It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Super...wait, no, just another drone hovering above a college football practice field. Those attending UCLA's fall camp have noticed a new toy in the sky above Jim Mora's drills: A flying camera recording the proceedings:
For those of you curious about UCLA's practice drone, here's a closer photo. pic.twitter.com/puWdBC9uEw
— Ryan Kartje (@Ryan_Kartje) August 14, 2013
The Bruins are not the first school to bust out the aerial devices in advance of the 2013 season. Here is North Carolina touting their new remote-control camera earlier this month:
Our new drone camera (upper right) watching the Tar Heels on day one #UNCFB #GoHeels pic.twitter.com/VVwechmzHJ — Carolina Football (@TarHeelFootball) August 1, 2013
And Tennessee was on top of things during spring practice, showcasing this back in April (using Vine for even more extra credit):
The drone getting warmed up. https://t.co/13hpE7PG4Q
— Evan Woodbery (@TennesseeBeat) April 18, 2013
When you consider the technological arms race happening in college football, it's surprising more schools haven't adopted drone-mounted cameras to record their practices and give coaches new angles to work with in the film room. They're relatively cheap (for major college football programs, that is), safe and easy to fly, although you do have to take into account the urge of many Americans to shoot them out of the sky. (Seriously, some areas might start offering drone hunting licenses.) Adventure filmmakers have been using them for action shots in adverse conditions, so why not bust them out for a different angle of your alma mater's play-action pass during practice?
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