Back of the Net! Exploring Dream Careers in Sports Analytics

Students who attended the career-exploration event pose with Scott Cohen '91 (center) and Emily Marshall, associate professor of economics and data analytics (front, far left). Photo by Dan Loh.

Students who attended the career-exploration event pose with Scott Cohen '91 (center) and Emily Marshall, associate professor of economics and data analytics (front, far left). Photo by Dan Loh.

Ravens’ Scott Cohen ’91 returns to campus for career event

By MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

Student-athletes and sports fans turned out to learn about the skills and talents it takes to forge a dream career in sports analytics. The lunchtime career session, held Friday, April 21, featured an introduction to the field and an opportunity to connect with the Baltimore Ravens’ Scott Cohen ’91, a trailblazer in sports analytics, and with two members of his team.

Career on the move

An economics major and football player at Dickinson, Cohen was ahead of the curve from his first year on campus, when took a computing class—a much less common offering in those days. The summer after sophomore year, he scored an internship with the Washington Redskins (now the Washington Commanders) and went on to launch a 23-year career in scouting, including as assistant general manager of the New York Jets and as senior personnel advisor to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Sensing a prime opportunity to combine his interests and knowledge in new ways, he dived into sports analytics—an area that had long been flourishing in baseball but was then in its infancy at the NFL. Since stepping in as director of football research for the Ravens in 2019, he’s seen tremendous growth in both the data-analytics field and of data analysis within the NFL. Working for the Ravens, Cohen’s team filters through a wealth of information, analyzes the data, selects the most pertinent information and presents it to coaches through weekly reports that are relevant, timely and clear. The team’s analyses help coaches develop optimal plans, recruit optimal players, size up opposing teams and more.

Cohen has also been very involved at his alma mater over the years, a founder of the Athletics Alumni Association who occasionally returns to campus to speak with students and participate in athletics events.

A close-up view

In addition to delivering an overview of opportunities in the field, Cohen introduced the audience to two young members of his team. David Saunders, a data engineer who studied software development in college, manages the coaching database, pulling information from various sources, inputting it and using SQL, Python and R to automate processes and create play diagrams.

“It’s cool to see what you can do with a large amount of data,” said Randy Shephard ’24, a basketball player and international business & management major. “I was especially interested in what he was saying about pivot tables, because I’m learning about that now in class.”

Opportunities to connect with alumni in fields of interest are a hallmark of the Dickinson experience. Photo by Dan Loh.

Opportunities to connect with alumni in fields of interest are a hallmark of the Dickinson experience. Photo by Dan Loh.

As a coaching research fellow with the Ravens, Brendan Clark cross-references empirical data with film clips, keeping an eye out for trends that may have been missed. By summarizing the stats for different situations and connecting stats with the associated film, he provides coaches with a well-rounded picture that’s easy to understand.

Keon Eady ’24 is an IB&M major with an economics minor and plays on the football team. During the presentation, he asked the pros to speak about how those in the sports analytics field plan to implement emerging technologies in their work. After the talk, he said it was helpful to learn about career options for students with his interests, beyond more traditional roles.

Ben Stoopack ’23, also studying IB&M and econ, plans to apply what he learned during a postgraduation career with the Mets. “It was great to hear from Scott about how he’s succeeded and stayed in the field for as long as he has,” Stoopack said.

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Published May 8, 2023