Five Southeastern Conference spring football games already have taken place, with five more scheduled for Saturday.
All five will be televised.
Alabama’s A-Day game from Bryant-Denny Stadium will be televised by ESPN, while Auburn’s A-Day game from Jordan-Hare Stadium will be shown by ESPNU. Auburn has the much more intriguing storyline at quarterback, where senior Neil Caudle, junior Cam Newton, sophomore Barrett Trotter and redshirt freshman Clint Moseley have been vying to succeed Chris Todd.
Newton, who led Blinn Community College to a national championship last season and was rated by Rivals.com as the nation’s No. 1 junior college prospect, is believed to be the leader. He threw touchdown passes to DeAngelo Benton and Kodi Burns in Wednesday’s practice, which otherwise was dominated by the defense.
“My expectations are just to go out there and have fun — seeing the War Eagle Nation and just having a good time,” the 6-foot-6, 247-pound Newton said of his first A-Day.
Alabama receiver Michael Bowman, who played at Ridgeland High and got in four games last season as a Crimson Tide freshman, will sit out A-Day in Tuscaloosa because of an abdominal pull.
Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Tennessee also have spring games Saturday, with the Rebels referring to theirs as the Cellular South Grove Bowl. The Grove Bowl will be televised live on CSS, but CSS will show Mississippi State’s Maroon-White game Sunday afternoon on tape delay.
Tennessee’s Orange-White game, which drew 51,000 spectators last season, will not be televised live, either. It will be shown Sunday night at 8 on SportsSouth.
The SEC’s spring-game schedule concludes April 24 with games at Arkansas and Kentucky.
Longer than expected
Georgia sports communication director Claude Felton said Thursday morning that the exit meetings between Bulldogs players and coaches are taking longer than expected and that a post-spring depth chart may not be provided by coach Mark Richt until next week. Richt said after last Saturday’s G-Day game that he hoped to have one by the end of this week.
Junior Logan Gray and redshirt freshmen Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger competed all spring for the quarterback vacancy. Mettenberger had the best G-Day performance but has been suspended for the season opener due to a March 7 arrest on five misdemeanor charges.
There was no pre-spring depth chart provided due to everybody on defense starting over under new coordinator Todd Grantham.
Peeking to summer
The SEC has set its Media Days schedule for July 21-23 in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, and the annual event will have opening-day visits by Alabama coach Nick Saban and Florida’s Urban Meyer. Richt will speak the second day, and new Tennessee coach Derek Dooley will take his first turn at the podium on the final day.