Scrimmages: College preseason has pros, cons

Wake Forest held its third and final scrimmage of the preseason last night at BB&T Field.

The next time that the Deacons suit up for anything more than a regular practice or walk-through, it'll be in the season opener at Baylor, next Thursday night in Waco.

This is the way it is in college football. You get 29 practices, you scrimmage among yourselves, and then the season starts with inherent questions galore because you haven't gone up against any outside competition.

It's unlike the NFL, where teams play four preseason games and, in some cases, hold additional controlled scrimmages in training camp against another team. It's unlike the NBA, which has eight preseason games. It's unlike college basketball, which allows one controlled, nonpublicized scrimmage against another school and then two exhibition games. It's unlike high-school football, which has jamborees and other forms of controlled scrimmages.

It's unlike college soccer, for that matter. Last night while the Wake Forest football team was scrimmaging against itself, the men's soccer team was playing an exhibition against Wofford.

This raises the question: Would it benefit college football for each school to play one exhibition game, or at the very least, have a controlled scrimmage against an opponent that is not on the regular-season schedule?

In Wake Forest's case, would everyone have benefitted more from a controlled scrimmage against, say, Elon or Wofford, than it got out of another intrasquad skirmish last night?

Coach Jim Grobe has mixed views, but mostly he likes the status quo.

One factor overrides everything else: If you scrimmage against only yourself in the preseason, you have more ability to prevent injuries. If you play an exhibition game, or even a controlled scrimmage, the risks of injury become greater.

"In college, you need to have the welfare of the kids in mind," Grobe said. "And I'm not sure the chance of getting guys injured in live contact against other schools would be the way to go. There are positives, but I think the injury factor outweighs the positives."

The positives are obvious. Going up against outside competition, even if inferior outside competition, would give coaches a better gauge of strengths and weaknesses than constantly putting the first unit up against the third-stringers and scout squad. And going up against outside competition would allow teams to work out kinks in the heat of battle in a way that can't be accomplished against the scout team. There's simply a different dynamic involved in a game setting. The adrenaline flows differently, the speed of the game increases.

"It would make our product better the first game," Grobe said. "I think every coach's nightmare is turning the ball over and crazy special-teams play, and that's what happens in the first game. Your first game is really your first live practice against another team. So it makes sense if you could have controlled scrimmages, from that standpoint."

But Grobe can't guarantee that an opposing player wouldn't chop-block one of his defensive linemen in a scrimmage, or accidentally grab a face mask, or do something else -- intentionally or unintentionally -- that would result in an injury.

"The NFL wants to put the best product possible out there on the field on opening day, and that's one of the reasons they have four preseason games," Grobe said. "But we don't have a bunch of free agents that we're going to get rid of. We don't have a bunch of guys we're going to cut back to. We've pretty much got what we've got (85 scholarships), and we can't afford to lose any of them in the preseason. So that's why I think it all boils down to the welfare of the kids.

"You want to do what's best for them. The product might not be as sharp in your first game as it would be if you had an exhibition or a scrimmage, but that's just the way it is."

Some teams actually get their "warm-up scrimmage" in their season opener. North Carolina will open its season at home against McNeese State. Georgia Tech will open at home against Jacksonville State. Miami will open against Charleston Southern at home. Everyone in the ACC has at least one cupcake on its schedule.

But in Wake Forest's case, opening on the road against a Big 12 opponent certainly doesn't fall into the "warm-up" category. N.C. State will open its season at South Carolina. Virginia will open against Southern Cal. Clemson will play Alabama in Atlanta in its opener. Virginia Tech and East Carolina will play in Charlotte.

You need to have the kinks worked out in season openers like that.

But you also need to have everyone healthy in season openers like that. Thus, the quandary.

Grobe, by the way, believes that if there is any dramatic change in terms of scrimmaging or exhibition games, it is more likely to come in the spring than in August. Some have urged the NCAA to allow teams to play an exhibition at the end of spring practice, instead of the traditional Black-Gold or Red-White intrasquad scrimmage.

"Fisher DeBerry used to talk all the time that at the end of the spring you have a game, and the proceeds could go to the university for the athletic department or maybe support charities or whatever," Grobe said. "And that talk is still out there. It would give you an opportunity to play a real game in the springtime.

"But adding the 12th game has squelched some of that talk. And I think when it all came down to it, if coaches were asked to make a decision, they would still vote against it. You just don't want to risk injuries, and you don't want to be doing that stuff when you're down to crunch time academically. I'm not unhappy with the way we have it now."

■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.