Indiana University Athletics
Spring Game Reflections - Mark Deal, Harold Mauro
4/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 10, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - With the annual Cream and Crimson game capping the spring practice season fast approaching, former IU standouts and coaches Mark Deal and Harold Mauro spoke with IUHOOSIERS.com about their thoughts on the spring game from both a player and coach perspective. They also reminisced about experiences at the game.
How important was the spring game as a player and as a coach?
MD: The spring game was important as a player because it was your last opportunity to impress the coaching staff before the start of August practice. I always treated it like an important part because of that. As a coach, it is one last opportunity to evaluate your players in a scrimmage situation and see how they handle things. I always held my breath as a coach and the best thing about the spring game as a coach was when everyone came out of the game healthy.
HM: The spring game is very important to players and coaches for several reasons. It allows a team to put in a new system after a coaching change. It also gives players the chance to see if they can handle a position change. The spring game also affords the opportunity to try new plays on offense against different defensive fronts and blitzes, as it is a good time to try these plays when you are undefeated in the spring season!
How did your different coaching staffs treat the spring game?
MD: We treated it as a game trying to end up with evenly-matched teams pitting half the staff and team against one another. It was always fun and usually the winners got to eat steak and the losers had to eat pork and beans.
HM: We usually had a player draft to pick the teams and the winner ate steaks, while the loser ate beans and weanies.
 Mark Deal looked back at his time in the spring game.  |
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Do you have any enduring memories from spring games in the past?
MD: My best memories were from my playing days. Coach Lee Corso made it special. Back then, we had 20 spring practices instead of 15 now. We always used the 19th practice for a "secret" practice session for each team. We would put in gadget and trick plays. It was a fun day. One year, the Cream team came out as the Cream Machine, like the Mean Machine in the original Longest Yard movie. We broke the huddle like they did in the movie with the exaggerated loop as we went to the line of scrimmage. It was a lot of fun. The best part about the spring game in those days was that it was on Friday afternoon of Little 500 weekend. It preceded the Mini 500 Women's Tricycle race in Assembly Hall, and the Little 500 the next day. It was always good to have spring practice over with and then celebrate Little 500 weekend.
HM: My junior year, we had so much rain that we took school buses over to Bloomington South High School and played the spring game on the South game field.
