Spring Football Takeaways: With the Final Game in the Books, It's Time to Assess

Just like that, another season of spring football has come and gone.

UCLA closed out its offseason campaign with its spring game on Saturday and, in turn, closed the book on spring ball altogether. You’re devastated, clearly. Not really, but any form of football is better than no football at all. So, yeah, we’re all thrown back into the ugly, football-deprived abyss. It’s so dark down here.

The darkest days of the offseason are upon us. Recruiting is somewhat quiet and calm—although there really is no calm these days—and the focus will now turn to the radical postseason changes. 

How four teams will play one another in a playoff starting in 2014 is currently being discussed by those with the power to turn these conversations into something more. Details, answers and other information will begin to surface as summer kicks into gear. Before we officially turn our attention to this, however, there is still spring football to be digested. 

Drawing concrete conclusions based off practices and a celebrated scrimmage is reckless, and we’re going to keep the “THIS PLAYER WILL WIN THE HEISMAN BASED OFF THIS SPRING GAME BOX SCORE” proclamations to a minimum. This important month of offseason prep, however, can provide tidbits on individual players, coaches, new faces in new places and the overall state of a program as they embark on a new season of sorts.

Consider this my takeaway on the spring season that was, the last bit of actual football we’ll be able to assess for the next three months. Well, #$%^.

Zach Mettenberger is a radical change for LSU, and this is tremendous news

We knew he had the arm, we knew he had the size and we knew he would be the man under center this fall. The potential has always been there, but the reviews out of the Tigers’ spring camp morphed this potential into something more. Mettenberger capped off this positive offseason transition by completing 14 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns in the team’s spring game.

His performance has brought on plenty of excitement, and certainly, much of this was anticipated. After LSU’s trainwreck in the national championship game, any change at QB would be a welcome one.

It’s unknown how much of this success we’ll see once meaningful whistles are blown, but if Mettenberger can improve the quarterback play at all—and the threat of the deep ball alone should be a start—then LSU could have another strength on a team already loaded with them.

On the topic of quarterbacks, look out for Teddy Bridgewater

Last year, the true freshman showed flashes of brilliance for Louisville and also made the mistakes you’d expect of a young quarterback thrown into the fire.

He’s not quite as young now (although still pretty damn young), and in Louisville’s spring game, Bridgewater completed 19 of 21 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns. This was a perfect conclusion (or at least intermission) to an offseason in which Bridgewater added 18 pounds to his frame and tightened up his throwing mechanics. He’ll also lead a team in 2012 that has only nine seniors, as youth and talent are in the air.

His freshman year was just a taste, and we didn’t need to see a superb spring performance to know Teddy Bridgewater will be a menace in a couple of months.

Forget a couple of months—Steve Spurrier’s trash talk is in midseason form, which is refreshing, wonderful and scary for some

Speaking with ESPN, the Ol’ Ball Coach took a loving shot at Georgia and its history of suspensions while also throwing around a casual comparison between John Calipari and Nick Saban. This is wonderful news for college football fans and potentially bad news for the SEC.

This is vintage Spurrier, a persona that was thought to be pronounced dead once he left Florida. It’s refreshing to see this is alive and well. On the field, South Carolina’s biggest question mark will be the health of running back Marcus Lattimore. All signs sound good at this point, which is perhaps why Spurrier hasn't turned away the microphone.

Stay tuned to see if this talk is boredom-based or Spurrier’s feistiness is warranted. (Either way, we’ll take it.)

So long, spring—Arkansas bids you a rather brisk farewell

The motorcycle crash, the details surrounding Bobby Petrino’s mistress and unexpected affinity for text messages, his firing and then the hiring of former Razorback John L. Smith—it was a bizarre spring for the Hogs, who will enter the fall without their offensive mastermind but with a quarterback who's capable of just about anything.

Tyler Wilson was masterful in the Arkansas spring game, completing 31 of 41 passes for 467 yards and three touchdowns. He did this before Arkansas knew who would be its next head coach for 2012, and his presence alone is enough to be excited about.

Smith’s late spring arrival, although unexpected in many ways, brought welcome stability to a program desperately in need.

While we don’t welcome these next few quiet few months as fans, the Hogs will gladly close the curtain for now.

Then there’s USC, where interceptions were plentiful and tackling was not

And that’s just fine. No, seriously. It is.

Matt Barkley was picked off more than anticipated throughout spring practice, which means he’s in for an absolutely awful season and the past year was a fluke. If this is your actual thought process, please throw your computer out the window. It won’t do you any good.

USC, which dealt with injuries all spring, chose to go with a non-tackling spring game to avoid further damage. Not the worst idea given the extent of some of the injuries, but it also made a meaningless scrimmage even that much more meaningless.

Wide receiver Robert Woods is recovering from ankle surgery, Matt Barkley is throwing interceptions like it's the thing to do and the team is choosing not to hit one another at the risk of digging deeper into a depth chart with little room to move.

If you need a case study on why spring football assessments should be tempered, look at the Trojans. They will be good—really good—and their flag football game will be forgotten when September rolls around.