaches in the press box can instantly tag and filter plays as they happen.
Many prominent Texas high schools, like Vandegrift and Allen, utilize the system to make split-second adjustments. Instead of a mad, scrambled dash at halftime relying on handwritten notes, coaches can pull up an iPad, instantly filter the opponent’s plays and tendencies, and quickly adjust the game plan before taking the field for the third quarter.
The Future of ANSRS
Having moved the company’s headquarters to Austin, Texas, alongside partners Tim Profop and Randy Ecker, Shalala is continuing to push the envelope. The company is currently rolling out ANSRS Apex, a web-based version of the platform that allows for real-time collaborative workflows from anywhere, whether in the coaching facility or at home.
Despite the integration of high-level technology, Shalala’s core mission remains deeply rooted in his early days in the profession. “Technology is great, but can it help the coach do his job? Yes or no?” Shalala notes. By eliminating the repetitive busy work of the film room, ANSRS isn’t just saving coaches time; it is giving them the freedom to actually coach the game of football.
This content was created in partnership with ANSRS. For more information, you can visit https://ansrs.ai/.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
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The coaching profession is notorious for grueling hours, tedious data entry, and endless film evaluation. For decades, young coaches have paid their dues by spending countless nights in the facility breaking down practice tape. But Jon Shalala, a former coach turned software founder, is actively changing that paradigm with his revolutionary data and video management system, ANSRS.
The Early Grind
Jon Shalala’s journey into the coaching ranks began after his playing days at Grand View University. Following stints with the AFL’s Iowa Barnstormers and junior college program Arizona Western, Shalala got his big break in the SEC. The opportunity came through sheer luck and right-place-right-time timing: while he was cleaning the office and straightening picture frames in the Arizona Western football facility, a recruiting contingent from the University of Tennessee walked in. After a brief conversation, they essentially hired the 22-year-old on the spot to be a graduate assistant.
Shalala went on to work under prominent head coaches and coordinators at Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Arkansas State. It was during these roles that he recognized a fundamental flaw in the coaching development pipeline. As a young assistant, he was tasked with generating weekly scouting reports, manually tagging film, and sorting countless hours of data. Shalala noticed that many young coaches became “lifetime GAs” because they were excellent at running computers, but never actually had the time to learn how to coach players on the field.
Determined to provide value to his coordinators while also freeing up time to actually get out on the field and develop as a coach, Shalala began building complex Excel spreadsheets and scripts to automate the film breakdown process. His ability to rapidly produce data became a staff inside joke: “Just go to Shalala… he probably has the answers”.
The Mike Leach Catalyst
The turning point for Shalala came during his time at Mississippi State under the late, legendary head coach Mike Leach. When the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down spring football in 2020, Leach delivered a very direct message to his staff: if there was ever a passion project they wanted to pursue, the shutdown was the time to do it.
Shalala took Leach’s advice, retreated to his mother’s house in Houston, and began compiling all his automated scripts and spreadsheets into a unified vision. He eventually teamed up with James Waters, a brilliant engineering student at Mississippi State, to transform his messy spreadsheets into a robust software platform.
A Dynamic Game-Planning Tool
Today, ANSRS has evolved from an analyst’s secret weapon into a fully-fledged product company used by over 300 high school and college programs. The software does not replace existing video infrastructure like Catapult, Hudl, or DV Sport; rather, it supercharges them.
Instead of coaches spending hours manually tagging practice scripts, ANSRS auto-populates offensive and defensive huddle calls and immediately translates them into data points. The true power of the software lies in its dynamic filtering capabilities. In traditional film study, coaches often fall down “rabbit holes” trying to find specific play scenarios. With ANSRS, if a coach wants to see a specific formation, a customized hit chart, or every play run to the left hash on third down, they simply click a data point, and a video cutup is generated in a few seconds.
Winning on the Sidelines with ‘Adjust’
Beyond weekly game planning, ANSRS has made massive waves on Friday nights and Saturdays with its in-game product, Adjust. Running on an iPad over a local area network, coaches in the press box can instantly tag and filter plays as they happen.
Many prominent Texas high schools, like Vandegrift and Allen, utilize the system to make split-second adjustments. Instead of a mad, scrambled dash at halftime relying on handwritten notes, coaches can pull up an iPad, instantly filter the opponent’s plays and tendencies, and quickly adjust the game plan before taking the field for the third quarter.
The Future of ANSRS
Having moved the company’s headquarters to Austin, Texas, alongside partners Tim Profop and Randy Ecker, Shalala is continuing to push the envelope. The company is currently rolling out ANSRS Apex, a web-based version of the platform that allows for real-time collaborative workflows from anywhere, whether in the coaching facility or at home.
Despite the integration of high-level technology, Shalala’s core mission remains deeply rooted in his early days in the profession. “Technology is great, but can it help the coach do his job? Yes or no?” Shalala notes. By eliminating the repetitive busy work of the film room, ANSRS isn’t just saving coaches time; it is giving them the freedom to actually coach the game of football.
This content was created in partnership with ANSRS. For more information, you can visit https://ansrs.ai/.
For more information about the AFCA, visit www.AFCA.com. For more interesting articles, check out The Insider and subscribe to our weekly email.
If you are interested in more in-depth articles and videos, please become an AFCA member. You can find out more information about membership and specific member benefits on the AFCA Membership Overview page. If you are ready to join, please fill out the AFCA Membership Application.
