Recapping This Past Weekend's (4/14) College Football Spring Games
Most spring practices will conclude with a spring game/scrimmage over the next week. There are a few games on the weekend of the 28th, but 75-80% of FBS teams will be done following this Saturday.
This past weekend’s games included Ohio State, Oklahoma, Clemson, Florida, Texas A&M, and Florida State. Michigan was supposed to play as well, but their game was canceled due to snow.
Spring practice and spring games are important for programs, but overreacting to them is a great way to get fooled. It’s always worth remembering the stats the QBs put up in Auburn’s 2010 game:
-Neil Caudle: 17-21, 199 yards, 1 TDs
-Barrett Trotter: 7-9, 154 yards, 2 TDs
-Some guy named Cam Newton: 3-8, 61 yards
Nonetheless, here are some highlights from this weekend.
Clemson:
Clemson’s QB battle will be one of the position battles to keep an eye on this fall. True freshman Trevor Lawrence will have to dethrone Kelly Bryant to start in September, but his 11-16, 122 yards, and 1 TD performance on Saturday won’t hurt. This throw by him was pretty:
Kelly Bryant went 8-15 for just 35 yards. For a team that returns, arguably, the best defense in the country, who starts at QB could make or break their season.
55,000 showed up for Clemson’s scrimmage:
Spring games are also a big recruiting weekend for programs. Clemson’s recruiting weekend was a definite win:
USA Today-The Tigers got four commits of their own, from five-star wide receiver Frank Ladson, four-star dual threat quarterback Taisun Phommachanh, and two three stars; safety Lannden Zanders and linebacker Bryton Constantin.
Oklahoma:
The Sooners are another team that will continue their QB battle into the summer, but all indications point to Kyler Murray being the starter.
Oklahoma featured one of the best moments of the day:
Oklahoma offered to pay free tuition for a student if they made a field goal in between the action. The student missed, but Lincoln Riley said he’d pay for the tuition anyways:
This was the worst attempt at kicking a field goal for tuition I’ve ever seen. Lincoln Riley still picking up the tab is nice, but incredibly soft.
Barry Switzer is still the goat in other news:
Bob Stoops has himself his own statue:
Ohio State:
SHAZIER!!!!
A common theme we’ll be hearing about all summer is QB competitions. Ohio State is one of those teams that starting QB won’t be decided until the end of summer camp. Currently, the three hashing it out are Dwayne Haskins, Joe Burrow, and Tate Martell. It is expected that Haskins will win this competition:
It’ll be interesting to see if Joe Burrow sticks it out in Columbus or decides to transfer. A team like Nebraska would love to see Burrow, a senior, on the graduate transfer market.
Florida State:
Nole Nation has themselves Willie Taggart fever:
Florida:
Temple:
Cool little concept here:
Rutgers:
Best player on Rutgers in school history?
Texas A&M:
Still some learning Jimbo’s gotta do:
Minnesota:
PJ Fleck is still a showman:
Talk about a prettttyyyyy good catch:
Until next week…..130 days until we are back.