I always like this time of year in sports. Spring training has come and gone, college football has their practices and games, the NBA and NHL are gearing up for their playoffs, and the biggest thing is that hope springs eternal. Fans want to see their teams succeed every year. It doesn't matter if it's in the professional ranks or the college ranks. For my purposes, we will concentrate on the college ranks.
I'm not a guy that reads all that much into recruiting or spring games/practices. Recruiting is really a crap shoot, a gamble. You could have a stud linebacker, offensive lineman, defensive tackle, or any number of skill players coming your way and you don't know what you have until you see them perform in practice or in games. Most of the time it takes the high school player at LEAST a year to develop at the college football level. It's hard to read a player until he catches up to the speed of division one college football.
The same can be said for these spring practices and the much over hyped spring game that schools put on for their fans. Many schools have their spring practices open to the public which is a little strange to me only because any person from another school could just put a hat on and go watch their rival go through a practice and evaluate some of the talent on the field. Other schools choose to shut the public out from practice, which I understand. The media is allowed into these practices however, and come away with takes that seem familiar to me when these same people talk about a schools recruiting class. Practices are controlled drills and short scrimmages for the players. It's not exactly "flying bullets" of a real game. When I see people making comments on how good the O-Line, D-Line or skill guys look I usually take it with a grain of salt. Here's why. Many of you will probably agree with this. Players are going to look good when things are controlled because the coaches are not going to let things get to wild. Coaches don't want players going down to injury every practice, it's part of the reason players are treated with a kind of "kid glove" mentality. There is a lot invested in these players, even though they are not paid (yet). The scholarship investment alone is massive. They invest in tutors, training time, physical therapy, and making sure these kids get to class. When the media tries to read into how a practice went, it is always pretty subjective. People are going to see what they see. Getting an accurate assessment of how players will perform on game day from practice is always a bit dicey.
The Spring Game. Down here in the desert we just had Arizona and Arizona State have their spring game. The Sun Devils made this event a weekend event. A type of fan appreciation thing. I totally get it. The goal is to get people interested in the program and to have them buy season tickets in droves. The University of Arizona allowed fans to call plays during the game. Rich Rod went into the stands and gave a fan or two the play call sheet to make the call. If that was me, I would be telling Rich Rod two words: Hook and Ladder.
Spring games to me are pretty over-hyped. Guys are hitting each other, but I look at it like I look at the NFL's Pro Bowl. It's not really a true game. You can see how players going full speed and how they react to hits or different situations that arise during the game, but it is still a controlled situation. Quarterbacks are not allowed to be hit most of the time and once again, people are going to see what they see, opinions are very subjective with this. What I like seeing is how fall practices go leading up to the regular season. That's where you see stuff happen. Until then, there isn't a reason to get to hyped up or let down based on what you see in spring practice or the spring game.
Telling fans to do that is a little easier said, than done. Just saying...
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