Bask In The Warmth Of Spring Football With SBN’s College Communities

Checking in on spring football with SBN’s Pac-10 communities.

Washington held their spring game at night, for which they are to be applauded because everything looks fancier at night. And at the center of attention, as you might imagine, was their presumptive backup quarterback:

The undisputed star of the evening was QB Nick Montana who was 21 of 34 for 156 yards and two touchdowns. Montana has been impressive all spring while battling it out with Keith Price for the back up QB role. Price as 4 of 9 for 39 yards. Heisman hopeful Jake Locker was 3 of 7 for 15 yards in limited duty.Meanwhile, further south, things got a little more interesting in Los Angeles than the Trojan Huddle usually allows:

Checking in on spring football with a couple of SBN’s mid-major communities:

Northern Illinois. Red And Black Attack examines the Huskies’ spring football stats and comes away quite certain that they know next to nothing:

Checking in on spring football with SBN’s Big East blogs:

UConn. Post-spring practice depth charts are the college football equivalent of alcoholics emptying the kitchen cabinets of vanilla extract, but it’s April and we’re all addicts, and The UConn Blog is here to help:

Checking in on spring football with SBN’s Big 12 blogs:

Kansas. Rock Chalk Talk welcomes a bumper crop of baby running backs in their spring game offense review:

Depth at the running back position has never been a luxury afforded any coaching staff. That all looks to change this year as sophomore (to be) Toben Opurum, seniors Rell Lewis, Angus Quigley and redshirt freshman Deshaun Sands all return. Not to mention two highly recruited backs in James Sims and Brandon Bourbon, who will arrive in the summer. Both are expected to have a chance to contribute early on.Texas Tech. Double T Nation talks scrimmage defense, which is very much “under construction”:

Checking in on spring football with SBN’s ACC blogs:

• Boston College. BC Interruption discusses the Spring Game while reminding that it’s difficult to tell anything about a possible quarterback controversy from a scrimmage.

• Georgia Tech. From The Rumble Seat welcomes Al Groh, grouses at the second half of their spring game being rained out, and ponders the Jackets’ backup quarterback race.

• Maryland. Testudo Times can’t make any headway in their own quarterback derby and sorts out the Terps’ passel of receivers.

• Virginia Tech. Gobbler Country tries to get a handle on all the new faces on display in Saturday’s spring game, where younglings were given plenty of playing time while stars Tyrod Taylor and Ryan Williams played sparingly-to-not-at-all.

Checking in on spring football with SBN’s PAC-10 blogs:

• Washington State. For CougCenter, Saturday’s action was all about the big-play defense, to the chagrin of the receiving corps:

After operating under three head coaches in three seasons and losing their starting quarterback, running back, and most of both lines to graduation, Tennessee is a team very much adrift in a sea of unanswered questions. One I’d very much like to ask Lane Kiffin is, “What the blue hell were you thinking keeping Tauren Poole on the bench all last year?” SBN’s Rocky Top Talk reports the diminutive sophomore running back turned in his second stellar spring game performance in as many years:

Running backs. Tauren Poole is the clear starter at this position. He rushed for 43 yards and caught three balls for another 58 yards. He was powerful, fast, and elusive, and he rarely let the first guy get him down. “Tauren has made big plays in every scrimmage -- the spring game and the two scrimmages -- and he did it again today,” Dooley said. “I’m really pleased with how he’s running the ball. We still need David Oku to come on, and I think he will, but I’m really pleased with Poole. Poole’s got great character; he’s a hard worker, a hard runner; he can go out and do some things in the pass game, and he breaks a lot of tackles. He’s going to be a real key for us this year.”

In addition to every-down responsibilities, Poole will also battle Oku for the exclusive right to have the vowels in his name extended to “POOOOOOOOOOOLE” by the student section.

SBN’s Voodoo Five has the first-half charts for Saturday’s spring game, but a good performance by windup quarterback B.J. Daniels was overshadowed by last year’s No. 2 receiver, A.J. Love, tearing his right ACL, a grisly match for an identical tear suffered on his left leg in 2008. Love has had one successful ACL rehab in his college career already, and followed that up by averaging almost nineteen yards a catch in 2009; if the football gods are kind he’ll hopefully be able to replicate his comeback.

SBN’s Crimson and Cream Machine chronicles the breakout performance of true freshman receiver Kenny Stills in the Sooners’ spring game:

Kenny Stills has to be considered the “star” of this scrimmage. What I mean by that is the chances of Stills playing a significant role in this offense are much greater than Musil doing the same while playing the FB position. So the performance of Stills is much more important towards the potential success of this offense. Stills lead all receivers with six receptions for 84 yards and a TD. He had the best catch of the day on his first reception coming back to haul in an under thrown Landry Jones pass just before it hit the turf. He also made a great play on the ball for his TD catch, going up over DB Lamar Harris to snag the 31 yard TD pass. He seems to have quickly developed a chemistry with Landry after just a short time on campus, which can only bode well for his chances of playing time this year.Also appearing: Last year’s Bradford stand-in Landry Jones, soldiering through some gross field conditions for a 50% completion percentage.

SBN’s Corn Nation predicts playcalling for the fall based on Saturday’s action:

If what we saw was basic schemes, look for the offense this fall to resemble what we saw in the Holiday Bowl and then some. I saw quite a bit of the “Pistol” formation, where the quarterback lines up as if a fullback and takes a shotgun snap, typically with the I-back lined up behind, though sometimes offset. We saw the Pistol at the start of the Missouri game, and a little bit in the Holiday Bowl. Nebraska is going to be committed to the quarterback run game this fall.

Read the rest at Corn Nation.

SBN’s Boise State crew has an honest-to-God play-by-play recap of their spring game, if you’re into that sort of thing. And the way they saw it, the defense hasn’t lost any hustle since coordinator Justin Wilcox left the team:

Even though the offense made a late push to tie the score, the defense reigned supreme at the Blue-Orange. There was never a moment in the first half (the half that involved players you would recognize) when it felt like the offense was in control. Sure, the final score was close, but the game had the feel of a BSU-Tulsa matchup where Boise State was by far the better team in every way than it did a classic BSU-TCU tussle between equals. No offense to the offense; the Boise State defense is just that good.Read the rest at One Bronco Nation Under God.

Spring football threw it into high gear over the weekend, and SBN’s able army of college football types hit the stadiums en masse. What we learned:

John Brantley is good:

Christian Ponder is really good: