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Hugh Freeze would like to change up spring game formats
Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze has a novel idea for a spring game format.
In an interview with the A to Z Show on ESPN Radio Nashville, Freeze said he'd love it if teams could scrimmage other teams during spring games. He said he feels his team doesn't gain as much from the traditional intra-squad scrimmage spring game format than it would with just another practice.
"I’ve been publicly saying I’m not a fan of the traditional spring game that we’re currently doing, Freeze said in his interview Monday. The kids want to divide up, the fans want you to divide up and really — I’m not sure how much we get out of it. I know we don’t get as much out of it if we were to just have another practice against each other but that’s not what everyone wants to see, so I kind of give in to that. I would love to see us be able to scrimmage another team and that way you can go ones on ones, twos on twos, threes on threes, really get something out of it and maybe even adopt a charity. Each team does that whether it’s a 1-AA opponent or a local opponent that you don’t play in the regular season. I think there would be a lot of interest in that. I wish we could do something like that."
You can listen to the entire interview here.
We like the idea a lot, even if teams were playing lower-level opponents. There's little sacred about the spring game tradition that needs to be saved and it's easy to see how fan interest would spike if teams weren't simply playing against themselves. And if we can dream a little bit, imagine if Texas and Texas A&M, Missouri and Kansas or any other longtime but currently not-being-played rivalry was reignited for a spring game? College football would become an even-bigger April topic in those areas.
Freeze said he would bring up the idea at the SEC's spring meetings in Destin, Fla. Current NCAA spring practice rules limit teams to 15 practices. Eight of those can be live-contact and three of the live-contact practices can include over 50 percent contact, usually in the form of an intra-squad scrimmage.
"I’m going to bring it up in our meetings in Destin and feel out how our coaches would feel about it and the conference would have to make the proposal," Freeze said. "And hopefully we can make that and I think it’d be a really fun event for everybody and at the same time we could give back because of all we’ve been blessed in this sport to have."
For more Ole Miss news, visit RebelGrove.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
