Wolverine Devotee

March 14th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^

AHHHHHHH YES!!!!! Of course HARBAUGH brings spring games back. First time since 2001. No more spring stretchy and punting exhibition.

getsome

March 14th, 2015 at 8:42 PM ^

I assumed his point was handle stretching and kicking before w/o supervision - as in warmups stretching with team leaders and not countable - so if you're not playing a legit scrimmage game, then the players time in front of fans is all 1 v 1s, 7 v 7s shells or full tilt, along with any full 11s team situations

gbdub

March 14th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^

There was a year we had less than 44 players on the team? You always CAN have a game, if you want to. Pretty sure they run at least two full lines in practice.

They just didn't want to, although they gave lip service to doing it in the indefinite future. Note that I'm not saying they didn't have very good reasons for not wanting to...



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bacon1431

March 14th, 2015 at 11:02 AM ^

It'l be interesting to see where the Qbs go. Looks like coaches will be making the selections, so I'm sure they'll do it in a way that'll mask where the players truly stand. The article does say the selections would be made based on how hard the players are working though. Well, "outstanding work in practice" to be exact. 

uminks

March 14th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^

never cared for having a spring game. RR and Hoke said they never had enough players for a spring game. I hope Harbaugh re-starts the spring game. I like his draft method the best.

DonAZ

March 14th, 2015 at 11:33 AM ^

... never had enough players for a spring game.

I don't understand that thinking.  They had enough players to field 22.  My guess is either (a) they didn't have enough to do exactly the things they wanted to do, or (b) they didn't see value in a game, and used that as an excuse to do other things.

As for (b) ... I guess an argument could be made that continued work on fundamentals is more important that a "game."  I'm not sure I agree with that.

M-Dog

March 14th, 2015 at 11:48 AM ^

They never really wanted a game, and never pushed too hard for it.  They would rather have the 15th practice session.

As a fan, I want a game.  But I can see the reasoning for wanting the 15th practice session if you are a coach.  The number of practices you have are limited at that time of year, and you still want to work on basics.  The live game experience can come later, it does not really need to be in April.

I've always had this question, though:  Are we allowed to have a "Summer Game"?  Can we have the equivalent of a Spring Game on the last Saturday of fall practice?

It would make more sense from the point of view of getting players live game experience closer to the actual season, ala the NFL exhibition games.  The fans would go nuts.  We'd easily get 100,000 people for a "Summer Game" in late August. 

They already do a pretty intense final scrimmage at the end of fall camp, most of which winds up on public video.  Can they move it to the Big House and play it in front of the fans?  I'd watch. 

 

Gucci Mane

March 14th, 2015 at 11:51 AM ^

I like this idea, but maybe not the last Saturday. I'd be terrified someone's going to miss the opener the entire scrimmage. Also, when teams do spring game drafts is the order selected for sure a ranking of the players ? Is it not more of who is more comfortable playing with who ?

olsont

March 14th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^

Whoever is the captain's of each team chooses whoever they want regardless of position. They want to win so they choose however they want. There is a youtube video of stanfords draft when harbaugh was there. Also I dont see why you wouldn't want the scrimmage on the last day. They learned all spring and want a culmination. Plus they can take what they learned at the acrimmage during the off season. They also need some fun. Also If they get hurt earlier they miss more practice time recovering and if it is that serious that they miss the opener they will miss it anyway. And missing the opener is not that big of a deal

MayOhioEatTurds

March 14th, 2015 at 3:01 PM ^

This is a good defense of Hoke's no-Spring-game strategy, noting that while we fans want a Spring game, the coaches want another practice to work on fundamentals. 

However, Hoke's no-Spring-game strategy has been outflanked by Harbaugh's class-on-grass strategy.  By taking players out of the classroom and putting them on the field for the first 14 practices, Harbaugh's class-on-grass strategy achieves even more fundamentals work than Hoke's no-Spring-game strategy.

And it simultaneously provides the benefits of an actual, draft-me, play-in-front-of-the-fans scrimmage for practice #15

I'll take Harbaugh. 

steve sharik

March 14th, 2015 at 11:45 AM ^

I'd take Graham Glasgow at C with my first pick.  Other team would have real problems at that position.  If my opponent took Peppers, I'd take Jourdan Lewis.  Other than that, I think the squad could be divided up pretty evenly.

ThadMattasagoblin

March 14th, 2015 at 11:47 AM ^

Not playing a game was just a continuation of the noncompetitive attitude of the team the last 7 years. Saban and meyer run one. Hell Dantonio runs one. Our players need to learn how to win and nor just run drills.