The fact that thousands of college football fans around the country flocked to their favorite team’s spring games over the weekend is testament to the popularity of the sport. Spring football counts for nothing in the grand scheme of things but it gives fans their first look at this year’s roster as plenty of key storylines continue to evolve. Here is a look at the four biggest winners from Saturday’s spring games.
Georgia Quarterback Jacob Eason
Georgia won big when they landed the No. 2 pro-style quarterback from the 2016 recruiting class in Jacob Eason. They have to be feeling even better about his chances to shine this season after a strong performance in the spring game. Eason went 19-of-29 for 244 yards and a touchdown that came on a 33-yard strike to fellow true freshman Riley Ridley. Senior Greyson Lambert, junior Brice Ramsey and redshirt freshman Nick Robinson showed flashes but as a group were largely inconsistent and that only made Eason’s strong performance stand out that much more.
The Georgia program is quickly starting to face a lot more pressure than many other “new head coach” programs across the country. Although there is a honeymoon stage in many cases, it doesn’t look like that will be the case for Kirby Smart. The Bulldogs are loaded from a talent perspective, have two stellar running backs, have an easy schedule and have one of the most exciting young quarterbacking prospects. There are high expectations for the Bulldogs – especially since they weren’t that bad last season – and those fall on the shoulders of Smart and company.
Notre Dame’s Quarterback Situation
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly isn’t likely to name a starter before the fall but both of his starter options looked really good in their spring game on Saturday. Senior quarterback Malik Zaire went 6-of-15 for 120 yards with an additional 17 yards rushing with a touchdown while junior DeShone Kizer completed 10-of-17 passes for 113 yards along with 21 rushing yards on four carries. It was a strong first look in a low-scoring 17-7 game and while Kelly isn’t any closer to naming his starting quarterback for the season, it’s clear that he has some strong depth at the position with Zaire and Kizer competing for the No. 1 job. This is one of those situations where Notre Dame – hopefully – has a good problem on it’s hands.
Louisville Quarterback Lamar Jackson
Louisville’s sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson completed 24 of 29 passes for 519 yards and eight touchdown passes to help the Red Team to a 73-7 win over the White team in the Cardinals’ spring game. Spring statistics can’t be read in to too much but the fact that he dominated the way he did obviously stood out. Jackson seemed to get more confident as the game progressed and he closed it out with touchdown passes of 44, 85, 54 and 65 yards. Jackson also ran for 31 yards on six carries and head coach Bobby Petrino had to be thrilled with what he saw from his quarterback.
Kentucky’s Rushing Attack
Missouri was the only team that ran the ball fewer times than Kentucky did among SEC teams last season. It’s no surprise that establishing a legitimate rushing attack is near the top of the list of priorities for head coach Mark Stoops this season. New offensive coordinator Eddie Gran has the same mindset and it showed in the Wildcats’ spring game. Kentucky’s offense had 274 rushing yards on 56 carries, which is a lot more than their 162.7 rushing yards per game average from last season. Even more impressive was the fact that they hit that mark without their leading running back Boom Williams, who is recovering from elbow surgery. Sophomore Sihiem King played a starring role with 95 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries while senior Jojo Kemp added 66 yards including a 37-yard touchdown run. Establishing a strong rushing attack was among the biggest keys for Kentucky this season and a strong performance on the ground had them among Saturday’s winners.
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