W ould a college football preseason be a good thing? The AP asks that question and one coach familiar to Alabama fans thinks it would be a good idea. That coach is Oregon State’s Mike Riley.
AP: While the NFL is considering cutting its preseason from four to two games (and lengthening its regular season), Riley and some other college coaches long for just one warm-up game or even a scrimmage against another team before the season starts.
“I was thinking about that the other day,” Riley said. “It would be chance to see some new stuff and have your players have to adjust.”
“What happens in the first game of the regular season, you take everything you’ve been working on and everything you do … and then you’ve got to make some adjustments.
“I think a preseason scrimmage would give you the chance to get through some of the those hurdles and get your team to understand that that’s the way it is every week. You’ve got to take what you do and adapt it.”
MORE from the AP: As Ohio State coach Jim Tressel put it, “If we were to play a preseason game, there would be 100,000-some people here.”
When intrasquad spring games draw tens of thousands of fans at schools such as Nebraska, Alabama and Ohio State, it seems inevitable that even a bulked-up practice would become a major deal at the football factories. (You can read the entire AP story below. But it seems safe to say that if there is money to be made, then the NCAA and its member institutions will be grabbing for it. However, some coaches have good arguments against it. Read below.)
