How are College Sports Teams Leveraging Analytics? (Matthew Edwards) - KNN Ep. 37

This week I had the chance to speak with Matthew Edwards. Matthew is the Director of Football Analytics at the University of Virginia (A school that I happen to be an alumni of). Football and math have always been a huge part of his life. While at BYU, he majored in Math and has a master's degree in Public Administration. He also played Tight End on the football team there from 2008-2011. After a few years coaching, he transitioned to Analytics in his current role with UVA. He started the Master's of Data Science degree at UVA this semester, and is excited to learn more about Data Science. He is married to MaryBeth Edwards, and has two boys: Luke and Shea who are already starting to get interested in college football, or at least the team mascots. In this interview we learn how Matt made his way into analytics from the player and coaching route. We talk at length about how someone can break into sports analytics as a career, and we also touch on why he decided to go back for his masters in data science at UVA. I hope you enjoy!