The spring football season is winding down with the majority of college football teams wrapping up their offseason workouts this past weekend. 26 of the 128 FBS schools have held a spring game or scrimmage and while it is still very early we can break down what we saw over the weekend with some positives to take from those games. Here is a look at the three biggest winners from Saturday’s spring games.
Wisconsin Running Back Corey Clement
Corey Clement received a ton of hype heading in to the 2015 season as Wisconsin football fans hailed him as the next Melvin Gordon. Unfortunately for both he and the team, Clement struggled with injuries that limited his snaps and contributed to him being limited to just 221 yards and five touchdowns last season. The senior running back is healthy again and he looked very good on Saturday when he ran for 36 yards on just five carries. Clement showed excellent burst, quickness and speed along with a stiff arm that had fans on their feet. The Badgers will be in tough in the Big Ten this season but if they can bank on a big season from a healthy Clement it could go a long to them becoming an entertaining team once again in 2016.
Kansas State’s Passing Game
Kansas State football fans want desperately to move past the devastating blow they were dealt last season when Jesse Ertz was hurt on the opening snap of the 2015 season. The Wildcats averaged just 175.9 passing yards per game and completed only 47-percent of their passes in 2015. There is still plenty of reason for optimism in 2016. Ertz is back and he is competing with a strong cast of quarterbacks with Joe Hubener and Alex Delton in the mix at the position as well. Ertz was 12-of-18 for 124 yards and a touchdown in the spring game while Delton was 13-of-21 for 139 yards and Ertz was 12-of-18 for 124 yards with a score. Kansas State has some big play options at the wide receiver position led by Byron Pringle and Saturday’s game provided Wildcats’ fans with some hope that their passing game is headed in the right direction.
The Wildcats are not known as one of the better passing teams in the Big 12 and typically with Bill Snyder’s creativity, they don’t have to be. However, they do need their quarterbacks to be efficient and effective, and they were far from that last season. From the spring football games, it looks like they’ve been able to find some depth at the position and create some competition. That should only help their cause this year.
Michigan State’s Play Calling
The Spartans will be in tough to defend their title as Big Ten champions this season and all eyes will be on Mark Dantonio to see how he and his staff respond. That was certainly the case this past weekend during the spring football games when Michigan State’s creative play calling emerged as one of the most talked about aspects of their spring game. The Spartans ended the first half with a fake field goal and ran a play with offensive tackle David Beedle taking a handoff at fullback to set up a flea-flicker in the second half. Michigan State is searching for a new offensive identity after losing three-year starting quarterback Connor Cook to the NFL. Throughout most of Dantonio’s tenure, the team has been a very conservative-minded unit on offense. Typically, they pound the rock on the ground at least 20 times while aiming for 30, they make short and safe throws, and they move the chains. They aren’t exactly electric. The fact that they have shaken things up with some new wrinkles in the playbook will provide Spartans’ fans with some optimism about the direction of their offense heading towards the 2016 season. We’ll see if this is them just working on some new stuff during an exhibition or whether they’ll actually be incorporating more of this in the future.
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