Spring Football: Urban Meyer Debuts, Arkansas Scores And Hokies Recruit

Let’s all get out there and decide to get more than five today. Marlin Lane is your new motivational poster.

For more on Vols football, visit Tennessee blog Rocky Top Talk, plus SEC blog Team Speed Kills.

Spring game attendance figures have become a point of pride in the college football world over the past decade. Fans in the sport’s top conference, the SEC, turn out in droves each April for the annual practice game. Unsurprisingly, the Alabama fans won the conference attendance crown again this year, with 78,526 showing up at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

In total, more than 430,000 fans attended SEC spring games, with newcomer Texas A&M yet to hold their exhibition. Arkansas, which has had quite the eventful April, had the second largest spring game attendance with 45,250. Razorbacks Athletic Director Jeff Long has had a rough spring, but he was certainly enthused by the turnout in Fayetteville, stating he got “chills” from the large number of fans:

Hodges is rated a four-star by most services, while the others mostly get three-star ratings. The Hokies also reportedly got their first 2014 commit, Fredricksburg defensive end Vincent Mihota. All six hail from Virginia.

Still, Frank Beamer didn’t hog all of the recruits.

Less than a month after former Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Bobby Petrino crashed his motorcycle with his alleged mistress on it, lied about it, paid her $20,000 and gave her a job, then consequently lost his own job, the football team played it’s annual spring game to try to get the fans excited about Razorbacks football yet again.

It worked.

Miller’s Scarlet team topped Kenny Guiton’s Grey, 20-14, meaning Grey has some community service work ahead. Guiton held his own on the day, going 16-of-24, while Miller was a solid 24-of-31. An Ohio State quarterback threw 31 passes in a half or so, and now we’ve seen it all.

For more on Buckeyes football, visit Ohio State blog Land-Grant Holy Land, plus Big Ten blog Off Tackle Empire and SB Nation Cleveland.

Many observers may only be curious about the spring game’s results to evaluate true freshman quarterback Gunner Kiel’s performance. Kiel, if you remember, spurned LSU to attend Notre Dame -- a slight Les Miles won’t soon be forgetting. Kiel took all the snaps in the running-clock, 16-minutes second half, and went 5-9 for 57 yards and an interception.

For everything you need to know about Notre Dame football, check out One Foot Down.

Long after the final score of the spring game will be forgotten (they write that final score down somewhere, I assume), the world will remember -- nay, sing songs of -- the bravery of the Ole Miss band, who braved the elements and ascended Mount Bleacher to trumpet (literally, in some cases) the exploits of their team. Our own Steven Godfrey brings us the stirring visual.

via @38Godfrey

The spring fieldstrat ante continues to be upped (via @PackFootball):

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