How Football Analytics Rejuvenated the University of Louisiana's Training Regimen
Author: Dave Grendzynski
Coach Connor Neighbors, the University of Louisiana’s Director of Athletic Performance for Football, offers insights into how the “Ragin’ Cajuns” are using American football analytics, and transforming their training approach.
Before becoming a coach at Louisiana, Neighbors played at LSU from 2010 – 2014 and had his professional career with the Tennessee Titans cut short by an injury. That’s part of the reason he is trying to learn all that he can about using sports analytics for his players. But he wanted to find the perfect partner.
“KINEXON has been a revelation for us,” Neighbors begins. “It’s not just about the unique tech capabilities they offer; it’s the relationships we’ve built and the unwavering support they provide. When they promise round-the-clock assistance, they deliver.”
Neighbors felt they would need help establishing their process and figuring out which analytics made the most sense for a football team to track.
It Starts With Baseline Testing
The University began its journey with KINEXON during spring practice. “Our initial objective was baseline testing for all our athletes,” Neighbors explains. “This might sound simple, but considering we were integrating 85 units, 55 more than before, it required meticulous planning. Our challenge was ensuring this technology was not only integrated smoothly but also presented in a way that our coaches could easily understand.”
We’re making it easier than ever to add football analytics to your program by offering our newest solution for football, PERFORM GPS Pro. You’ll get player tracking with unrivaled live data at unmatched speeds.
“KINEXON has this fantastic feature where it adapts to our players. If an athlete clocks in a new max speed, the system updates past records, allowing us to gauge various parameters like their high-speed distances and accelerations.”
Keeping it Simple with a Fantastic Feature
The integration process turned out to be smoother than anticipated. “KINEXON has this fantastic feature where it adapts to our players. If an athlete clocks in a new max speed, the system updates past records, allowing us to gauge various parameters like their high-speed distances and accelerations.
To keep things efficient, we’ve adopted the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) approach. We translate the data into straightforward terms for our coaches, ensuring they get the core insights without jargon.”
The Metrics Louisiana Utilizes
“KINEXON’s tech has bridged a previous gap for us – now we can collect data both indoors and outdoors, ensuring continuity in our analyses.”
So, how does this data impact their training routine? Neighbors elaborates, “We gathered insights from our spring practices, which informed our summer training plans. Now, during the fall camp, we’re witnessing the real-time effects of our data-driven training. Factors like practice duration and physical contact are pivotal in determining a player’s fatigue level. Whether it’s force development, speed changes, or sharp maneuvers, the data from KINEXON has been spot-on.”
But what exactly does Neighbors and his team monitor? “Our daily metrics include cumulative accelerated load, mechanical intensity, physical load, and high-speed distances. Interestingly, we’ve added our own categories, like tracking anything above 70% of a player’s max velocity. KINEXON’s tech has bridged a previous gap for us – now we can collect data both indoors and outdoors, ensuring continuity in our analyses.”
Peeling back the curtain a bit more, Neighbors reveals some unique aspects of football training. “Football is a game of starts and stops. It has roughly a 2:1 ratio of accelerations to decelerations, with significant breaks in between plays. So, not every movement demands an instant stop, which we factor into our training regimes.”
Data Reveals Sub-Optimal Exercise Plan
He then delves into a particular instance, shedding light on the profound impact of KINEXON’s data. “In July, we initiated max velocity training on Mondays. Despite initial hesitations, the results were promising. But by the week’s end, fatigue was evident among the players. Analyzing the data, we adjusted our approach the next week, focusing more on acceleration work. The reason? Our athletes were already hitting high velocities during other training days. This data-driven shift ensured we didn’t overburden our players.”
We Now Get the Info Both Inside and Out—Which We Lacked in the Past
“KINEXON isn’t just a tool; it’s our ally. It helps us discern the line between ‘what we want to do’ versus ‘what we need to do’. In a sport as demanding as football, such clarity is invaluable.”
In wrapping up, Neighbors encapsulates the transformative power of data in sports. “KINEXON isn’t just a tool; it’s our ally. It helps us discern the line between ‘what we want to do’ versus ‘what we need to do’. In a sport as demanding as football, such clarity is invaluable.”
He continues, “I must admit, our team’s readiness this season surpasses any previous year. And the credit goes to KINEXON. Their tech allows us to be objective, focusing solely on the data, which has made our training programs more effective.”
Coach Neighbors says the University of Louisiana uses KINEXON’s LPS and GPS systems. “It’s been a blessing because we can get (the information) both inside and outside with the LPS and GPS systems, which is something that we lacked in the past. So, we go inside and outside at least four times every practice in camp. And then when the season starts, we actually practice inside every day.”
As football continues to evolve, partnerships like the one between the University of Louisiana and KINEXON illustrate a future where data and sports technology seamlessly blend with athleticism and strategy.
If you’d like to watch the full interview that we recorded with Coach Neighbors… click here. You can also contact us at any time to learn about our player tracking systems for American football, or check out our guide for coaches on how to balance load management via the link below.
More stories
Unlocking a New Era in Sports Performance: What’s Ahead from KINEXON Sports in 2025
In elite team sports, performance is often decided by the smallest details – how efficiently an athlete sprints, how they handle fatigue, and how well a team manages training loads throughout the season. Coaches and performance staff need more than just numbers – they need meaningful insights, in real time, to make the right calls when it matters.
KINEXON Sports App Guide: Phase Index Widget
The Phase Index Widget is a powerful new feature in the KINEXON SportsApp that provides coaches with deep insights into training drills. By displaying the normative range of key performance metrics for different drill types, it helps coaches understand typical versus high-end workload demands, compare phases across single sessions (POST) and historical data (DEVELOP), and design training sessions that optimize player development while preventing overtraining.
Revolutionizing Youth Football: Red Bull Wings Cup Meets KINEXON Sports
What if youth football wasn’t just about the score — but about the players who shape the game? That’s the bold vision behind Wings Cup 2025, hosted by RB Leipzig, and why KINEXON Sports proudly partnered with this first-of-its-kind event. From April 22 – 24, 2025, the tournament became the world’s first global youth football competition to feature live player and ball tracking — marking a new era in data-driven player development.
Optimizing Offseason Training: How the Ragin’ Cajuns Prep for the Football Season
The Ragin’ Cajuns football performance staff enters the heart of the offseason following spring camp, facing player performance and conditioning challenges common to other American Football programs nationwide. Their approach: optimized practice schedules designed to help players reach performance goals, backed by data.
Trust, Autonomy, and the Art of Performance Management in the WNBA
In the high-performance landscape of professional basketball, the pursuit of championships is a given. Yet, true impact often stems from a deeper purpose — one that prioritizes sustained athlete development, both physically and mentally. This perspective underscores a broader definition of success: positively influencing performance on a day-to-day basis, beyond wins and losses.
From Court to Code: The Analytics Behind Athletic Success
In the high-stakes world of competitive basketball, small margins make the difference between winning and losing. This is where optimization becomes the cornerstone of athletic performance. The focus is not just on finding a magic formula, but on creating the conditions for athletes to consistently operate at their best.
Increasing Shooting Efficiency With Data-Informed Insights
As basketball training evolves, teams are embracing data-informed insights to augment shooting efficiency. With every shot carrying potential season-changing weight in competition, refining practice intensity and replicating in-game pressure are key to gaining a competitive edge.
Maximizing Performance During March Madness: Key Strategies & Load Metrics for Coaches
March Madness is one of the most intense and physically demanding periods in collegiate basketball. The congested schedule, high-pressure stakes, and minimal time for recovery require an evidence-based approach to reach and maintain peak performance while mitigating injury risk throughout the tournament.
Optimizing Performance and Reducing Injuries in Professional Basketball
The landscape of professional basketball is evolving rapidly, with teams placing a greater emphasis on performance optimization and injury prevention. In a highly competitive environment like the EuroLeague, where the ultimate goal is to win games and championships, maintaining peak player performance while minimizing injuries is a fundamental challenge.
The Perfect Training Week: How KINEXON Sports Supports Smarter Coaching Decisions
Every coach knows the feeling – standing on the sidelines before a game, confident that the team is fully prepared. The training week went well, the players were engaged, and everything felt right. And when the final whistle confirms the win, the inevitable question arises:
What made this week so effective? How can we replicate it?
How Texas A&M Women’s Basketball Used Data to Prevent Knee Injuries
Knee injuries are a major concern in women’s basketball, with ACL injuries accounting for a significant portion of these issues. Managing player workload is key to injury prevention, but achieving the right balance between training and recovery is challenging. The Texas A&M Women’s Basketball team faced this dilemma and turned to a data-driven approach to optimize player health and performance.
KINEXON Tracking Technologies Earn Top Marks in FIFA EPTS Performance Tests
When it comes to tracking technology in sports, precision is everything. And once again, KINEXON has proven why it’s a leader in the field. Our cutting-edge KINEXON PERFORM GPS Elite, GPS Pro, and LPS tracking systems recently underwent FIFA’s 2024 Electronic Performance and Tracking System (EPTS) performance tests — and the results were nothing short of outstanding.
Transforming Sports in 2025: Insights from KINEXON Sports for Coaches, Fans, and Referees
As sports technology evolves, 2025 promises to be a landmark year with KINEXON Sports at the forefront. Renowned for its innovations in real-time tracking and analytics, KINEXON Sports is revolutionizing the way athletes, coaches, fans, and referees experience the game.
From delivering game-changing insights to enhancing fan engagement and officiating precision, here’s what to expect from KINEXON Sports in 2025.
How Jump Count Analytics Drive Arizona State Volleyball’s Training and Match Success
Adjusting practice schedules is a fine line for coaches to walk to maximize player performance. Arizona State’s Jake Garrity, the Assistant Head Coach of Sports Performance/Sports Science for women’s volleyball, focuses on live jump count performance analytics to lay the foundation for when the coaching staff adjusts practice intensity.
5 Facts That (Probably) Nobody Knew About KINEXON Sports Teams
Ten years ago, KINEXON Sports embarked on a journey to revolutionize the game. What began as a bold idea in Munich’s iconic Allianz Arena has evolved into a global success story, empowering over 500 elite sports teams worldwide.
As we reflect on this incredible decade, here are five surprising facts about KINEXON Sports that showcase how far we’ve come — and where we’re headed next.