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Yuma is a franchise that has been spinning their tires in a pit of mediocrity, moving a lot of earth, but not producing much in the way of forward momentum. The owners know that, the GM knows it, and the fans certainly know it. It has been over 30 years since the Aces last won a bowl.
Enter Maximilian Gould, a 23 year old Arizona native and mathematical genius responsible for changing the way the universe is understood with his comprehensive revisions to the work of great minds like Hawking, Einstein and Faraday. His revised theory of relativity is being touted as the key to colonizing deep space, one of the most urgent goals of mankind in this era of extreme global weather fluctuations and ever more violent natural disasters. You may ask yourself what a mind of his caliber is doing getting involved with something as terrestrial and primitive as the game of football. Turns out Gould also has something of an affinity for it, and he got in touch with the Aces management (his favorite team) this spring about ways to improve their offensive output by analyzing what works and how often.
The Aces coaching staff has been working with Gould over the summer to develop an entirely new offense that re imagines the way a team can move the football. Some might immediately think this means radical ideas and crazy concepts, but the word out of camp is that the offense now relies on a new theory of avoiding predictability and maximizing the chance of catching an opponent off guard by strategically choosing when and how to try different concepts. The goal is to make the most out of every play by combining the talent on the roster with the element of surprise to gain the greatest advantage possible on a given play. In week one, the team will be unveiling the new scheme, which has been a top secret undertaking at the Aces facilities.
We sat down with Gould briefly to discuss a few aspects of this collaboration
and to explore why a young man with such a valuable brain is spending time on something that seems so trivial in comparison to all of his other work in the fields of physics and mathematics.
ACES QUARTERLY: So what is it about football and the Aces in particular that led you to approach the team about a partnership?
Gould: I have been an Aces fan since I was a little tyke and my father introduced me to the game of football as a thinking mans game.. A game of strategic conquest not unlike war or chess, two of my other favorite games if you will. I was fascinated from then on, and as I became more and more invested in studying physics and various maths, I took note of a correlation between the strategy of football and the analysis of data that became more and more apparent as I grew older. The more I learned, the more obvious the connection seemed.
ACES QUARTERLY: And you thought you might use that connection to try and help improve the Aces offense?
Gould: Well, there are plans in the works to take a look at the defensive side of things too, but that is for another discussion. To answer your question, however, yes. I have been an Aces fan since I learned to like football. They were the home town team and I tend to be quite loyal. I felt somewhat awkward approaching the team management about this idea, but it turns out GM Julio Riddols is a bit of a fan of my work and he was excited to see what I had to say. We sat down to a dinner in February, and by the end of the evening, the ground work was laid. We have managed to work around my schedule and it has been a fun undertaking coming up with what we did.
ACES QUARTERLY: What exactly did you guys come up with?
Gould: I am not at liberty to discuss, but I would call it something akin to streamlining. The goal was not to drastically change things, but to find the aspects that weren't working so well and find out why, then determine what kind of action to take to improve the efficiency of the offense in general.
ACES QUARTERLY: Do you think we will notice a change?
Gould: I don't believe it will be readily apparent that anything is that different, but what is going on under the hood and in the way the offense is planned is going to be new. The people on the Aces sideline will know what is happening, but it shouldn't appear much different on a given Sunday to the average fan.
We finished speaking with Gould and couldn't help but feel a little optimistic and maybe even a little bit enlightened to hear the young man speak. Time will tell if this experiment pays off on the field, but it is safe to say optimism is high in the desert.
NEXT TIME ON ACES QUARTERLY
We will recap the first half of the season and assess the difference in the new Aces compared to the past, a sit down with top WR Levon Lake, and a talk with coach Pasquarella about how he motivates his players. Thanks for reading and as always, reach for the skies, Aces fans.
Enter Maximilian Gould, a 23 year old Arizona native and mathematical genius responsible for changing the way the universe is understood with his comprehensive revisions to the work of great minds like Hawking, Einstein and Faraday. His revised theory of relativity is being touted as the key to colonizing deep space, one of the most urgent goals of mankind in this era of extreme global weather fluctuations and ever more violent natural disasters. You may ask yourself what a mind of his caliber is doing getting involved with something as terrestrial and primitive as the game of football. Turns out Gould also has something of an affinity for it, and he got in touch with the Aces management (his favorite team) this spring about ways to improve their offensive output by analyzing what works and how often.
The Aces coaching staff has been working with Gould over the summer to develop an entirely new offense that re imagines the way a team can move the football. Some might immediately think this means radical ideas and crazy concepts, but the word out of camp is that the offense now relies on a new theory of avoiding predictability and maximizing the chance of catching an opponent off guard by strategically choosing when and how to try different concepts. The goal is to make the most out of every play by combining the talent on the roster with the element of surprise to gain the greatest advantage possible on a given play. In week one, the team will be unveiling the new scheme, which has been a top secret undertaking at the Aces facilities.
We sat down with Gould briefly to discuss a few aspects of this collaboration
and to explore why a young man with such a valuable brain is spending time on something that seems so trivial in comparison to all of his other work in the fields of physics and mathematics.
ACES QUARTERLY: So what is it about football and the Aces in particular that led you to approach the team about a partnership?
Gould: I have been an Aces fan since I was a little tyke and my father introduced me to the game of football as a thinking mans game.. A game of strategic conquest not unlike war or chess, two of my other favorite games if you will. I was fascinated from then on, and as I became more and more invested in studying physics and various maths, I took note of a correlation between the strategy of football and the analysis of data that became more and more apparent as I grew older. The more I learned, the more obvious the connection seemed.
ACES QUARTERLY: And you thought you might use that connection to try and help improve the Aces offense?
Gould: Well, there are plans in the works to take a look at the defensive side of things too, but that is for another discussion. To answer your question, however, yes. I have been an Aces fan since I learned to like football. They were the home town team and I tend to be quite loyal. I felt somewhat awkward approaching the team management about this idea, but it turns out GM Julio Riddols is a bit of a fan of my work and he was excited to see what I had to say. We sat down to a dinner in February, and by the end of the evening, the ground work was laid. We have managed to work around my schedule and it has been a fun undertaking coming up with what we did.
ACES QUARTERLY: What exactly did you guys come up with?
Gould: I am not at liberty to discuss, but I would call it something akin to streamlining. The goal was not to drastically change things, but to find the aspects that weren't working so well and find out why, then determine what kind of action to take to improve the efficiency of the offense in general.
ACES QUARTERLY: Do you think we will notice a change?
Gould: I don't believe it will be readily apparent that anything is that different, but what is going on under the hood and in the way the offense is planned is going to be new. The people on the Aces sideline will know what is happening, but it shouldn't appear much different on a given Sunday to the average fan.
We finished speaking with Gould and couldn't help but feel a little optimistic and maybe even a little bit enlightened to hear the young man speak. Time will tell if this experiment pays off on the field, but it is safe to say optimism is high in the desert.
NEXT TIME ON ACES QUARTERLY
We will recap the first half of the season and assess the difference in the new Aces compared to the past, a sit down with top WR Levon Lake, and a talk with coach Pasquarella about how he motivates his players. Thanks for reading and as always, reach for the skies, Aces fans.
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