Spring football practice supposedly started in March of 1889 at, of all places, Harvard, where the Harvard Crimson reported the football team met and the “work consisted of kicking, tackling and falling on the ball.”
In 1907, Pop Warner supposedly invented his single-wing offense between spring practices when he had time to experiment without the pressures of an upcoming game.
Legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne is credited with many accomplishments, such as popularizing the forward pass. But he also popularized spring football practice.
“There’s been a lot of objections to spring football,” the legendary Rockne said to his team when they gathered for their first spring practice. “I object to it myself because I can see where it interferes with your necking and drinking.
“But I don’t want anybody here to come out for spring football that doesn’t want to. As a matter of fact I don’t want spring football unless you do. All those in favor of coming out for spring football, all those who insist on having football will all signify by saying ‘I’.”
Naturally the Fighting Irish players responded with a resounding validation and spring football was on its way to becoming a staple across college football.
Coaches now believe spring football is almost as essential as football recruiting. Coaches get time to fine-tune offensive and defensive schemes and sometimes they come up with a previously unknown gem of a player. But that’s not common, and most coaches come out of spring drills with an idea of a depth chart — which is usually close to the same as the one had before they started.
But spring practice does offer players a chance to show what they can do, especially those who are buried on the depth charter behind an established star who is coming back for another season.
Consider the frustration of playing behind established stars like Aaron Murray at Georgia or AJ McCarron at Alabama, or Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M. Spring practice is the chance for the lesser known player to show to his coaches that he can be ready to step in and contribute at a moment’s notice in case of an injury.
So which SEC backup players showed out this spring? Well, there were a few.
At Georgia there is no doubt that Murray is the main man at quarterback but Hutson Mason proved he could be counted on with his G-Day performance. He completed 16-of-27 passes for 191 yards and a touchdown pass to junior college transfer Jonathon Rumph, who caught four passes for 98 yards and two scores. The Bulldogs have a strong running back corps but now they have another candidate —tailback Kyle Karempelis, who rushed for 89 yards on 13 carries.
“There’s a lot of competition right now, and I think that’s really good,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “If you’re working out this summer thinking you’ve nailed something down, you’d better recheck your thinking. Coming out of this spring, we still don’t know who will play where and who will start. We have a good idea who is getting ready. But in terms of starting positions,
“I can’t think of a year where we’ve had more uncertainty. I feel like we’ve got the right ingredients and the right talent base. It’s just a matter of who wins it and if they’re mature enough to play well early enough with the way the season begins,” he said.
At Ole Miss, senior Barry Brunetti and junior Bo Wallace are the top quarterbacks, but sophomore quarterback Mikhail Miller used the spring game to enhance his stock when he went 7-for-11 for 46 yards passing and added 60 yards on the ground.
Zach Mettenberger is established as the starting quarterback at LSU, but backup Stephen Rivers played the entire second half of the spring game and had his best performance in a scrimmage since joining the Tigers by connecting on 7-of-10 passes for 185 yards and two scores. Jeremy Hill was LSU’s leading rusher last season but his recent bouts with the law could open the door for more playing time for Terrence Magee, who had 73 rushing yards, including a 47-yard run, on nine carries in the spring game.
Auburn has been known for great running backs in the past like Bo Jackson, Lionel James and Brent Fullwood. Junior college transfer Cameron Artis-Payne announced he might be the next great one by rushing for 117 yards and a touchdown in the A-Day Game.
Redshirt freshman Alec Morris had a big day at quarterback in Alabama’s A-Day Game by completing 10 of 18 passes for 141 yards. But unless McCarron suffers an injury, Morris will join the rest of the Tide quarterbacks on the sidelines while McCarron tries to win his third consecutive national championship.
At South Carolina, Dylan Thompson and Connor Shaw are the established quarterbacks but redshirt freshman Brendan Nosovitch had a stellar day in the spring game by completing 11-of-15 passes for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
At Vanderbilt, Austyn Carta-Samuels is the most experienced quarterback returning for the Commodores but keep an eye out for redshirt freshman Patton Robinette, who concluded the spring by hitting 11-of-15 passes for 101 yards and one touchdown in the Black and Gold game.
There were six quarterbacks on the Texas A&M spring roster and freshman Matt Davis looked good in the spring game by going 7-for-12 for 112 yards. But if Manziel stays healthy, nobody else will take any serious snaps for Kevin Sumlin’s team this fall.