A Lot Of Questions Remain As Spring Ball Winds Down In The SEC
Okay, I’ll confess. I haven’t been to a college football spring game for quite a while.
The fact is that you don’t learn a lot from a spring game and that, of course, is by design.
The coaches know that their opponents are watching for any little nugget of information that could help in the fall. So the offense and defense stay pretty vanilla.
The coaches don’t want to make any big decisions concerning personnel, especially at quarterback, because for those who don’t like their position on the depth chart, the transfer portal is waiting just around the corner.
And most of all, the coaches do not want to get ANYBODY hurt on what is, for most, the last day of Spring practice. Accordingly, the stars will play little or not at all with the explanation being “We know what he can do.”
In fact, I’ll make this prediction: As time goes on in the age of the transfer portal we’ll see fewer and fewer spring games and more open practices with scrimmages so as not to waste one precious practice days.
Now having said all that, with seven SEC spring games set for this Easter weekend, there are few things to be curious about:
Alabama: It’s all about the receivers, Michael Casagrande of AL.com reminds us that the Crimson Tide has lost 74 percent of its receptions and 76 percent of its receiving yards. Alabama has a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback (Bryce Young) returning but he can’t throw it AND catch it. And gone are two first-round receivers in Jameson Williams and John Metchie. Jermaine Burton transferred in from Georgia because he wanted to be the featured receiver in this offense. So who else steps up?
Arkansas: The Hogs announced in February that they would not have their traditional Red-White game at the end of spring practice. Instead Sam Pittman’s team will have their only open practice of the Spring on Saturday. Still there is a lot of excitement around the program because quarterback K.J. Jefferson returns after completing almost 68 percent of his passes last season. The question is who becomes the go-to receiver now that Treylon Burks (1,104 yards receiving in 2021) is headed to the NFL?
Florida: The Gators moved their Orange and White game to Thursday night so that it could be live streamed on ESPN+ and various other platforms. And the vast majority of estimated 45,000 fans at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium came to see one thing: Quarterback Anthony Richardson running the offense of new head coach Billy Napier.
They were not disappointed.
Because of his obvious physical gifts, fans have been clamoring for Richardson for a while now. With Emory Jones having departed Gainesville the Gator Nation is going to get Richardson.
Georgia: If the weather holds (and right now it doesn’t look good), Georgia is expecting a huge crowd at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium as the defending national champions wrap up Spring practice. But Coach Kirby Smart made it clear to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Saturday is about looking forward, not celebrating what last season’s team accomplished.
Quarterback Stetson Bennett IV returns after winning MVP honors in both the CFP semifinals and national championship game. But there is a lot of talent in Georgia’s quarterback room. How much and how well will five-star Brock Vandagriff and four-star Carson Beck play? Will incoming freshmen Gunner Stockton, another five-star recruit, get a look? And if they play well will the Bulldog Nation again question Bennett?
How about this? Baring injury, Stetson Bennett will be the starting quarterback on Saturday and when Georgia opens the season against Oregon in Atlanta.
Georgia fans should have learned their lesson. Don’t bet against this guy.
Mississippi State: Coach Mike Leach told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper that going into Spring practice he had three position groups that he would like to see get better: secondary, offensive line, and wide receiver. With quarterback Will Rogers, the SEC’s leading passer per game (364.5) returning, getting the wide receiver rotation a little clearer is important. A couple of transfers—Justin Mosley (Northwestern) and Justin Robinson (Georgia)-might help.
South Carolina: After posting a 7-6 record (which included wins over Florida and Auburn) in Shane Beamer’s first season as head coach, it’s a pretty good bet that Williams-Brice Stadium will be rocking Saturday night for its spring game.
The game will also mark the debut of quarterback Spencer Rattler, the transfer from Oklahoma, who was a Heisman Trophy favorite when the 2021 season started. He eventually lost the job to Jacob Williams and thus entered the transfer portal.
It is being argued that Rattler may be the most physically-gifted quarterback the Gamecocks have ever had. We’ll see.
Vanderbilt: When you’re coming off a 2-10 season, which Vanderbilt is, growth is defined in baby steps. But the reporting coming out of Nashville says the Commodores are a lot more upbeat this spring than last spring, the first under Coach Clark Lea. Coming out of Spring it looks like a quarterback competition between Ken Seals, last season’s starter, and Mike Wright, who started several games when Seals was injured. Seals has been limited in spring practice due to nagging injuries. The Commodores also took a look this Spring at early enrollee AJ Swann from the state of Georgia.