Tale of Legree's second interception proof teams should face another squad
Jimmy Legree had a great Garnet and Black Game, recording three tackles and two interceptions. I'd tell you which team the redshirt sophomore cornerback played and registered the picks for, but I have no idea. I'm sure there was an official roster, but it got thrown out the window at some point. Maybe Steve Spurrier wrote the talking points for his rambling halftime speech on the only copy.
Anyway, I digress. Legree was naturally asked about both of his interceptions after the game. "It was just an airball, and I just got up there [and grabbed it]," he said of his first interception. "The second one, I kind of knew what route [the receiver was] running, so I had a little head start on him."
Kudos to Legree for admitting he had an advantage on the second one. I'd expect nothing less from a young man with such a noble first name. Furthermore, Legree's statement intrigued me. The point of a spring game is to serve as a culmination of spring practice (scheduling irregularities aside — see you Tuesday at the Proving Grounds!) and get a team valuable experience playing in front of a crowd and in a semi-authentic, game-like setting.
But is that being achieved if teams are playing themselves, and everyone has a basic enough knowledge of what's going on that, say, a cornerback can get tipped off on a route and jump a play to create a turnover? It's hard to argue that it is. Spring games need to stop being glorified intrasquad scrimmages. It's time for them to be two-school affairs.
There's no lack of precedent in other sports. College soccer teams routinely play offseason matches against other schools. College basketball teams have less-publicized scrimmages against other squads during the preseason. And the idea has been met with success when floated in the past. Many coaches — Texas coach Mack Brown and former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer come to mind — have suggested spring games against other schools in the past.
In the same vein, departed USC special teams coordinator Shane Beamer said last summer he'd be in favor of teams getting one exhibition game in the preseason against another school. Assistant Head Coach for Defense Ellis Johnson echoed Beamer's opinion when asked for his.
Plus, there's the elephant in the room. Spring games are brutally dull. No one knows what team is which. The level of play is disjointed at best, horrific at worst. The only reason spring games happen, in my opinion, is because fans want them. Fans want the excuse to tailgate, waste a Saturday away and pretend, if for a few fleeting moments, that it's fall again. If that wasn't the case, I bet most coaches would just have another simple scrimmage and send their charges off into summer workouts.
If spring games are going to exist, then they might as well be exciting and make money. Both would be achieved by two teams meeting up.
Set a few ground rules. Teams have to travel by bus to keep costs down. All agreements must be home-and-home series for no longer than four years. All FBS programs must play a spring game at an in-state FCS program at least once every five years. Coaching staffs have to agree on game rules.
Once all the details are worked out, the system should flourish. Which would you rather watch at the end of your spring game experience? USC's walk-ons play USC's other walk-ons, or USC's walk-ons play North Carolina's walk-ons? Don't you think Tennessee fans would drive four hours east if the Vols were playing their spring game at Virginia Tech. Wouldn't a Pitt-Penn State spring game make ESPNU or ESPN2, much less ESPN3? How could people not appreciate the history being put on display in a spring rematch of the first college game ever with Rutgers and Princeton?
Legree saw a route he recognized, jumped it and made a play. Anyone with common sense should be able to see there is a spring game alternative that would be better than the status quo.