Stoops, coaches to consider awakening sleepy spring game
Published: 4/19/2012 9:13 AM
Last Modified: 4/19/2012 9:13 AM
Bless their hearts, the Oklahoma Sooners have tried.
The football team has tried a player draft, silly scoring systems and, as of last Saturday, an autograph session.
The marketing team has tried alumni flag football, live music and, as of last Saturday, a big ol' barbecue.
They've tricked up the Red-White Game as best they can. They can't, however, change the fact that the annual spring scrimmage is a drag. Jim Boeheim reciting the Syracuse White Pages is only slightly less interesting.
And so I am encouraged to read Larry Lage's Associated Press story that college football coaches will at least consider "proposing NCAA rule changes that would allow schools to scrimmage or practice against other programs during the spring" at their AFCA convention
Do I think it will happen? Nope. College football coaches are whistle-deep in paranoia. It's why nobody has seen an OU spring practice in years, why uniformed security won't even permit students to walk through the south end of the stadium when the Sooners are using Owen Field.
Do I think it should happen? Sure. Why not?
"Spring ball is best used for development," Nebraska AD Tom Osborne said in Lage's story. Alabama coach Nick Saban agreed with Dr. Tom.
But fellas, can't you develop your guys over four weeks of spring ball and still leave room for a scrimmage against UAB at the end? It doesn't have to be Auburn, just like OU doesn't have to scrimmage OSU.
In fact, OU probably shouldn't scrimmage OSU, as cool as Spring Bedlam would be. Too many rings to jump through.
But the Sooners could scrimmage, oh, North Texas. Or SMU. Or Arkansas State. Or how bout Tulsa? Sure seems more interesting than scrimmaging themselves.
And by keeping it regional, having another team bus to Norman, costs are held down. Meantime, the gate goes up. OU charges $5 in advance and $10 walk-up for Red-White. Make it $10 and $20 for North Texas.
Even if you share some of the dough with North Texas, you like your chances to make more of it. I think attendance doubles, and that means twice as many folks spending money not just on tickets but barbecue.
"Your best chance is if you can prove you can make some money," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said in Lage's story. "Then you have a chance for the presidents and the ADs to vote in favor of it."
Done.
So what else you got?
"My main concern always this time of year is having my full squad healthy," Bob Stoops said in Lage's story, "ready to enter the summer, to continue to build strength, speed and get ready for the year when we do play people."
Another reasonable point.
But can't you apply the safety-first rules of the Red-White game to a Tulsa scrimmage? Keep proven commodities from playing more than one series. Keep the quarterbacks in blue jerseys. Keep out cut-blocking. Keep the clock moving late if you'd like.
I think Stoops can trust a high-character guy like Bill Blankenship to play by those rules, yes? If a hothead linebacker for some reason goes rogue and tackles a QB, he's done for the day. That simple.
Other coaches like Michigan's Brady Hoke prefer the NFL summer camp model – inviting other teams in for controlled practice-setting scrimmages closed to the public and media. That's also how college basketball programs do it.
That sort of sounds like a compromise, which means it has a much better chance of happening than staging an open-to-the-public scrimmage.
The problem is you don't make any money (you reading, Messrs. Boren and Castiglione?) that way. Plus, you don't score any points with fans already outside the gates for all but two hours of spring practice.
Look, those fans are going to keep showing up. OU can stage the Red-White Game for the rest of eternity and expect 20,000 fans that Saturday. It beats nothing at all. A first look at a kid like Trey Metoyer, even going against his own teammates, beats a lot of alternative spring-day plans, actually.
But how sweeter would it be watching him shake corners from SMU? How sweeter would it be watching Blake Bell roll from a North Texas D-end before launching a 60-yard missile? Or watching Jaydan Bird read an Arky State screen before planting an Arky State running back?
Sure seems worth considering next month.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
