By Stephen Cooney
As flowers begin to blossom and animals begin to wake from their hibernation in the spring, so do football programs.
Spring Football is a season of change, finding yourself and filling holes left in the team from graduation. Early decision recruits and transfers help fill in the roster while young players gain experience and begin to get experience and learn the intricacies of the offense and defense. Coaches use this time to evaluate their young talent, and begin to prepare depth charts for upcoming training camp. Spring Ball allows for coaches to get a grasp and understanding of where their team stands, how new recruits will fit in and what they need to prepare for next season. Everyone knows that spring ball is a time to fine-tune some problems and prepare for the fall. Surprisingly, the Pride football team was not the only team on the field fine-tuning their game.
I had access to the sidelines as the photographer, and I overheard a lot of very interesting conversations. I actually was involved in a few. Sorry to disappoint everyone, but these were not interesting conversations between players or coaches, they were conversations and coaching points between officials. This may seem strange – and at first I thought that it was – but I realized something throughout the game: that it is better to have the officials making mistakes in spring ball than in the regular season.
I was watching a good portion of the spring game through a camera lens, but was able to see everything that was going on, and then became very tuned into what the officials were doing throughout the game. I am not forgiving the officials for mistakes, and it was actually a glaring lack of attention to detail that first made me tune into the officials conversations.
After a long run by running back Larry Gaskins, the field judge came streaming past me. He was headed full steam towards the line judge. I thought this was weird and strolled down towards their conference. This is where I overheard one of the most interesting conversations ever.
“Did you see that?” the field judge asked.
“See what? What are you talking about?” the line judge said.
“That cut block.” Field judge said. “The one that was right in front of you. Did you see that? I saw it back there. It looked okay, but I couldn’t tell. Did you see it?”
“What cut?” Was the only response that the line judge could return.
This is where I became engrossed in the conversations of the officials. I saw the cut, I was staring down the camera of my lens right into the eyes of Gaskins, and I saw the cut. My immediate question was what this guy possibly looking at that he didn’t see the cut. Now I have to admit that I didn’t see anything wrong with the cut, and the field judge also said he believed it to be a clean cut, and then went into an explanation of what was and what was not a clean cut before enforcing the fact that the line judge has to see those types of plays.
At this I became pleased. Luckily no one was hurt on the play, but it is a good thing that that type of oversight was caught in spring ball because the type of cuts on the outside can make a difference between a 10-yard gain and two-yard loss. These plays cannot go unnoticed, especially by the officials. They are the types of plays that get players complimented in the film room or get them scolded, but no official can let an illegal cut go without notice. It can mean the game. I was impressed with the field judge’s discipline and ability to school the staff and make sure everyone was paying attention to detail.
Throughout the game I listened and watched the officials discuss plays and teach where they should stand in order to have a good view of everything going on during the play. This was pleasing. The officials may not have been thrilled to come officiate a spring game, but they were using it as an opportunity to make themselves better.
Overall I was pleased with what I saw at the spring game. Players usually do not enjoy spring ball, but they understood how important it is to use this time to make themselves better. It was pleasing to see that everyone involved was using the game to advance some part of their effect on the game. Even I was using this game to hone in on some of my photography skills for next season. I was not excited to go to the game, but I knew it was worth it to get a chance to practice some shooting before it came down to the important game moments. Obviously everyone else involved had come to this conclusion as well.
I enjoyed the game and also the show that the Pride offense put on. I liked a few of my pictures, too, but more importantly I was extremely impressed that the perennial scapegoats or “zebras” were using this game to fine-tune their yellow flag-throwing abilities.