Spring game Saturday: Takeaways

College football’s biggest day of the spring went down Saturday as 48 FBS programs took the field for spring games or open practices.

Among those 48 programs hosting spring games were a number of the nation’s top programs. Spring games offer us the first glimpse at these teams ahead of the season, and while you don’t want to put too much stock in what happens in a scrimmage, there are some things we can learn.

Here are takeaways from some of the top teams in action on Saturday — surprise, there are lots of quarterback updates.

Boston College — Maroon 6, White 2: Alright, so this wasn’t part of our original plans, but I’m just going to leave this right here.

Final from Alumni Stadium is Maroon 6, White 2. #BCEagles

— BCFootballNews (@BCFootballNews) April 16, 2016

That is a 6-2 score in a spring football game that was scored using a standard system. That’s two field goals and one safety. Boston College football is beautiful in its ugliness.

Notre Dame — Blue 17, Gold 10: The talk coming into the Notre Dame spring game was the quarterback battle, and after Saturday, not much has changed. Brian Kelly said after the game that he didn’t think anyone separated themselves in a 17-7 win for the blue team (led by DeShone Kizer). Kizer was the best quarterback on Saturday, particularly on his first few drives; he finished 10 of 17 for 113 yards. Malik Zaire wasn’t as accurate — he did have some dropped — going 6 of 15 for 120 yards. Both showed flashes, including some very nice deep passes, and while Kizer was a bit better than Zaire, it wasn’t enough to create significant separation in the competition.

As for the MVP of the game, Kelly told NBC he thought it was the punter Tyler Newsome. So that should tell you how this game went.

Ohio State — Gray 28, Scarlet 17: Ohio State set a national attendance record with over 100,000 people at The Horseshoe on Saturday. Those folks watched a pretty ho-hum spring game without much drama, which is pretty much how coaches like it. Quarterback J.T. Barrett looked solid, and the defenses were pretty good. Joe Burrow, the backup QB, played well. Defensive back Malik Hooker had a pair of interceptions on the afternoon. There are still a lot of position battles to be decided this fall for Ohio State, and the spring game provides another evaluation point.

Miami — Green 24, Orange 7: Mark Richt said his biggest concern coming out of the spring game continues to be roster depth, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to Miami fans. The good news is that the reigns seem to be taken off of quarterback Brad Kaaya, who looked very good in the new system, completing 29-of-49 passes for 345 yards, 3 touchdowns and an interception. It appears as though Richt and the new coaching staff is ready to let Kaaya take on more responsibility this year and take advantage of his talent.

Tennessee — Orange 70, White 63: Tennessee didn’t use a traditional scoring system but held a lot of mini-competitions in between full team activities. The Vols return a lot of talent and those returning stars looked comfortable, as they should. Talent and ability isn’t the question for the Vols this year; learning how to finish games is the key, and we won’t know if they’ve improved in that regard until the season.

Oh, and Allen Iverson was in the house for some reason.

We’ve got The Answer pic.twitter.com/fZ9f0t6KxC

— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) April 16, 2016

Texas — Texas 21, Horns 7: If the spring game is any indication, the Texas quarterback competition has a new front runner in Shane Buechele, who lit it up in the first half as Tyrone Swoopes struggled.

FWIW, #Texas QBs in spring game at halftime: Shane Buchele: 24-41, 299 yds, 2 TDs, 0 INTs. Tyrone Swoopes: 4-16, 71 yds, 0 TDs, 2 INTs.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) April 16, 2016

Spring game stats aren’t everything, but that’s a pretty significant difference in production from the two quarterbacks. Due to rain, the Longhorns only played one half in the spring game, but Buchele certainly showed out in that half of football.

Alabama — Crimson 7, White 3: Shocker, Alabama’s defense is really good again. Tim Williams is a monster from the defensive end slot and disrupted the first team offense without Cam Robinson in at tackle. The rest of the defense was its usual dominant self, showing no signs of slippage in the transition from Kirby Smart to Jeremy Pruitt.

All three quarterbacks flashed some nice play, but finishing drives was an issue — an issue that most every offense has against Alabama. Fans of the Tide won’t like the field goal issues from Adam Griffith (1 of 5) after he had a great end to 2015.

Georgia — Black 34, Red 14: The biggest takeaway from Georgia’s spring game is that Jacob Eason’s the real deal. He was 16 of 28 for 218 yards with a touchdown. Whether he starts from day one or not, he’s got all the talent in the world and made some tremendous throws on Saturday. The other takeaway, at least offensively for the Bulldogs, is that the tight end is back. After getting only 30 catches by tight ends in 2015, Georgia’s offense found the tight end early and often in the spring game with Isaac Nauta emerging as a playmaker on Saturday.

LSU — Purple 17, White 7: Unsurprisingly the defense shined brightest at LSU’s spring game, holding the offenses to 24 points as Dava Aranda’s group looked strong. The quarterbacks both played solidly with Brandon Harris completing 8-of-12 passes for 56 yards and Danny Etling going 4 of 7 for 93 yards and a touchdown (a 70 yard bomb to Dee Anderson).

Leonard Fournette didn’t see much action, but he did what he does best when given a few opportunities to tote the rock, trucking a poor teammate into oblivion.

Retweet if you’ve seen @_fournette do this before. pic.twitter.com/0HWYwdtuEA

— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) April 16, 2016

USC — 6 p.m., Pac-12 Network: This will be Clay Helton’s first time running a spring practice as the Trojans make the transition to Helton as the full-time coach. There are new coordinators on both sides of the ball — although newly promoted offensive coordinator Tee Martin has been on staff for years — and quarterback Cody Kessler is gone so Max Browne and Sam Darnold are vying for the opportunity to start for the Trojans.