Only last week GlimmerTwinDawg was lamenting the growing trend across college football of canceling spring games in favor of a more NFL-style OTA approach. Now, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has joined in the big new thing, canceling the Longhorns spring game.
On a local radio show Sark cited the usual hobgoblins regarding this issue, including the transfer portal schedule and the longer season. Sarkisian may have a bit of a point on the last issue, as the Longhorns have played 30 regular or postseason games in the past two seasons.
But I would argue that if you’re pushing your players to the point that they can’t play an open scrimmage in late March you don’t need to change your schedule. You need to ask why your sports medicine program isn’t helping players recover. It’a also a bit unclear to me how a closer scrimmage is less intense than an open one. But I’m also not a millionaire football genius who couldn’t beat Kirby Smart if you gave him a 2×4 and a sack of nickels like Sark.
The argument about showcasing your players for other schools to pick them up in the transfer portal is also pretty flimsy. Those other schools have seen high school tape of the younger players and live game film of the veterans. And frankly you’d Be surprised how much practice film mysteriously finds its way into the hands of opposing staffs, too. The idea that the special teams coordinator at Colorado School of Mines is going to be watching your spring game and unilaterally decide to poach your backup punt team gunner is a really weird phobia, even for famously paranoid college football coaches.
instead, let’s call this latest trend in college football what it really is. It’s college football coaches, realizing that there is a pretense for getting rid of something that clutters their schedules and hampers efficiency. Who cares if the fans actually enjoy it, even eagerly look forward to it? As the powers that be in college football have made abundantly clear in the past few years, those little people don’t matter. In the battle between Sark engineering a program that earns him each and every one of his performance bonuses and one that caters to fans and creates the next generation of little Longhorns, Sark’s bonus is going to win every time.
Georgia thankfully is not yet among the programs to nix its traditional spring game. That’s among several reasons I am glad Kirby Smart is our football coach, and admittedly it’s not exactly at the top of the list. Still, if you are looking to take a young Bulldog fan for an inexpensive trip to Sanford Stadium, to soak in the tailgating atmosphere and begin to nurture a love of the Red and Black, you might wanna go ahead and do that this spring. Until later…
Go ‘Dawgs!!!