East-West Shrine Game 2012: West Beats East, 24-17

In the second quarter of the 2012 East-West Shine Game, the rule against defensive backs playing press coverage is helping quarterbacks pick apart the defenses for extended drives that have ended, more often than not, with points on the board.

On the East side of the ball, Southern Mississippi’s Austin Davis led a touchdown drive of his own to retake the lead for the East and send the game to its halftime margin, 17-14, with a quick scoring strike to Miami’s LaRon Byrd. Davis showed impressive accuracy with plenty of zip on the ball, but has a Tebow-esque motion that will need to be shortened before he makes an NFL roster.

After one quarter at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, the East squad leads the West in the 2012 edition of the Shrine game. The East team marched down the field on a five-play touchdown drive that lasted less than three minutes.

For more updates and information on the Shrine game, including game coverage, stay tuned to this StoryStream. You can always visit SB Nation for more college football news.

With just four teams remaining in contention for the Lombardi Trophy, preparation for the 2012 NFL Draft revs up with the annual East-West Shrine Game, which has moved from Orlando to St. Petersburg, Florida this year.

NFL Draft hopefuls from across the country will be on hand for the longest-running all-star college game, which benefits Shriners Hospitals for Children.

The 2012 East-West Shrine game takes place on Saturday, January 21. In this year’s edition of the annual All-Star game, head coaches Brad Childress and Bobby Ross will each take command of a group of standout senior athletes from around the country in a game that will be heavily attended by NFL scouts and evaluators.

Childress, who is currently in the running for a couple of different NFL head coaching positions, will be the head coach of the West team, while Evans will coach the East.

The 2012 edition of the annual East-West Shrine Game will take place on Saturday, January 21 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The All-Star game gathers standout seniors from colleges across the country and places them under the tutelage of one of two NFL head coaches and complete NFL coaching staffs. It is an excellent opportunity for these athletes to perform in front of coaches and evaluators and turn some heads before the 2012 NFL Draft.

Many of these players are from smaller schools that may have gone overlooked during the regular season and the high-profile postseason bowl games. Below are the full rosters for both teams, courtesy of the official Shrine Game website. These rosters are likely filled with college names with which you may not be intimately familiar.

The 87th annual East-West Shrine game is on tap this weekend at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, as the nation’s longest running all-star game traditionally showcases NFL stars of the future, while providing a huge benefit to the Shriner’s Hospital for Children.

There have certainly been some legendary coaches patrolling the sidelines at this event, with big names such as Don Shula, Paul “Bear” Bryant and Steve Spurrier running things over the years.

Former NFL wide receiver and scout Bucky Brooks, now an analyst for NFL.com, calls the 6-foot-1, 203-pound Norman the “star of the week”, impressing with his ball skills and displaying the footwork and and technique to cover wide receivers. Cecil Lammey of the New York Times has also noticed Norman and caught up to him on Wednesday to ask about his ability to break on the football.

During his four-year career at Coastal Carolina, Norman totaled 196 tackles, including seven for a loss with 13 interceptions and 35 passes defensed.

The NFL is just like any other mass cultural phenomenon. It appeals to wide, diverse audience; it’s primary channel being broadcast television, where you can still be entertained for a minimal cost. Ain’t that America.

Fitting that the league has its own version of the most profitable of all reality genres: the star-maker. Voyuerism takes many forms. Watching people pull themselves up by their bootstraps lines up nicely with all the classic tropes we’ll here from now through the NFL Draft in April.

The 2012 East West Shrine game will be taking place in St. Petersburg, Florida this year at Tropicana Field, making a break from it’s two year stint in Orlando, Florida. The game has been played every January following the college football season since 1925 when the first game was held in San Francisco, CA and is the oldest standing NCAA all-star game. The game was held in California for the first 80 years before finally moving to Texas and then Florida.

The game was founded by Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, with the vast majority of the games proceeds going to the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital. The game is often praised for the charity work it does during the week, with the players doing lots of work at children’s hospitals.

College football all-star game season is upon us. For NFL Draft types, it means the first chance to pick out prospects, while college fans must count it as the last actual, on-field activity until like two entire months from now. (For everyone, it means we get to see helmets with mixed-and-matched helmet logos arrayed in every direction. That’s probably the highlight.)

The five biggest college all-star games of the next two weeks: