A Grip on Sports: Spring football still has a spot among college athletics’ ever-changing landscape and for that we can be happy
A GRIP ON SPORTS • For a while in the past couple years, there seemed to be a chance spring football would disappear from the college landscape. Another victim of unfettered free agency. But the restrictions the NCAA placed on transfer-portal activity this year seems to have tamped down the possibility. And for that, we all should be thankful.
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• After all, how often during the regular season can a fan watch a team run through drills, run through each other and then finish up with linemen floundering around, trying to field punts?
There is a throwback lightness to the spring, giving the younger generation a glance at how their great-grandparents used to treat the sport before it became big business, rivaling IBM or U.S. Steel.
Spring football can still touch the past. A past when there was more time. Time to have fun, time to interact, time to be college players. Not just time to go to work. To collect a paycheck. To talk with an agent.
That golden time may have begun slipping away 80 years ago, sure, but it once was. Will never be again. Except in glimpses, usually in the spring. Appropriate, right? The calendar tells us now is about rebirth and growth. And that the first game is a few months away. Both are important, sure. But the young men who play the sport are allowed to turn their minds this time of year toward their love of the game. While they learn the lessons they will need to be successful when the leaves that are forming this morning begin their annual descent into a compost pile.
College football has lost a lot of its soul the past few years. Maybe losing spring workouts wouldn’t have been mourned by everyone, not to the extent ancient conference rivalries and the SEC’s dominance are bemoaned by the nation and the South, respectively. But if the practices held this time of year disappear, another of football’s horcruxes will disappear with it. Too many have already been lost. And the sport needs to hang on to as many as it can.
• Ya, I may have accidentally donned my rose-colored glasses this morning. My bad. I left them by the bed last night after watching Andrés Muñoz escape a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning last night.
For once, it wasn’t of the closer’s making, which is progress. But not as much progress as his four-pitch, game-ending strike out was. Or the M’s putting up seven runs. Or, bottom line time, a win.
If the Rangers’ Brandon Nimmo had greeted Muñoz with a bases-clearing double or something – the M’s led 7-3 when the righthander entered – there wouldn’t have been enough rose coloring in the world to mask the terror. That the game ended the way it did allowed everyone from Tukwila to Walla Walla to breathe a bit easier.
On a Saturday night in mid-April, with the M’s mired near the bottom of the American League West, that’s enough.
• Often late at night I turn on SportsCenter to catch up on the results and highlights from around the NBA or NHL or whatever. What I don’t turn it on for is commentary about WrestleMania CMLXXXIII or whatever number the conglomerate is up to now.
Yes, I know the “E” in ESPN stands for entertainment. That dates back to 1979, when the fledgling cable network couldn’t fill 10 hours a day, let alone 24, with sports. But that’s not the case anymore. The number of sports that aren’t scripted has reached quadruple digits, so there is more than enough to keep the “S” in its name humming along eight days a week.
Treating a wrestling show like it’s the NFL draft or the CFP is a choice, that’s for sure. One that cheapens every other mid-level sport ESPN broadcasts.
When the folks who cover MMA and other combat sports for the network show up to shill for a pure entertainment enterprise, it makes one wonder if the other sports they cover regularly also feature a scripted outcome. Look, if Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee want to show up and toss around some beer and one-liners, that’s fine. No one takes what they say seriously in any context anymore. They are the perfect fit. But putting veteran anchors Gary Striewski and Randy Scott out front? Seems a bit off-kilter.
Next time the two are reporting the latest NFL injury or NBA betting scandal, all I’ll be able to think about is their stellar work Saturday night analyzing Randy Orton’s made-for-TV blood flow.
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WSU: If these spring football practices have shown us anything, they’ve shown Kirby Moore’s offense should be deep in running backs. That’s part of what emerged, and was covered by Greg Woods, in Saturday’s second major scrimmage of the spring. Maxwell Woods was the headliner again. … David Riley’s reach certainly encompasses more than just the Northwest. The men’s program’s sixth addition from the portal, guard Jaylen Harrell, comes from Providence and played his high school basketball in Massachusetts. Greg has that story as well. … Theo Lawson’s Pac-12 portal tracker documents the movement. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, as we mentioned yesterday, Jon Wilner is concerned the bowl lineup is really not set, at least not as the reconstituted conference is concerned. His column is on the S-R site this morning. … Washington is nine practices into its spring schedule. The freshmen are starting to stand out. … We mentioned yesterday an Oregon receiver is running track. Dakorien Moore is just embracing the learning aspect of college. The Ducks scrimmaged yesterday. … California held its first spring game under new coach Tosh Lupoi. The Bears are not a finished product. … Neither is Colorado, though the Buffs saw a leader or two emerge. … Utah fans seem excited for the new era in Utes football. … San Diego State fans watched an offense actually produce stellar plays yesterday. … Arizona’s followers can cheer on a couple of new elite linebackers. … Utah State’s saw a physical team end its workouts.
• In basketball news, Wilner also has his thoughts on the upcoming Pac-12 men’s race in the Mercury News this morning. He picks Gonzaga atop the rankings and has Washington State slotted seventh. … Oregon State’s incoming transfers seem to have some pedigree. And the Beavers also have some experience. … Oregon added another player Saturday. … San Diego State is going to schedule a tough nonconference slate no matter what conference it is in. … Randy Bennett is reportedly focused on building a staff at Arizona State. … Tommy Lloyd’s staff is focused on keeping the Wildcats on top of the ever-changing world of college hoops. … The Washington women added another transfer. … So did Colorado.
Gonzaga: Chet Holmgren led Gonzaga to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. He’s done the same, at least in seeding number, with Oklahoma City and the NBA playoffs. How? Through hard work. … One of Gonzaga’s former high school recruiting targets, Nik Khamenia, is not headed back to the West. He’s leaving Duke for Connecticut.
Idaho: The Vandals’ scrimmage Saturday included a couple special guests. At least for quarterback Joshua Woods. As Peter Harriman tells us, Wood’s parents made the trek from Western Washington to watch their son direct the UI offense. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana State attracted home a couple Montana-centric football assistants. … Northern Colorado also hired someone with ties to the program. … The Portland State men’s basketball program has signed five transfers, including two from Western Washington.
Preps: It was a busy Saturday for the 2A members of the Greater Spokane League. Dave Nichols has a roundup of baseball and softball action.
Indians: Dave was also at Avista last night, covering an 11-1 rout for Vancouver. Spokane’s hitting woes from Friday carried over. The Canadians’ did not.
Mariners: We linked Adam Jude’s game story above. And do it again here. … Brendan Donovan had to sit with a bid hip. … Emerson Hancock is doing better as he fills in for the injured Bryce Miller. Which gives the M’s a choice to make when Miller returns. … Kade Anderson is also pushing for time as he dominates Double-A.
Seahawks: The Bob Condotta history lesson we linked in the Times? It’s on the S-R site today, so we link it again.
Kraken: The Times story about the players reacted to the season’s disappointment is available on the S-R site today. We link it again.
Sounders: Cristian Roldan scored a couple goals and Seattle earned a 4-1 victory over St. Louis City.
Storm: With such a major rebuilding effort underway, there are lots of questions facing Seattle as it begins training camp.
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• I moved to Spokane more than 40 years ago. Which means few if any of the folks I worked with in Southern California are still around. There will be one fewer soon. Until later …