TCU Football: Cancelled spring game a tough reality for Frogs

TCU football will not play a spring game this year. The annual spring showcase has been canceled due to roster constraints and player safety concerns.

The average college football fan has grown accustomed to a deluge of the sport in the fall sprinkled with offseason updates and intermittent recruiting victories. The spring game is a part of that calendar, but it comes with inherent challenges most fans don’t see at first glance. For many programs around the country, depth is a real concern.

TCU, like every other program, said goodbye to a senior class this fall. They signed a full complement of freshmen in the winter and the spring, but those new Frogs won’t be on campus until the summer, at the earliest. That’s two classes unavailable to participate in spring practice.

Down to three classes of players, roster construction can make for even thinner position groups. 10 scholarship receivers can become six. Add a pair of injuries to that mix and a given team can’t go five wide in practice, let alone fill out two teams for a scrimmage for its fans.

That’s more or less where TCU has found itself. While a spring game showcase of some sort might be possible, extending the already tired group of players through a full mock game might be more of a drain than a benefit. That’s especially true when that practice time could be repurposed for individual drills and scheme work.

Canceling the spring game is a drastic step, but one can only hope a decision this drastic wasn’t made without careful consideration. At the end of the day, it’s the games in the fall that count, and if no spring game increases the odds of a successful regular season every TCU fan will admit it’s worth it.