SEC spring football practices not too far off

Running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn and the Vanderbilt Commodores open spring football practices on Feb. 27 and will be the first SEC program this year to stage a spring game. Theirs is set for March 30.
Running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn and the Vanderbilt Commodores open spring football practices on Feb. 27 and will be the first SEC program this year to stage a spring game. Theirs is set for March 30.

For more than a third of Southeastern Conference programs, spring football can't get here soon enough.

The wait won't be that much longer.

SEC FOOTBALL SPRING-GAME SCHEDULE

MARCH 30Vanderbilt (noon on SEC Network)APRIL 6South Carolina (noon on SEC Network)LSU (2 p.m. on SEC Network)Arkansas (4 p.m. on ESPNU)Ole Miss (4 p.m. on SEC Network)APRIL 12Kentucky (6 p.m. on SEC Network)APRIL 13Florida (1 p.m. on SEC Network Alternate)Alabama (2 p.m. on ESPN2)Mississippi State (2 p.m. on ESPNU)Texas A&M (2 p.m. on SEC Network)Auburn (4 p.m. on SEC Network)Missouri (4 p.m. on ESPNU)Tennessee (6 p.m. on SEC Network)APRIL 20Georgia (2 p.m. on SEC Network)

Vanderbilt is scheduled to open its sixth spring practice under Derek Mason on Feb. 27, and the Commodores will be first in the SEC to stage a spring game with the Black & Gold contest March 30. The Commodores return 14 starters from last year's team that followed a 6-6 regular season with a 45-38 loss to Baylor in the Texas Bowl, including the offensive trio of running back Ke'Shawn Vaughn, tight end Jared Pinkney and receiver Kalija Lipscomb.

Vaughn rushed for 1,244 yards and 7.9 yards per carry last season, capping his banner year with a 243-yard bowl performance, while Lipscomb's 87 receptions led the league.

For a fourth straight year, every SEC spring game will be televised live, with the SEC Network showing 10 of the 14 contests, including Tennessee's Orange & White game on April 13 at 6 p.m.

Alabama's 13th A-Day spring game under Nick Saban also will be on April 13, but it will have a 2 p.m. start on ESPN2. The spring games at Arkansas (April 6), Mississippi State (April 13) and Missouri (April 13) will be televised by ESPNU.

The SEC spring-game schedule will wrap up April 20, when Georgia conducts its fourth G-Day event of the Kirby Smart era. G-Day will be televised by the SEC Network, beginning at 2 p.m.

Five league teams - Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee - are eager to move on after losing the final game of their 2018 seasons by at least 25 points. The Razorbacks, Rebels and Volunteers were the three SEC teams that failed to reach a bowl last year, and the Gamecocks were blanked 28-0 by Virginia in the Belk Bowl.

South Carolina's postseason stinker certainly came by surprise, but it wasn't as stunning as Alabama's 44-16 loss to Clemson in the championship game of the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide entered with a 14-0 record and having won all 12 regular-season games by more than three touchdowns.

"We're looking forward to sort of rebuilding the program so that it's what we want it to be," Saban said last month while speaking in Montgomery.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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