College Football 2012: The 20 Spring Practices We'd Like to Spy on Most

How much do you love college football?

Is your passion so great, is your fondness so overwhelming and is your adoration so advanced that you would climb a tarp-covered chain-link fence just to get a glimpse of a collegiate gridiron program holding a closed practice in March?

Yes, the season is still 175 days away but is your fervor so advanced that you must get just a taste of the sweet fruit you long for year round?

The following slideshow pinpoints 20 college football spring practices we’d climb the fence to spy on.

Perhaps it’s to get some inside information, maybe it’s to see a new coach in action or perchance it’s just because we know baseball is coming.

Arizona

The on-field portion of the Rich Rodriguez era at Arizona kicked off in earnest on March 5 when spring ball in Tucson got underway.

After a successful run at West Virginia and a tumultuous run at Michigan, it will be intriguing to see what the offensive minded Rich Rod does with the Wildcats who have been led by defensive minded Mike Stoops for the past eight seasons.

Rich Rod III. Now who doesn’t want a piece of that action?

Notre Dame

Whether you love them or hate them, the Irish are difficult not to pay attention to.

Lifting the veil on the 2012 Notre Dame spring practice sessions might give insight on a QB race that should garner national attention (again) and perhaps we could be privy to Coach Kelly’s formula to prevent 2011’s turnover-gate from reoccurring.

Either way, you’d be hard pressed to find a diehard college football fan who wouldn’t punch their ticket to a closed Notre Dame practice.

Texas

After 5-7 and 8-5 finishes over the past two seasons, more than just Longhorn fans are wondering if Mack Brown has lost his magic touch at Texas.

Indeed, how do Top 5 ranked recruiting classes, top tier facilities, big-name coaches and all the media stroke you could dream of not equal double-digit win seasons?

A peek at Texas’ 2012 spring practices would no doubt shed some light on the rotation speed of the David Ash/Case McCoy QB wheel, but really the intrigue is greater in more general terms.

What interests me is what will Brown and his staff say to one of the top five talent pools in the nation in order to orchestrate them into the dominant program they were just two short years ago?

What drills to you run, what schemes do you teach and what combined set of methods will squash entitlement and coax leaders to the front of the pack that will ultimately result in 11 or 12 wins?

LSU

For me personally, I’d love to see Les Miles in action with the cameras off because I would imagine as entertaining as he is when the lights are on, things might even get dicier when he’s free to totally express himself.

LSU will be a favorite to repeat everything in 2012 that they achieved in 2011 (with one additional win) which means a spring day in Baton Rouge would give insight on how to shield the heat and then use it to motivate a talented group of athletes.

Beyond all this you’ve got a former homecoming queen kicking field goals and vying for a starting spot on one of the nation’s best football teams.

Sign me up right now.

Penn State

No one could have ever scripted how the Joe Paterno era at Penn State finally ended. 

Part horrific debacle and part Greek tragedy combined to shut the door on one of the great careers in all of coaching, and regardless of how it went down it's difficult not to be intrigued with what happens next for the Nittany Lions.

Enter stage left Bill O’Brien who may have landed in one of the most fascinating roles in the history of the game.

It’s Lincoln-esque and boy will it be interesting to see what he does both on the field and off.

Akron

Terry Bowden’s re-entry into the FBS head coaching ranks will be fascinating.

Here’s a guy who has coached at Salem, Samford, Auburn and North Alabama, has an overall record of 139-63-2 and now takes over at Akron who hasn’t won more than seven games since 1985.

It’s hard to say if Bowden’s goal at Akron is to manufacture a spring board back into a major college football coaching job or if instead he’s just looking to prove that he’s still capable of a major gridiron coup.

Either way I would love to see him on the bull horn up in Akron, Ohio and I’d have a camera handy just in case of a Jim Tressel sighting on campus.

The Zippy tour guide said to be ready just in case a sweater vest comes out of the bushes.

Florida

Will Muschamp’s bid to stay afloat in Gainesville begins once again, in earnest, when the Gators kick off their spring practices on March 14.

Muschamp is frankly in a bad spot as after last year’s seven-win product, he virtually has zero margin for error in 2012.

Florida is the type of program where winning is expected en mass now and who cares if you were heralded as the next great, young head college football coach.

The Gators version of spring ball will also feature, like Texas, a coaching staff searching for a way to turn obnoxious levels of raw talent into a winning football team that is still lacing it up when January rolls around.

New Mexico

Bob Davie’s elevator ride down from the broadcasting booth to the sidelines should be one of the more fascinating storylines of 2012, especially given the fact that he’s taking over the helm of a program that has won a total of three football games over the last three seasons.

Davie has done a lot of talking as an expert branded commentator (yes that was his job) which sets up the obvious intrigue of him having to walk the walk as opposed to just talking the talk.

New Mexico’s spring practice is one I’d personally accept an invite to.

Ohio State

The Buckeye’s 2012 spring practice offers up a healthy dose of the triumphant return of Urban Meyer as the next Ohioan to lead the team to glory.

Add in a young, talented QB that led a struggling offense last season and the questions of how you motivate a team that can’t compete after the regular season ends and you’ve got an attraction along with a complimentary nut necklace.

How different will the Buckeyes look under Meyer, can he really pump out wins to the tune of the now defunct Tressel era and will the Big Ten ever be the same?

Washington State

After two long seasons stuck on shore the swashbuckling, sword-swinging offensive minded pirate Mike Leach has a new vessel to lead onto the foamy green waters of college football.

But, will the abstract coach be the same guy after two years to think about everything and can he really make Washington State a consistent winner?

The excitement grows when you realize that the pass happy, spread ‘em out Leach will take over an offensive unit that already ranked No. 9 nationally in passing last season.

Spring at Washington State marks the lighting of a fuse attached to a yardage powder keg that may explode, in a big way, come September.

Maryland

Though it would be interesting to see if Randy Edsall, perched atop a seat that is heating up, can take 17 returning starters and improve on the devastating 2-10 performance in 2011, there are other reasons to show up at the Terps spring training.

Yes, I’d sneak in just to see what they are wearing behind the closed practice gates.

Seriously, if you look at what these guys were clad in on game day last season you’d have to be intrigued with what they’ve got going on in the spring.

I’d imagine that regardless of when Easter falls the Terps fashionista won’t hold the team to the old “white shoes only after Easter” rule or, for that matter, any other generally accepted style rules.

West Virginia

There are a plethora of reasons why the Mountaineers spring ball sessions might be a party worth crashing.

First, you’d get to watch a second-year coaching staff try and cash in on the momentum of their heady 70-33 beat down of Clemson in last season’s Orange Bowl.

Yes, do they try to bring them back to reality or do they just let them fly high right into the fall?

Then you’ve got the fact that these guys are suddenly prepping for the Big 12 rather than the Big East.

Gone are Syracuse, UConn and Rutgers and here to stay are games with Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas State.

Morgantown might be one of the best atmospheres in 2012’s version of spring practice.

Clemson

The flip side of West Virginia can be found down south at Clemson where controlling amped-up expectations is replaced by damage control.

Yes, Clemson won the ACC in 2012 and 10 wins is nothing to snort at, but how does Dabo Swinney and company go about putting a soothing balm on the 70-33 Orange Bowl debacle?

Can they turn devastation into motivation, and with only 14 starters returning will they be able to rise to the occasion that now includes expectations that only success can bring?

The good news is Swinney is just the kind of motivational, inspirational and bought-in coach to turn something bad into something even better than what was originally hoped for.

TCU

When the old Southwest Conference disbanded in 1996, TCU joined the WAC (which they won in 1999 and 2000) and then they hooked up with Conference USA in 2001 (they won the league crown in 2002) before finally signing on with the MWC in 2005 (they won it all there in 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011).

The Frogs have won wherever they’ve hopped off to, but they’ve done so knowing all along that their toil would never produce a national championship opportunity.

Yes, no matter how many games they won, no matter who they beat, the BCS system guaranteed that at least some of their efforts would be in vain.

All that changes, finally, as TCU rises from futility into membership in the Big 12, where many folks will argue they belonged all along.

Spring ball down in Fort Worth is what a great purple football people have dreamed of for 16 long years, and don’t you know it’s a beautiful thing to watch.

Goosebumps, excitement, anticipation…we finally made it.

Go Toads go.

“Love lift us up where we belong

Where the eagles cry

On a mountain high

Love lift us up where we belong

Far from the world we know

Up where the clear winds blow.”

-Joe Cocker and Gary Patterson

Stanford

With Andrew Luck off to be bartered for by the deep pockets of the NFL, elite Stanford is looking for a new gunslinger which makes spring in northern California a real gas.

Five guys have submitted their applications for a chance to take a snap for the sensational singular Cardinal and regardless of who comes out on top it’ll be intriguing to watch the competition heat up in the spring and then into the fall.

Who will win the right to have a foam tree shake it for them?

Oh the drama, oh the intrigue. Climb that fence baby!

Indiana

Indiana’s second-year head coach Kevin Wilson has to be as ready as anyone for spring ball, fall practice and then the 2012 season to get underway.

Yes, after suffering an agonizing 1-11 record in his first season as a head college football coach here is a guy who surely wants to erase it all by winning some ball games.

I for one think the Kevin Wilson is an excellent football coach and I’d show up in Bloomington to see how he approaches turning a horrific campaign into one where a team believes they can win.

Wilson will have 19 returning starters to get it done and if can right the ship at Indiana, it will be one of the great achievements of the 2012 season.

USC

With the veil of the postseason ban lifted it’s time for USC and Lane Kiffin to put up or shut up.

No team may be more anticipated and heralded coming into 2012, which means that the spring practice sessions should be suitably amped up with excitement, anticipation and pressure.

Wouldn’t you love to hear what Lane Kiffin is telling the Trojans and wouldn’t you enjoy being privy to the plans to repair a secondary that ranked No. 102 against the pass last season?

It’s the perfect spring cocktail: one part young coach who is expected to win it all but never has, one part flaxen-haired golden-armed QB who came back to return Troy to glory and two parts southern California weather.

Stick a plastic sword loaded up with fruit into the glass and I’m there.

FAU

Florida Atlantic has know just one head coach in its relatively brief 11 years as a bona fide college football program, and that guy was the legendary Howard Schnellenberger who played end at Kentucky from 1952-56 and led Miami FL to a national title in 1983.

But, the Schnellenberger era at FAU is now over and in his place is the defensive minded Carl Pelini who will try his hand at head coaching by taking over where the gracious old man left off.

Will this be the beginning of a glorious career for Pelini the Younger and will his veins pop out to the same tune as Pelini the Younger?

What will the change mean for FAU and will this be the beginning of a rise up the charts in the Sun Belt?

If nothing else, I’d like to see Pelini get his start and watch the atmospheric change as a guy finally gets his shot at a young upstart program that is in a good situation to succeed.

Oklahoma

The last time the Sooners won it all, and by that I mean the big cheesy BCS enchilada, the Stoops brothers of Youngstown, Ohio were together on the sidelines.

Yes, since brother Mike left brother Bobby for Arizona, Oklahoma has played well but they haven’t added any crystal footballs to the trophy case.

Spring practice in Norman will feature Peaches and Herb singing their triple platinum smash hit "Reunited” as the Stoops boys hook back up for yet another season on the glorious turf.

And this isn’t necessarily all about nepotism, the Oklahoma defense needs help that Mike could very well provide.

The Sooners D ranked No. 31 in scoring, No. 44 in rushing defense and was a scary No. 79 against the pass last season (good thing Mike will coach the DBs as well as serving as DC).

These are numbers that all have to be improved if Oklahoma really is a for-real contender in 2012.

Spring ball at Oklahoma, sit and watch the wind blow and the defense get scary good.

Vanderbilt

Vandy went 6-7 last season in coach James Franklin’s first season with the reins firmly in hand in Nashville, and for the most part they looked good doing it.

Franklin is a fiery fellow and he’s obviously passionate and committed to making the long suffering Commodores a force to be reckoned with in the SEC East.

Yes, if any guy can get Vanderbilt off the “at least we’ll beat them” list it might be Franklin, who is likely be a coaching entity we hear more from as the years gently roll on.

Coming into 2012 Franklin has 18 returning starters and the No. 29 (per Rivals.com) ranked incoming recruiting class to work with, and it’s important to note that this is the first Vandy class to hit the Top 50 radar in forever.

I’d love to sit in on a closed Vanderbilt practice and see what this guy is saying to a team that basically has the deck stacked against them, but will no doubt play like they are going to the SEC title game.

And I hope they actually do.