Ohio State made a statement. Alabama and Auburn wrapped their drills. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga did not score a touchdown.
And every single coach of every single team that closes spring practice this month will mention the same goal -- staying healthy.
Spring football practice is a lot like Thursday of the Masters -- you really can't win anything in the spring, but you certainly can lose big.
That worry in modern college sports has transcended the field and the injury bug. Let's face it, if your favorite football team truly make news during the spring, it's almost always bad.
Injuries are only part of it. UCLA's top recruit was arrested over the weekend, as was Florida cornerback J.C. Jackson, who was working with the starters before being booked on armed robbery charges.
So the details about depth charts and side stories on systems and substitutions seem secondary.
Jay GreesonIt's just that simple in a lot of ways, and what happens on the practice field with young names is far more important than the dress rehearsals that happen on Saturdays across the land.
It will be interesting how many folks show in Knoxville this Saturday considering they have campaigned for a monster number, and THE Ohio State just drew almost 100K. It's a spring game record for fannies in seats, and it shows the overwhelming enthusiasm the defending national champions have generated.
That said, spring game attendance numbers are the modern day fish story and are more than likely counted by Paul Bunyon's blue ox Babe with the help of a mathematically gifted unicorn.
So rest easy, college football fans, there is little to be gleaned from much of anything from a spring game. If that was the case, former Georgia running back Johnny Brown (yes, that Johnny Brown) would have turned his three spring MVPs into at least two Heismans, and there is no shortage of UT backs who carried the spring load only to carry little more than their pads come fall.
With Tennessee's spring game looming this weekend, everyone should just breathe easy.
Here's a checklist for things to remember about spring:
Health. We've covered this.
Team speed. This is telling and uncontrollable, even for control freaks like college football coaches in controlled environments like spring games.
QB presence. This is more telling for teams looking to replace a starting quarterback, but it's fun to watch a kid such as Josh Dobbs grow in confidence and demeanor.
In Tennessee's case, we'd be interested to see how smoothly the offense operates with new coordiantor Mike DeBord on board. Are the plays timely and does the offense flow?
Depth. Is there a noticeable dropoff between the 1s and 2s, or is one team exceedingly better than the other? Auburn's 2014 spring game was a drumming with the 1s smashing the 2s, and then when injuries happened last fall, that lack of depth was apparent.
Health. We mentioned that, right?
So with Tennessee preparing to close another April of practices that are more procedure than product -- and it's that way for almost everyone across the country -- let's remember that during the spring, no news is the best news.
So rest easy and know that we are a ways from the start of college football beginning for real in August.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. His "Right to the Point" column appears on A2 on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and his sports columns are scheduled to run Tuesday and Friday.
Read his online column "The 5-at-10" weekdays starting at 10 a.m. at timesfreepress.com.