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| Friday, April 11 Spring game undergoes some changes By Bob Davie Special to ESPN.com |
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Barry Alvarez, the head coach at Wisconsin, understands as well as anyone the rewards that come with playing intrasquad spring football games. Playing in front of 25,000 fans in the spring gives players a great opportunity to gain experience and also to be evaluated in game-like conditions. It is also a tremendous reward not only for starters, but walk-ons and backups who may not get an opportunity to play in the fall. Alvarez realizes, however, that with everything there is a tradeoff and playing a spring game also involves risks. Coaches have difficult decisions to make in how they approach the spring game and last spring, Wisconsin unfortunately was a great example. Throughout the entire spring, Alvarez had Lee Evans, Wisconsin's All-American wide receiver, wear a green jersey in practice, signifying he was off limits to full contact. Just prior to the spring game, Evans approached Alvarez and the coaches begging them to allow him to take part in the game. Lee, like other great players, is competitive and just wanted to be involved. After much debate, the coaches agreed to let him play but for only for five live scrimmage plays. On the fifth snap, Evans suffered a major knee injury, which caused him to have surgery and ultimately led to him missing the entire 2002 season. Another coach who had a tough decision to make last spring was Maryland's Ralph Friedgen. Because of inexperience at the quarterback position, he chose to allow his quarterbacks to be tackled in the spring game. With young quarterbacks, he obviously wanted to see how they responded to game-like conditions. Unfortunately, Chris Kelley, who was having a great spring, went down with a knee injury in the second quarter. Alvarez and Friedgen both made sound decisions, but unfortunately, as we all know, injuries are a part of football and can happen at any time. Stories like these and reduced depth because of scholarship reductions have forced coaches to reevaluate and modify spring games. The traditional 60-minute spring football game with full contact is now almost obsolete.
Why have a spring game
Other reasons for the spring game For other schools, the reality is that they are locked into spring games whether they want to or not because the game itself has become a tradition and is important to the entire university. At a place like Penn State, for example, the spring game weekend is scheduled years in advance so that it can coincide with alumni reunions and other events on campus. Spring games at many places are used as fund raising tools with money going to different scholarships and other sources. One overlooked advantage to the spring game is that it allows fans who might not be able to obtain or afford tickets in the fall a chance to attend a game. Tickets are usually offered at a reduced rate and are readily available giving more people an opportunity to be in the stadium.
Negatives of the spring game Other negatives include:
Modifications of the spring game Coaches now have a decision to make and it depends on a lot of specific factors. Some schools have totally eliminated the spring game, while others have modified it still giving their fans an opportunity to see them compete. At Michigan, for example, Lloyd Carr has basically eliminated the spring game, but still holds an open practice allowing fans to watch the team in Michigan Stadium. They will do normal practice drills and finish with the offense going against the defense at thud speed. This means there will be no live tackling. Barry Alvarez and Wisconsin will once again hold a spring game, but it will be controlled. The first quarter will be the first offense and defense vs. the rest of the squad at thud speed. Backups will then scrimmage the remainder of the spring game. Time will be reduced with the second quarter being 12 minutes, the third quarter down to 10 minutes and the fourth quarter just eight minutes. At Maryland, Friedgen has enough numbers on his football team this spring that he will conduct a full spring game. One team will consist of the first offense and second defense while the other will the first defense and second offense. The only difference is that this year, the quarterbacks will not be subject to live tackling in the game. Another way to conduct a spring game without dividing your team is to have the offense be one team and the defense the other. This way, you only have to have one offense and one defense so you're not spreading your team too thin. We did this at Notre Dame and below is the point system to determine the winner:
Defense 1 point for forcing a punt 5 points for fumble recovered 5 points for pass interception 12 points for interception for TD 1 point for tackle behind the line of scrimmage 2 points for a sack 1 point for blocking a P.A.T. 3 point for blocking a field goal 2 points for unsuccessful 2-point play 3 points for stopping a 4th-and-one behind the 50 2 points for stopping a 4th down inside the 50
Conclusion The bottom line is regardless how much the fans want to see a full spring game, every coach has to make a decision on what is best for his team. If a spring game is held, there is one common goal for teams -- come out of it healthy so that players can start their summer conditioning programs without being forced to rehabilitate injuries. Editor's note: As architect of top defenses at Texas A&M and Notre Dame, Bob Davie is recognized as a top X's and O's coach. His Football 101 broke down offensive and defensive schemes last year on ESPN.com. This spring, this will go inside spring football each week explaining how teams use the spring to prepare for the fall. |
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