I hate and yet love spring football. I hate it because just as I'm finally getting out of the football mood and reluctantly turning my attention to other important things (you know, March Madness, the Utah Jazz playoff hunt and warm weather), along comes spring football to pull me right back into the fold. 

Then when it ends - and it ends rather quickly - I've got to go through the whole damn detox once again. Not fun. 

It's like opening that one present on Christmas Eve and then realizing you've got to go the entire night before you can open the rest of your gifts. Pure torture, I tell you. 

But I love it because it does give you something, especially when your basketball team is complete trash. I couldn't imagine making it through December all the way to August without some sort of college football action. Spring ball, though hardly long, does provide you enough to wet your appetite and hopefully it's good enough to carry you through the spring and summer months. As if we have a choice. Ha!

Today marks the start of their spring practices. This is an important stretch because it does provide much needed progression and growth between the end of the last season and the start of fall camp later on this year. Spring should dictate what to expect in August and subsequently the 2010 season.

There are a lot of questions and most of those won't be answered this next month. But we'll get an idea and that's always the fun part. 

So soak this up...because after April 17th, football goes into hibernation for the next few months. Oh the humanity!

Now the schedule:

2010 Spring Camp Dates

Mar. 9      Practice Begins                      Practice Fields
Mar. 18     Final practice before spring break	 Practice Fields
Mar. 29     Practice Resumes                     Practice Fields
Apr. 2      Scrimmage                            Rice-Eccles Stadium
Apr. 10     Scrimmage                            Rice-Eccles Stadium
Apr. 17     Red-White Game (1 p.m.)              Rice-Eccles Stadium

Here's a look at week one's schedule:

• Tuesday: 3:00-5:00 p.m., no pads
• Thursday: 3:00-5:00 p.m., no pads
• Saturday: 10 a.m.-12 p.m., tackle