Spring is in the heir: the practices and intrasquad scrimmages are all but over—who were college football's newsmakers on the field? Why, the new guys, of course

Sporting News, The, April 26, 2004 by Tom Dienhart

Jobs were at stake. Bodies were flying. Coaches yelled from towers. Fans second-guessed coaches between bites of hot dogs. Welcome to spring football, which opened at every Division I-A school with the first of 15 practices and, in most cases, concluded with a spring game in the first few weeks of April.

Spring football is huge. In the South, it's held in higher regard than boiled peanuts, "Little E," Waffle House and sweet tea. It offers fans a first peek at their heroes of the fall, and it begins to answer the questions that will nag them until well after the first preview magazines hit newsstands in June.

Who's going to be our quarterback? How does the new defense look? Is that junior college linebacker ready to step up? Is our running back healthy after blowing out his knee? We can't answer every question of the spring, but we have the biggest ones covered.

1. Are there any quarterbacks In the Big Ten? John Navarre, gone. Craig Krenzel, gone. Asad Abdul-Khaliq, Jeff Smoker, Nathan Chandler, Jim Sorgi--all of them, gone. And the quarterback situations at Indiana (Matt LoVecchio), Penn State (Zack Mills), Northwestern (Brett Basanez) and Illinois (Jon Beutjer) aren't rock solid. The only school in good shape is Purdue with Kyle Orton, who has been encased in bullet-proof glass until the fall. The teams to watch are Michigan, where sophomore Matt Gutierrez and red-shirt freshman Clayton Richard are battling, and Ohio State, where sophomore Justin Zwick has emerged as the front-runner. Richard looked especially sharp in the spring, and Zwick's big arm created excitement.

2. Is Lou Holtz losing it? Remember when he was considered a coaching genius? After consecutive losing seasons at South Carolina, he seems more like the Nutty Professor. He has demoted son Skip from offensive coordinator and is going back to the future by dumping a spread attack for his famous run left, run right, run up the middle attack. Break a leg, coach. Oh, that's right, Holtz did that in a spring collision with a player (no, Holtz was not kicking himself for taking the Gamecocks job). Maybe good things will happen. Running backs Demetris Summers and Cory Boyd looked good working out of the I-formation.

3. Have the Irish found an offense? Things looked promising this spring. Quarterback Brady Quinn continued to develop a better understanding of Tyrone Willingham's West Coast offense, becoming more decisive and precise. Quinn developed better chemistry with wideouts Rhema McKnight and Maurice Stovall while working behind what looks like one of Notre Dame's best lines in recent years.

4. Can Sylvester Croom succeed at Mississippi State? It's way too early to know the answer, but everything is in place--support, facilities, recruiting base--for the SEC's first black head coach to have a successful run. The offense looked good, but the spring showed the Bulldogs need lots of work on defense.

5. What was the best offseason hire? Bill Callahan to Nebraska was the headlinemaker, and Croom's hiring drew nationwide praise, but look for George O'Leary at Central Florida to have the most success. Go ahead and check his resume. Yes, that was O'Leary on the Minnesota Vikings sideline the past two seasons. And his tenure at Georgia Tech isn't in need of embellishment. O'Leary is trashing the Knights' passing emphasis for a more traditional attack and is making the defense more aggressive.

6. Were there any major coaching changes people might have missed? Schools didn't have to make a head coaching change to radically alter their look. Several switched coordinators, which can be just as effective. The change that could have the biggest impact was at Texas, where defensive coordinator Carl Reese resigned and coach Mack Brown hired Greg Robinson. Robinson arrived in Austin just ahead of the posse in Kansas City, where his Chiefs' defenses ranked 29th among 32 teams in 2003 and last in the NFL in 2002. Who can forget the way the Colts trashed Kansas City's defense in the playoffs? Regardless, Robinson has installed zone blitzes and more zone coverages in a system that requires more thinking than reacting. Another positive: The Colts aren't on the schedule.

7. Who wants to rant a tux and a limo for the prom, when you can graduate early and have a coach screaming in your ear? Not Stephen Mcgee of Burnet (Texas) High. He hightailed it to College Station to enroll at Texas A&M so he could participate in spring practice. It's a move that has grown in popularity over the years, with quarterbacks the likeliest to try it. It has been a good choice for McGee. Reggie McNeal sat out the spring following shoulder surgery, and Dustin Long transferred. That left McGee with a lot of reps, and he looked good. In one April scrimmage, he completed 13 of 18 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown. Eat your heart out, Mr. Burnet High Prom King.

8. What was the biggest injury this spring? There wasn't anything major, but Tennessee's loss of cornerback Antwan Stewart to a knee injury was hurtful. He was a projected starter for a secondary that needs to replace three starters.