Blue Devil of the Week: Keeping a Gaze on the Gridiron

John Riley makes sure Duke Football has the video it needs to continue its upward climb

John Riley
Duke Football's John Riley leads the team responsible for the Blue Devils having all of the video footage they need. Photo by Stephen Schramm.

Name: John Riley

Position: Director of Football Coaching Technology

Years at Duke: 1

What he does at Duke: Video is one of the most important tools football players and coaches use to teach techniques, design schemes and prepare for opponents. Whether he’s using a digital camera to record games or uploading video recordings to the cloud, it’s John Riley’s role to provide Duke’s players and coaches with the video footage they need and the technology to make the most of it.

Riley came to Duke after a three-season stint at North Dakota State during which the team won two Football Championship Subdivision national championships. At Duke, he leads a video team with one full-time assistant and around a dozen students who use digital video cameras to capture video from multiple angles of each Duke practice, skill development session and game, both home and away.

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He also oversees the process of transferring the footage from cameras to the cloud, where, with the help of special software programs, players and coaches can access specific plays from a variety of perspectives.

The process used to take hours, but with advances in technology, Riley said searchable footage can be ready shortly after practices and games.

Riley helps coaches use football video services that provide game footage of teams across the nation, which can help with scouting opponents and inspiring innovations in play design.

“From the coaching standpoint, there’s a big giant pot of information available,” Riley said. “There is just so much video content they can watch with gobs of information.”

John Riley spends most of a Duke Football game day atop Blue Devil Tower, recording the action from multiple angles. Photo by Stephen Schramm.

What he values about working here: Riley joined Duke in 2022 along with a new football staff, headed by coach Mike Elko. In the staff’s first season, the team won nine games – the most since 2014 – and won the Military Bowl. Elko was named the ACC Coach of the Year.

Riley said that an ingredient in the success of the Duke Football program is a quality he’s seen in many of his new Duke colleagues. He said since arriving at Duke, he’s been struck by how skilled and passionate people within Duke Athletics and around the institution are about what they do. Their shared drive toward excellence is contagious.

“It’s a well-oiled machine,” Riley said. “If you walk in the door, people entrust you to do your job. And everyone I’ve encountered here knows their job, knows their responsibilities and knows how important that is. They strive to do their job well. That makes me want to push myself and do my job exceedingly well, so that other people can rely on me, not only to do my job, but be able to help them in any way that I can.”

John Riley began his video career nearly 15 years at his alma mater, Arkansas State. Photo courtesy of John Riley.

Something people may not know about him: Riley, 37, can attest that life in college athletics can result in a winding geographic career path.

North Carolina is now the sixth state he’s called home since beginning his football video career nearly 15 years ago.

Riley was born in Arkansas, where he went to college and got his first job handling video at Arkansas State. Since then, his career has led to stops in Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa and North Dakota.

While he’s found something to love in each new destination, Riley said he’ll always have a love of his home state.

“It’s just a natural, beautiful state,” Riley said about Arkansas. “There are so many different areas and no matter what city you go to, no matter how big it is, it just feels like a small town.”

Is there a colleague at Duke who has an intriguing job or goes above and beyond to make a difference? Nominate that person for Blue Devil of the Week.