Best College Football Spring Game Moments of Recent Memory

College football's spring season is all about hope and ambition, a time when everyone is undefeated and the chance to stay that way in the fall seems plausible. Optimism wins out over reality, at least for a little while.

It has also become an opportunity for players, coaches and fans to have a little fun, at least for a brief moment, in the middle of what's meant to be preparation for the season ahead. This tends to happen most during the spring games, the various scrimmages and exhibitions that cap off spring ball and are meant more as window dressing than a true assessment of potential performance.

The last few years have seen a lot of memorable moments during and in conjunction with spring games, and we've highlighted some of the best examples. A few more could happen this weekend, as about two dozen FBS programs (including 14 from the power conferences) hold their spring games, but for now here are the ones that most stand out.

Baker Mayfield's Tease of Things to Come

Baker Mayfield wasn't eligible to play for Oklahoma last season after transferring from Texas Tech, a scenario he appealed but did not end up winning. That appeal wasn't denied until August, however, so when he participated in spring practice with the Sooners in 2014 it was with the hope that he'd be able to contribute that fall.

That made his "perfect" performance in the spring game even more frustrating for Sooners fans after the fact, since they knew the quarterback who completed all nine of his passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns wouldn't get to show that effort in a real game until 2015.

"The guys in our program love him and we look forward to him being eligible whenever that is," then-Oklahoma offensive coordinator Josh Heupel said, per a school news release.

Now that Mayfield is able to play, he's in a battle with Trevor Knight and Cody Thomas for the starting job this fall. Operating out of an Air Raid offense similar to what he ran at Texas Tech, Mayfield threw for 176 yards and a TD on 10-of-13 passing but was also intercepted twice.

Beast Mode Revisited

Homecoming isn't the only time that former players get a chance to return to college and hang with the team. California great Marshawn Lynch instead chose the Golden Bears' 2013 spring game to visit his alma mater, but the Seattle Seahawks' star took it one step farther by donning a full uniform and getting into the action.

Lynch even scored a touchdown in his brief performance, which came both as a publicity stunt for first-year coach Sonny Dykes and because Cal only had two healthy running backs available for the game. He didn't need to go "Beast Mode," as he's been known to do in NFL games, instead juking defenders at the line of scrimmage and at the second level before cutting upfield almost untouched.

That kind of run might have come in handy for Cal in a real game that year, as the Bears went 1-11 and ranked 106th in rushing offense.

Bo Pelini and His Furry Friend

The successful-but-not-successful-enough tenure of Bo Pelini at Nebraska was filled with plenty of tense and anger-filled moments from the maligned head coach, but through it all he still managed to have a sense of humor at times. No occasion stood out more than prior to what would be his final spring game, in April 2014, when Pelini decided to mix Twitter with reality on the field at Memorial Stadium.

In homage to @FauxPelini, a parody account that features a Glamour Shots-style photo of the coach and a cat, Pelini led the Cornhuskers on their signature tunnel walk and onto the turf holding a furry feline. He then held the cat aloft, going full Lion King, before 76,881 fans.

That was the largest spring game crowd of the year, and probably also ranks at or near the top of the list of the most well-attended cat presentations.

Pelini was fired after the 2014 season, despite winning nine games for the seventh straight year, and is now head coach at FCS Youngstown State. YSU had its spring game on April 17, but no cats were involved in the scrimmage this time around.

Ohio State's Record-Setting Crowd

Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

Scholarship limitations and other factors have helped to level the playing field a bit in college football, making it at least possible (if not probable) that the little guys have a chance to beat the big boys between the lines.

In the bleachers, though, it's a whole different story.

Only a select few programs have the drawing power to make their spring games a worthwhile experience for fans. That's why, of the 46 schools from which SB Nation has collected spring game attendance numbers this year, only 23 had at least 10,000 fans on hand and a mere 10 were able to top the 30,000-person threshold.

And then there was Ohio State, which somehow managed to turn a glorified practice into a must-see event that ranked up there with a visit from the Pope or One Direction.

A national-record 99,391 fans poured into Ohio Stadium on Saturday to see the defending national champions, even though many of the stars either didn't play or saw very limited action. None of that mattered, because people were willing to come just for the experience...and they paid $5 apiece to do so.

"Scalpers circled the stadium like sharks as an ancillary ticket market took shape—for a spring game," Bleacher Report's Adam Kramer wrote. "Ticket lines wrapped around buildings. Parking lots overflowed, and the traffic pattern looked more like that of a Michigan game than spring."

Street Clothes Scoring

The spring game is for the fans, first and foremost. And that includes superfans, which most college programs end up having, but only a few of whom have the kind of clout to get a chance to be in on the action.

Much like Kentucky's men's basketball team allowed rapper Drake to go through warmups and the layup line before its Midnight Madness event last October, South Carolina let Hootie and the Blowfish singer (and Palmetto State native) Darius Rucker get involved in its spring game on April 10.

The Gamecocks even let him run a play, street clothes and all, catching a touchdown pass from Connor Mitch on which he was so wide open he was probably already in the end zone before the ball was snapped.

Mississippi State went the no-uniform-needed route as well, though in its case it was to give a former player another shot at glory. Anthony Dixon, a running back who last played for the Bulldogs in 2009, slipped onto the field and caught a 59-yard touchdown pass from Nick Fitzgerald.

"We gotta cover the NFL players when they show up deep out of nowhere, but we'll work on that at halftime," MSU defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said on SEC Network (h/t Brad Crawford of Saturday Down South).

Toomer's Corner Sendoff

Not all the best spring game moments are 100 percent happy. Many are borne of heartache and sadness, though some semblance of achievement and closure can come from them.

That was the case in 2012 when Auburn fans took part in one last rolling of the trees at Toomer's Corner before the famed oaks were cut down. The trees had to be removed as a result of being poisoned by an Alabama fan, Harvey Updyke, who admitted to doing so in 2010 in retaliation for Auburn's rally past the Crimson Tide in that year's Iron Bowl.

"Even though it's a sad occasion that we're going to lose the trees, everybody is excited, and it's kind of a celebration for the tradition that it is," Auburn fan Alan McKinney told James Crepea of USA Today in April 2012.

New trees have since been planted, and the school has asked fans not to start rolling them with toilet paper until the 2016 season.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.