Every coordinator self-scouts in the offseason. EliteEdgeFB does it between snaps: upload the play-by-play you already have, enter the situation, and see the plays your own team has actually won with, ranked. Here is how Kevin Kelley's system works, what shows up on the screen, and how to put it to work this week.
Sponsored feature · In partnership with EliteEdgeFB
The self-scout you cannot do on Friday night
Every offensive staff self-scouts. You break down your own tendencies in the offseason, chart the call sheet by down and distance in August, and hand an assistant a clipboard on game night. What no staff can do is re-run a season of play-by-play in the 25 seconds between snaps.
That is the gap EliteEdgeFB was built to close. It is football play-calling software from Kevin Kelley, the former Pulaski Academy head coach who stopped punting, kicked onside on purpose, and won nine Arkansas state championships by trusting his own numbers over conventional wisdom. Upload the play-by-play data you already have, enter the situation, and the app hands back a ranked short list of the plays your own team has actually won with in that spot.
For Gridiron Strategies readers the appeal is simple. This is not a new offense, a new terminology or a consultant. It is your playbook, your calls and your results, sorted so the best answer is in front of you while the play clock is moving.
What EliteEdgeFB does, in three steps
- Upload your play-by-play. A tagged Hudl export works, and so does any spreadsheet with five columns. There is nothing new to chart and no extra body needed in the press box.
- Let it build your profile. The app learns your tendencies, your matchups and which of your plays succeed in which situations. It ranks only your own plays, using your own results, and it labels them in your own terminology.
- Enter the situation and call the game. Down, distance, field position and score go in. In a few seconds you get your most effective plays for that exact spot, each with its success rate, average yards, rep count and a confidence score. Every session exports for Monday's staff meeting.
What the screen shows on 2nd-and-6
Say it is 2nd-and-6 from your own 35 in the second quarter. EliteEdgeFB might show Inside Zone winning that situation at a 68 percent success rate with high confidence, Y-Cross at 61 percent, Power O at 59 and Stick at 55, with a note that the defense has been showing a heavy box against that look. You still make the call. You just make it knowing what your season of film knows.
Kelley designed the screen around a deliberate limit on choices. For any situation a coordinator sees three kinds of answer:
- The highest success rate among the plays your team has run there.
- The best chance at an explosive play from the same history.
- The play you put in yourself during the week for that exact moment, kept on the screen for your own read of the opponent.
"Put me and four coaches together with six choices, and we'll take a delay of game arguing over which one is best." Kevin Kelley, in the Fall 2026 issue of American Football Quarterly
Which of the three you take is coaching, and Kelley says so himself. A struggling quarterback needs the high-percentage call to rebuild confidence. A team that is rolling can afford the shot. The software's job is to make sure the best two plays your team runs in that situation are never overlooked because a coach's memory pulled up the wrong one.
Why your own plays, not the national average
Most analytics products start from what works in football generally. EliteEdgeFB refuses to. Kelley's argument is that offensive identity varies so much from program to program that national success rates rarely transfer, and that a generic call still has to be translated into your own language before anyone can run it, which is one more place to make a mistake.
The other reason is honesty. Coaches think they know how good they are at certain things. Then the app comes back with a play you did not expect, you check the numbers after the game, and you find out your memory had been promoting a play that worked once in a big moment over one that quietly gains five yards every time.
"Monday is too late to figure out you made a mistake, because sometimes those mistakes change the flow of the game and eventually the outcome." Kevin Kelley
The coach behind it
Kelley is EliteEdgeFB's head of football strategy, the one who decided which situations matter, how calls are ranked and what a coordinator needs on the screen with the clock running. His record is the argument for the approach: nine Arkansas state championships at Pulaski Academy, an offense that averaged 51.5 points and 537 yards a game, a USA Today National Coach of the Year award, and a data-first philosophy that drew ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. By his own count he calls about 5 percent of his plays by looking at the sheet, because a live game changes kids, defenses and confidence faster than any sheet can. The app is his answer to that.
He also says it took two years to make the system seamless enough that it helps a coach make better in-game decisions instead of adding one more voice to the headset. Read the full interview in American Football Quarterly's Fall 2026 issue.
Putting it to work this week
If you want to try it during the season rather than waiting for January, this is the low-friction way in:
- Export this season's play-by-play from Hudl, or build the five-column spreadsheet, and upload it. Do it once, then add each week's game afterwards.
- Read your own rankings before you read the opponent's. Pull up your most common situations, such as 2nd-and-long, 3rd-and-3 to 5 and the red zone, and compare what the app ranks first with what your call sheet has in that box. The disagreements are the whole point.
- Put your weekly play in the third slot. Whatever you drew up for this opponent goes in as your own choice, so it sits beside the data on Friday instead of competing with it.
- Decide the roles now. One coach enters the situation, one coach calls. Kelley's warning about six choices and five coaches applies to tablets too.
- Export after the game and open Monday's meeting with the situations where the call and the data disagreed. That turns second-guessing into a five-minute film conversation.
Is it allowed on a high school sideline?
EliteEdgeFB is statistical analysis of your own historical data. It uses no artificial intelligence, and that is deliberate: it was designed to be allowed in high school football. Rules on sideline technology vary by state and change from season to season, so confirm the current position with your state association before game one.
EliteEdgeFB is an independent product. It imports data you export from Hudl but is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Hudl.
See your own plays ranked by situation
Upload a season of play-by-play, enter a down and distance, and see what your film already knows. Built by Kevin Kelley for the coaches who call the game.
Get Started with EliteEdgeFB →
Want the full overview first? Read the EliteEdgeFB page on AFM Videos.
Frequently asked questions
What is EliteEdgeFB?
EliteEdgeFB is football play-calling software built by Kevin Kelley. It analyzes your own team's play-by-play data and returns situation-based play recommendations, ranked by success rate with a confidence score, for use on the sideline between snaps.
What data do I need to upload?
A tagged play-by-play export from Hudl, or any spreadsheet with five columns of play data. There is nothing new to chart; the app works from the history your program already keeps.
Does it only work with Hudl?
No. A Hudl export is the fastest route, but a spreadsheet with the same five columns works too. EliteEdgeFB is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hudl; it simply imports data you export from it.
Is EliteEdgeFB legal in high school football?
It was designed to be. EliteEdgeFB uses statistical analysis of your own historical data with no AI assistance. Sideline-technology rules differ by state association, so confirm the current rules where you coach.
Does it replace my offensive coordinator or my call sheet?
No. It is a decision-support tool. Your coordinator still makes every call and can keep his own weekly play on the screen beside the data. The call sheet stays; the app makes sure the best plays on it are never overlooked in the moment.
How is this different from a self-scout report?
A self-scout tells you your tendencies after the fact. EliteEdgeFB answers a specific situation in a few seconds during the game, with your own plays ranked for that down, distance, field position and score, and it exports the session for Monday.
How do I get started?
Go to app.eliteedgefb.com, upload your play-by-play and enter your first situation. The full product overview is on AFM Videos.
EliteEdgeFB is presented in partnership with American Football Monthly and AFM Videos.