Spring Practice

Well here we are in March again, and its time for spring football across the country.  It seems like just the other day I was driving out to California to see Alabama win the National Championship!  Yet here we are in the middle of March with spring practice going on at every NCAA Football college in the country.  Let's take a look at the top three storylines this year's spring:

3.  Can USC find its way back to the top?

2009 wasn't the best year for USC football to say the least.  An 8-4 record was the worst regular season in recent memory for the Trojans.  But a bowl win over Boston College began to right the ship heading into 2010.  The season was also marred by a near tragedy when Stafon Johnson nearly lost his life in a weightlifting accident.  His nearly full recovery is nothing short of miraculous. 

Key Losses:
Taylor Mays
Stafon Johnson
Allen Bradford
Shareece Wright

Key Additions:
Kyle Prater - 5* Receiver
Any number of the 4 five stars and numerous 4* players that USC brings in every season could turn out to be major impact freshmen.  But Prater will likely be called upon early and often.  Look for some new faces in the secondary as well

This spring is where USC will find out what it made of.  No one on this team has had to come off of adversity the season before.  With major losses in the backfield and secondary, this spring may be key for USC.  Can Joe McKnight be an every down back?  Or is he too much like Reggie Bush:  electric but not a true running back?  Can Matt Barkely live up to the hype?  We will see.

A 2010 schedule with no world beaters on it sets up well for USC this year.  Figure them back into the National Title picture at year's end.

2.  How will Alabama handle success?

Selfishly I wanted to put this as the top storyline going in, but nationally it really isn't the most important off season topic.  But for Alabama fans, this is the big one.  Several great seasons followed Alabama's last national championship, what will happen after this one?  Alabama returns the majority of their offensive skill position players with stars at all levels.  The offensive line will again be a question mark with anchor Mike Johnson gone, but the Alabama offense will be largely back from last year.  The true question becomes defense.  Alabama loses key players on all levels of the defense.  Marcel Dareus will be back on the defensive line, however he wasn't technically even the starter.  The Crimson Tide lose nearly all starting linebackers; the most important of which being Rolando McClain.  Some young guys stepped in when needed last year, and superstar in the making Donta Hightower should be back healthy and as good as ever.
The secondary will be the real question mark however.  8 of the top 10 in playing time have either graduated or gone onto the NFL early.  Starting Safety Mark Barron and nickel back Robby Green are all that return from one of the top secondaries in the nation last season.  Can B.J. Scott finally live up to the hype of being a 5 star in high school?  Will Dre Kirkpatrick become the lockdown corner he was touted to be out of high school?  DeMarcus Millner is another big name player, will he see major action as a true freshman?

But Coach Saban is the defensive backs coach, so that will help.

Combine all of this with the fact that with this season being the crazy road season with games @Tennessee, @ LSU, @Arkansas.  Add in home games against Penn State, Florida, and Auburn, and its tough to see Alabama going through that gauntlet undefeated.  But if they do, and if Florida makes it to the title game again...maybe Alabama can get past the Gators because of storyline number 1:

1.  How do the top teams replace their star quarterbacks (Oklahoma, Texas, Florida)?

Going into last season all the talk was the Heisman trophy and which of the big three senior quarterbacks would win it.  Then it was a relatively unknown running back out of Alabama capturing the first ever Heisman for the school.  So how will OU, UT, and UF replace their leaders?

Well OU pretty much already had to when Bradford went own to injury at the start of the season.  The answer was Landry Jones, and the results were mixed.  Jones passed for over 3,000 yards and 26 touchdowns, but also lost some of the biggest games of the year to Miami, Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma.  With basically a full year under his belt that Jones was not ready for given the circustances, he will be in a much better position this time around.

Texas also got an early glimpse at their next gunslinger in Garrett Gilbert.  It came at the worst possible time with McCoy going down early in the national title game, but Gilbert preformed remarkably well given the situation.  A couple of touchdown passes to Jordan Shipley later, and Gilbert looks ready at Texas.  His stats in the game were unimpressive overall : 15/40 186 yards 2 TD 4INT but he improved as the game went on and began to develop confidence against the top defense in the nation.  Texas could easily find itself back in the national title picture again this season.

Florida is probably the biggest question mark of the group.  Replacing Jesus Ch........i mean Tim Tebow.....at quarterback will be tough.  Love him or hate him; sick of him or not, Tebow meant alot to that Florida team on the field and off the field.  He was the heart of that team.  The offense was built around him.  I'm as sick of him as anyone else and believe me, I laughed when I saw him crying at the end of the Alabama game, but that guy gave everything he had to the game of college football and even if he is a failure at quarterback at the next level, which I predict he will be, you can't take away what he did at Florida.  His replacement is likely John Brantley.  Brantley played very well in the little bit he played over Tebow last season.  Playing in mostly mop up duty in big wins, Brantley was 36 of 48 for 410 yards with 7 TDs and 0 INTs.  He just doesn't have the same skill set running the ball Tebow did.  His threat to run the ball outside or run it inside made that offense as tough to gameplan for as any in college football.

Can the Gators get back to the top without Tebow?  If they do they will have to probably beat Alabama or LSU twice this season since they play both in the regular season and its likely one of those two will make it to Atlanta for the title game again.

Its going to be a great season.  But before we start thinking about it too much, lets get through the spring games first....