Two College Football Spring Scrimmages

So in the past week I've been to two different college football spring scrimmages.

The first was at Arizona State.
Stadium: Set in the side of a hill to provide maximum shade and protection from the hot sun, Sun Devil Stadium is truly a scenic and unique setting to watch some football. The stadium actually has 3 tiers to it, with the middle tier sitting only about 5-6 rows of seats. It wraps around in a complete horseshoe, seating 75,000 fans total.
Game: Here's the thing about spring scrimmages- Coaches don't want their star players to get hurt. So true to form, ASU held out their star QB Rudy Carpenter. And his back-up looked like... what's the word? Crap. Here is a summary of how things went- Dropped pass just out of bounds. 1-yard pass from the backfield. Tipped incomplete pass (too high) across the middle of the field. Wide-left field goal attempt. Bad pass out of bounds. Dropped pass across the middle. False start. False start. Long-bomb interception. Good 6-yard pass, receiver completely laid-out by a hard hit from the middle linebacker, slow to get back up. Nice run by an RB (the only running play of the day). False start. QB sack. Interception. Another interception. Way too high pass incomplete. 3-yard pass across the middle. Long bomb bobbled and finally dropped along the sideline. Hey, the defense looked great!

BYU was the second scrimmage I attended, the Blue & White game. It was a beautiful April day in Provo, Utah, and I actually even got a little sunburned! Plus I got a classic Cougar pulled-pork sandwich (though for some odd reason it was served in a sliced bagel). Nearly 17,000 fans showed up for the event.

Stadium: Lavell Edwards Stadium seats 65,000. It is an incredible place to watch a football game, especially if you sit on the west side with an amazing panoramic view of the Wasatch mountainside. There's only one level on seating, but it reaches high up into the air. And the stadium has a solid 4 sides to it, but the corners are not connected.Game: BYU followed a similar scrimmage style to ASU. The starting QB, Max Hall, came out for offensive drills but didn't play in the scrimmage itself. Same with WRs Austin Collie and Mike Reed, RBs Harvey Unga, Manase Tonga, and Fui Vakapuna, TEs Dennis Pitta and Andrew George, and others. That opened the door for the back-up quarterbacks (Brenden Gaskins and Kurt McEuen) and talented youngsters such as RBs J.J. DiLuigi and Wayne Latu, and WRs Spencer Hafoka and Luke Ashworth, among others. The defense didn't use nearly any 2nd-stringers like I thought they would, keeping mainly to 3rd and 4th-stringers like DB Jameson Frazier (who I had never heard of before). We did get a peek at some talented, athletic new guys though in the drills beforehand... guys like Andrew Rich, G Pittman, Brandon Bradley, and others. Overall, the offense dominated, looking very good, very sharp. The defense is my main concern for the coming season, but they look to be reloading very smoothly as well. Both sides of the ball should be strong in the coming year. Top 10 offense and Top 30 defense are good goals for the team in their BCS-busting-goal year coming up.

3 Good things:
Hot Dogs
Mustard
Ramps (as opposed to stairs... like for pushing a baby stroller up)

Overrated: Trying to judge how good a team is based on seeing them play themself. If the offense looks good, is the defense that bad? Gotta wait for game #1 unfortunately, and even then it was just the first game of the season.