Spring football games are about as undefined as any event on a college team’s calendar.
The scoring format can be flexible, as evidenced by Arizona’s choice to allocate points to not only touchdowns and field goals, but also to big plays and defensive stops.
That game ended with a 96-68 final score.
The intrasquad team selections can vary as well, with some coaches, like USC’s Steve Sarkisian, vying for a straight-up offense versus defense format. Others hand-pick two squads to compete in a traditional game with kickoffs and changes of possession, like coach Jim Mora did with UCLA last year.
Then there are some schools that just do away with a game altogether.
This year, UCLA became one of those teams, its Spring Showcase on Saturday serving as a 90-minute practice instead of a game with any kind of scoring system or game clock.
“I know some people would have liked to see a spring game, but for us as a football team, it was more productive to have a practice,” Mora said. “It allowed us to have the recruits on the field, (and) that’s the lifeblood of your program.”
Mora is not alone in his sentiment. Of the 51 other Power Five conference schools to host a spring game so far this year, four of them – Cal, Washington, Texas Christian and Northwestern – have opted to host a regular practice in front of fans instead.
It’s not the trendy choice yet, but the idea may gain consideration due to the risk of injury to star players in spring games. On Saturday, the University of Kansas had its incumbent starting quarterback, Michael Cummings, injure his knee in the Jayhawks’ Blue versus White scrimmage.
“You don’t want (players) to get hurt, but with a practice you can control it,” said UCLA defensive coordinator Tom Bradley.
In over 30 years of college coaching, Bradley had never ended a spring season with a practice; he’d always ended with an intrasquad scrimmage. However, the veteran defensive coordinator recognized the benefits of replacing the traditional spring-ending exhibition game with a practice.
“The benefits are really good for us, ’cause we need to get some work and (in a practice format) we can control it – what we want to get done and how long we want to go,” Bradley said. “And if (Mora) wanted to cut something early, he could, and (the practice format) gave him the latitude to do that.”
Not every member of the UCLA team is a fan of this format, however. Sophomore linebacker Kenny Young said he was mad when Mora announced Monday that there wouldn’t be a real spring game come Saturday morning at the Rose Bowl.
“I wanted to go live and hit some people, man. You know, we didn’t give the fans anything to see,” Young said. “Coach Mora was like, ‘Yeah, guys, we’re just gonna thud and no tackling.'”
Young’s fellow linebacker, junior Myles Jack, echoed that stance. Jack said he’d prefer to have a traditional spring game with less limitations on contact.
“It was fun, kind of making it a practice but making it kind of live, too,” Jack said. “I wanted it to be live the whole time. If it was up to me, we’d go live every time.”
Considering how prone spring football games are to change, Jack’s wish may be granted if he’s still at UCLA by this time next year.