SEC Spring Football Schedule
SCHOOL START GAMEAlabama March 11 April 16Arkansas March 29 April 23Auburn began Tuesday April 9Florida Wednesday April 8Georgia March 15 April 16Kentucky Tuesday April 16LSU Monday April 16Ole Miss began Wednesday NONEMiss. State Wednesday April 16Missouri Tuesday April 16S. Carolina March 15 April 9Tennessee Monday April 16Texas A&M began Monday April 9Vanderbilt began Feb. 22 March 25
As the Southeastern Conference conducts its women's basketball tournament and closes its men's basketball regular season, spring football is kicking off around the league as well.
Ole Miss became the fourth SEC school to start spring drills when Hugh Freeze's Rebels opened Wednesday. They finished the 2015 season as the league's second-best team behind Alabama, closing with a 38-17 drubbing of LSU in Oxford, a 38-27 win at Mississippi State and a 48-20 shellacking of Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl.
"It's hard to believe it's our fifth year already," Freeze said Thursday in a news conference. "It's going by so fast. I'm excited about this spring and excited that we have several midyear enrollees who can add depth for us at certain spots.
"We've talked to the team about going from being committed to being compelled. Playing in two consecutive New Year's Six games creates expectations, and in order for us to maintain that, there is another step we all need to go."
The Sugar Bowl trip was the first for the Rebels since Archie Manning's junior season as quarterback in 1969, and there are early projections for another banner year due to the return of senior quarterback Chad Kelly, who is expected to be the league's best at his position.
"I want to win an SEC championship and a national championship," Kelly said Thursday, "and we really feel like we can do that."
This week, Ole Miss added two linebackers - Rommel Mageo, a graduate transfer from Oregon State, and Detric Bing-Dukes from Iowa Western Community College. Mageo led the Beavers in tackles last season with 87, while Bing-Dukes is a 2014 Georgia signee who redshirted that season before transferring.
The first SEC school to open spring practice was Vanderbilt, which started Feb. 22. Third-year Commodores coach Derek Mason has his first situational scrimmage set for today, which will precede a week off for spring break.
"Over time, the culture starts to change a little bit," Mason told reporters after a practice this week. "Your guys start to grow in what you want them to be, and they start to meet their own expectations and not just mine. This is our third spring, and guys have more of an idea of what we want."
Texas A&M became the second in the SEC to start spring, with the Aggies holding their first of 15 allotted practices Monday, and Auburn opened drills Tuesday. The Aggies and Tigers were ranked in the top 10 early last season before plummeting due to erratic quarterback play.
Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray took turns at Texas A&M before transferring, which left Blinn (Texas) Junior College transfer Jake Hubenak to guide the Aggies in their Music City Bowl loss to Louisville. Hubenak is vying this spring with Trevor Knight, a graduate transfer from Oklahoma best known for guiding the Sooners to an upset of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl after the 2013 season.
"They're older guys, but they're new guys," Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin said this week in a news conference. "They handle things differently from younger guys because they've been through more."
Auburn used Jeremy Johnson and Sean White throughout last season, including the 31-10 rout of Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl that put a positive conclusion on an otherwise disappointing 7-6 record.
Johnson and White are back this spring, as is John Franklin III, a 2013 Florida State signee who played this past season at East Mississippi Community College.
"We'll chart everything that they do in team settings and 7-on-7 settings," Auburn fourth-year coach Gus Malzahn said this week in a news conference. "We'll give them all a chance to compete."
LSU and Tennessee are set to start spring practices Monday, with Kentucky and Missouri opening Tuesday and Florida and Mississippi State doing so Wednesday.
Seven SEC programs will hold their spring games April 16, including Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. Ole Miss will not have a spring game this year due to construction at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.