Player draft a variation on spring games

May 5, 2016 - 3:39 PM (STATS) - While most college football programs have concluded their spring practices, there are still a small handful finishing up their annual intrasquad scrimmages this weekend.

The formats can vary among spring games, including situational drills like red zone and third down conversions, offense versus defense using a modified scoring system, even a No. 1 offense and a No. 2 defense paired together to face a squad of the No. 2 offense and No. 1 offense.

Alabama State recently split its squad for its Black and Gold spring game, but it came with a twist - the Hornets players drafted the two teams.

The format would appear beneficial enough to be copied elsewhere because it provided the Hornets with results beyond touchdowns and tackles.

"What the draft does," said second-year coach Brian Jenkins, "it allows you to see what the players think of other players, it really does. But it also allows you to see if the players can put together a thought process of what positions that they need and what they need to choose to fill those positions.

"It was really good to see those players and that leadership role and have that power to be able to pick guys and put their team together. It kind of gives them a little bit of experience on what we go through as coaches, so we let them fully run the draft."

Jenkins told the players to have fun, but he felt they did the opposite and were serious about the game.

The Gold team won 20-6, but the result wasn't meaningful. What mattered to the coaches was the players were detailed with their play.

They already were detailed off the field.

"Having a draft also does this," Jenkins said, "it helps you see the balance that you have in your team and the unbalance that you have in your team, and where you need to improve. Because you have to get better as a team by improving the bottom part of your roster more than you improve the top part of your roster. So that gave us a chance as coaches to evaluate where we need to improve that."