Written by In The Bleachers | 06 April 2009

Even with the impending cold front which could bring snow threatens the northeast, it isn't enough to damper my excitement of the spring games that happened this weekend. For the most part the the majority of the teams have their games in the latter part of the month, but we were able to get a glimpse of at least 1 team that could have title implications in their game this past weekend.

Spring is in the air

The Texas Longhorns concluded their spring practice with an offense vs defense scrimmage. It wasn't too long ago that Mack Brown and the rest of his staff were coming into the 2008 season worried about their secondary. Well in their scrimmage Sunday, it was their secondary that played the best. Earl Thomas and Nolan Brewster each had a pick; and Thomas took his to the house. Colt McCoy didn't have his best game, but Mack Brown doesn't feel the need to worry. McCoy went 11-of-24 for 95 yards. The folks over at Barking Carnival have a nice recap of the Longhorns' spring game highlighting both the offense and the defense. Most of the news on the Florida State Seminoles has not been good. Just a few weeks ago the NCAA came down on sanctions against the school which included stripping them of 14 wins and losing some scholarships. Coach Bowden was hoping that the players put that behind them to have a successful spring. In their scrimmage he was really impressed with the work of the defensive secondary. During most of the spring the offense had the upper hand, but it was the defense who forced 5 turnovers on fumbles and won the scrimmage 39-27 in front of 36,000 people. Ty Jones who has had a good spring, did not have a good spring game fumbling the ball four times. Unfortunately the bad news for Florida State did not end there; wide receiver Rod Owens was arrested after the game and charged with driving under the influence.
Moving out west, the Air Force Falcons had their spring scrimmage, and even after it coach Troy Calhoun is still not sure who will be his starting quarterback. Tim Jefferson, who started last year as a freshman and fellow classmate Asher Clark will both head into the fall fighting for the job.

Can Griffin turn Baylor around?

The reason behind Calhoun's indecision is that neither quarterback had enough practice time to get fully evaluated. Jefferson only participated in 5 practices due to academics and Clark had a knee injury that required surgery. Calhoun was force to go with untested junior-to-be Ben Cochran and sophomore-to-be Connor Dietz for most of the spring. If you watched any of the TCU Horned Frogs last year, you could not help but to come away impressed with their defense. Even with some holes left due to graduation, the Horned Frogs still look impressive on that side of the ball. In their spring game, they only allowed the offense to score on one occasion, and coach Gary Patterson came away with a feeling of ease that his defense could be back to its 2008 form. Linebacker Tanner Brock, who had 625 tackles in high school impressed everyone in his first scrimmage. Brock ran with second-team defense Saturday after earning reps with the first-team 'D' during spring practice. If I were to guess, I think Baylor's time as being the Big 12 whipping boy is coming to an end. Quarterback Robert Griffin is developing into a star, and he took one more step towards stardom in the Bears' spring game. Griffin completed 19-of-25 passes for 310 yards, with touchdown passes of 60, 35 and 43 yards to three different receivers. He also ran for 41 yards and a touchdown. Griffin wasn't the only star as running back Jarred Salubi had a nice day gaining 40 yards on 12 carries. At Arizona, head coach Mike Stoops decided to do things differently this year. He allowed two of his captains to have a draft and pick the teams for this year's spring game. Most of the concern for the Wildcats is; who will replace Willie Tuitama. Tuitama left the school as the career leader in passes, attempts, yards and touchdowns, and capped his career by leading the Wildcats to a 31-21 victory over BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl in December. The two candidates in line to replace him are Sophomore Matt Scott who completed 11 of 20 passes for 206 yards with one interception. Scott was the backup to Tuitama last season. Nick Foles is the other guy. Foles is a sophomore transfer from Michigan State, led the Blue team going 16-for-24 for 183 yards with no picks. It was Nick Scott who got the last laugh as he completed a touchdown pass on the last play to lead his team, the White Team, to a 23-21 victory. Stoops likes what he sees from both Scott and Foles but is not ready to name a starter yet. He even went as far as saying he would ponder the idea of rotating them during the season until one stood out.

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