College Football Spring Games 2012: Teams with Most to Gain from Scrimmages

College football spring games are in full swing and some of the country's biggest powerhouses have the most to gain in the coming weekends.

Not just big names either, but title contenders, and some of the biggest jobs are up for grabs.

Spring games aren't the end all, be all for players, but it does give them a chance to impress their coaches one last time before they break for the summer. Soon enough they'll be back to practice and the season will be closing in rapidly.

Here's a look at a few teams with the most to gain from upcoming spring games.

USC

They have the best quarterback in the nation and are currently the odds-on favorite to win the BCS Championship, according to Bovada.

USC isn't worried about Matt Barkley and the rest of his offensive playmaking pals, but they would like to know how they can stop other teams from forcing the Trojans to score so many points.

They'll take to the field this weekend with important position battles going down on the defensive interior and secondary.

Their back four has shortage of depth, but they'll need to start defining roles. The middle of their front seven, meanwhile, has at least three players vying for the nose guard spot and a few others backing up the defensive tackle.

Coach Lane Kiffin and his staff hope they can start putting things together after this weekend.

Notre Dame

The Blue Gold Game is still a little over a week away, but the Irish have themselves a quarterback competition that needs sorting sooner than later.

Incumbent Tommy Rees is back, but coach Brian Kelly has three other options—Andrew Hendrix, Everett Golson and Gunner Kiel—also in the mix.

All are talented and bring different attributes to the field, but only one can be the starter. That notion isn't lost on coach Kelly, but no player has stepped up and taken charge just yet.

Next weekend's game is going to be a great opportunity for them to see exactly what everyone can do in a game-time situation.

Rees is the obvious front-runner, but it wouldn't be surprising at all to see Hendrix fight his way into this spot.

Alabama

The reigning champion Crimson Tide come into this spring game with an interesting set of circumstances.

They lost a number of superstars to the NFL this season and it is going to be incredibly difficult to repeat. Their best hopes lie with quarterback A.J. McCarron taking complete control of this offense and that will start this weekend at the A-Day Game.

Coach Nick Saban also has to sort out the depth at running back and has to piece together a secondary that lost 75 percent of its starters.

No team draws a crowd to a spring game like the Alabama Crimson Tide do—this weekend is bigger than just the roster.

As per usual, we can expect a lot of buzz going in and coming out of the game.

Auburn

The Tigers are doing a ton of adjusting this spring and summer, but this game should help separate some of the contending players from the pretending players.

Coach Gene Chizik has a three-horse race going on at quarterback, a running back position to fill thanks to the transfer of Michael Dyer and his wide receivers are still trying to put things altogether.

Auburn's defense will dominate the A-Day Game, so when an offensive player makes a play you can bet that everyone is going to notice.

There's a better than likely chance that the quarterback competition extends into the summer and possibly through the fall, but this is a chance for all three signal-callers to make an impression.