When Bowling Green hired its current head coach, Gregg Brandon, as assistant head coach four years ago, he returned to his roots in Evanston — this time to watch.

Brandon, Northwestern’s wide receivers coach from 1992-1998, and the rest of the Bowling Green staff came to NU’s 2001 spring practice and scouted the Wildcats’ offense.

“When we first got the job (at Bowling Green), we visited Northwestern to study the shotgun running game,” Brandon said. “We watched (Zak) Kustok and Damien (Anderson) run it in spring practice. And now that’s our running game, basically.”

Brandon and his staff spent that spring learning NU’s offense in an attempt to better their own team.

Whether it’s learning a new offense, critiquing the previous season, deciding position battles or simply getting players back into football, the springtime can be as crucial or as trivial as a coach wants. For young and unestablished players, spring can be the difference between a spot in the big game and a cold seat on the bench.

“Every spring season we get the chance to find out a lot about ourselves,” NU junior offensive lineman Joe Tripodi said. “I think we can use the spring as time to work on the little things and work on the techniques. You don’t have to play a game, so it’s easier to spend more time on the little things rather than just game planning for, say, Ohio University or Ohio State.”

College football coaches have different philosophies on what their teams need to do in the spring to be successful in the fall.

Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak said the spring workouts allow coaches to work more with players who will assume backup roles in the fall — something coaches might not have time for during the regular season.

“I think the most important part of the spring is getting your personnel established,” Novak said. “Right now we have 91 kids on our roster, and we’re trying to give everyone a chance. When you get to the fall, you can’t work with that many guys, so the spring is the time to work with the young guys and backups.”

rules of engagement

Spring football doesn’t have the two-a-days of Camp Kenosha or the game planning of regular season practices, but most coaches said the highly-regulated spring practices are workable.

The NCAA Division I manual states spring workouts may consist of 15 practices and must be conducted within a period of 29 days. Twelve of the practices may involve contact, in eight of those teams may tackle and three of the eight may be devoted to 11-on-11 scrimmages.

“Honestly, with the situation we’re in with college football nowadays, I don’t know if we could go any more,” Walker said. “It’s not just us, it’s everywhere. Nobody has numbers. In the old days we’d come out for spring ball with over 100 people and 20 (practices) wasn’t enough. We might not have anybody left by the end.”

This year, NU practiced four days a week for three weeks and then three days the final week of the spring season.

Senior offensive lineman Zach Strief said 15 practices can seem like too little to completely prepare for the upcoming season.

“It seems to be we never have enough time to do everything,” Strief said. “But as a player, you aren’t going to complain about it. The body gets tired.”

Coaches and players said they often don’t agree on how much time constitutes enough practice.

Brandon said 15 practices were insufficient and some of the other rules make the spring practice period less effective.

“This is our last week, and I’m starting to see improvement,” Brandon said, “But then they aren’t going to play football for three months. I’d be up for 20 practices. I think that’s a better number. That would make up for all these no-tackle days and no-pad days in which you can’t get a lot done.

“To make them go out in their shorts and underwear makes no sense to me.”

boys of spring

During the regular season, young and inexperienced players are all but forgotten as the team prepares for the next opponent. Instead of Big Ten Player of the Week, these players vie for Practice Player of the Week.

The spring football season is the first time many players have the opportunity to show the coaches what they can do on the field.

Walker said this season has especially helped the young linebackers.

“We’ve got our top three linebackers down, and that isn’t ever very good, but it’s giving those other linebackers a chance,” Walker said. “They can’t come in and say, ‘Coach, you’re not giving me a chance.’ They’re all getting reps now.”

NU linebackers coach Pat Fitzgerald said this time of year also helps the younger players get back in the rhythm of the game.

Fitzgerald said when freshmen sit out or redshirt their freshman year, they lose the confidence they had as high school stars.

“It’s a humbling experience, and getting that confidence back is a big thing,” Fitzgerald said. “The only way you can really do it is by making plays on the field.”

Junior linebacker Nick Roach, who has been injured all spring, said having older players mentor younger ones in the spring is more important than experienced players contributing on the field.

“I think the older guys are kind of there as leaders,” Roach said. “I remember last year, when I was coming into spring ball, it’s kind of like you’re still in the second group but you’re looking up to the older guys and trying to copy what they do.”

Some incoming freshmen get a jump on the learning process by graduating high school early to enroll in the spring and play spring football. Coaches are still split on the issue.

Former NU quarterback Alexander Webb graduated high school early and attended NU in the spring of 2002 for spring practice. He quit the team last spring.

Clifton Dawson, a former NU running back, also attended NU a quarter early. He transferred to Harvard after his freshman year.

“I believe Alexander (Webb) and Clifton (Dawson) both gained something from it as football players,” Walker said. “They were certainly ahead of their class when camp started that next August.”

No players have graduated early to attend NU since, and although Walker isn’t sold on either side of the issue, he said he wouldn’t want to graduate early.

“I’d rather stay in school and run track or play baseball, go to my prom and graduate with my senior class,” Walker said. “I’m sure you can gain something by doing it, but you can also lose something. We’ve had players do it in the past, but I’ve never encouraged it.”

Illinois’ incoming freshman running back Rashard Mendenhall decided to attend Champaign early in order to get a jump on next season. Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley said it will not only help Mendenhall on the field, but it will help his academics as well.

“On the academic side, if you come in the spring it gives you the opportunity to graduate in three-and-a-half-years and start on a second degree or masters while you still have eligibility,” Locksley said. “Coming in as a normal freshman, it would be very difficult to get two degrees.”

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said early enrollment is still a new concept — one he doesn’t agree with.

“We’re a society that tries to live fast and push the clock, and this is just another example of that,” Ferentz said. “I think athletes should finish the year like all other seniors and enjoy college when the time comes.”

Play-in game

Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium is undergoing a $90 million renovation, which forced the Hawkeyes to cancel their spring game this season.

But Ferentz said he isn’t worried about the cancellation.

“I don’t think it’s important at all,” Ferentz said. “But we’ve had great crowds for it, anywhere from 20,000-30,000 every year. It’s also the first time that some of our players play in front of a crowd that size. It helps them get over their stage fright.”

More than 58,000 people attended coach Urban Meyer’s first spring game at Florida, while almost 3
9,000 fans showed up for coach Steve Spurrier’s inaugural spring game at South Carolina, which was broadcast on ESPN2.

After 14 practices, usually including two scrimmages, most teams participate in their inter-squad spring game to end the spring season. Along with Iowa, Michigan won’t be playing a spring game.

The Wolverines haven’t played a spring game since 1998, and according to coach Lloyd Carr’s comments in his spring news conference, the team won’t play one again this year because he does not have enough healthy players.

Ferentz and Carr aren’t alone in their downplaying of the spring game.

Locksley said the coach’s work is done before the actual spring game, so it is not as important for the team.

“Traditionally, I think the spring game is for the fans,” Locksley said. “In a game with all the media and fans there, we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, especially as a new staff.”

Former NU coach and current Colorado coach Gary Barnett said the spring game is only important to a couple of younger players each year who are trying to move up on the depth chart.

He also said the atmosphere of the spring is similar at Colorado to that of his days at NU.

“The only thing I’d say is that we have a chance for much better weather here than in Chicago,” Barnett said. “I think we probably have a little more interaction with the students here, but for the most part there are a group of people who are interested in spring football and they come and watch.”

Walker was the minority among coaches, saying the spring game has an impact on next season. It’s important for players to do well in not only the spring game, but in all three scrimmages, Walker said.

“They know that this is an evaluation,” he said. “They know we’re going to base a lot of what we do next year on how they play. There’s some young DBs, some young linebackers who are either going to be on the plane to Arizona State or they’re not based on what they do.

“They might be sitting at home studying on the weekend instead of playing.”

Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].