The final weekend of spring football this year is on tap for this weekend. Every college football program will have the same overall goals for the upcoming season. The goals of the fall will ultimately be the same in theme, although the bar each program will attempt to pass may differ, whether it is to win the national championship or merely end the year with a winning season. Every school is different.

In the same vein, the mission of the spring also varies from program to program, whether coached by a long-time head coach with a program molded to his liking or by a brand new head coach getting his first real chance to begin working with his new roster.

As we close the book on the spring and begin preparing for summer preview thoughts from around college football, the staff at The Comeback took some time to answer a very simple question.

Aside from staying healthy, what is the most common goal of the spring for a college football program?

(Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)

Kevin Causey: For the veterans, staying healthy is absolutely one of the biggest priorities. Other than that, spring is all about growth. The goal is to find out who can step up into key roles that will impact your team. For the youngsters it’s about getting reps and finding their role on the team. For the vets, it’s about leadership. Who will take the role of veteran leader and run with it through spring and into fall. While you absolutely want to come out of spring football with the least amount of injuries possible… spring football sets the tone for the rest of the season. The biggest common goal is to really flush out who will have an impact on your roster come fall and also identify your biggest weaknesses so you can start game planning to compensate for it come game time.

Terry Johnson: The common goal for most college football teams during spring practice is to find a way to get the best 22 players on the field.

Let’s be honest: every team in the country has question marks right now. For some schools, there’s a huge void left at a position because a key player moved on to the next level. Other teams might have sufficient depth, but need more speed or athleticism at certain spots.

Some squads might have both problems, and weren’t able to address them during recruiting.

That’s why spring practice is so important. Without a game to prepare for, coaches can evaluate the talent that’s currently on the roster. This gives them the luxury of trying players at different positions in order to make the team better. Whether it’s moving a quarterback or running back buried on the depth chart to receiver, trying a tight end at defensive end or outside linebacker to improve the pass rush, or just trying to find a spot for a talented athlete, coaches can give everyone plenty of reps in order to put the team in the best position to win in the fall.

Andy Coppens: That is a very interesting question, and a good one too. You are right that spring means different things to different programs. However, one theme that I feel is common amongst all programs is that spring is about finding one or two players that will be difference makers in the fall that may not have been last spring.

Every year we see teams who make giant leaps do so thanks to a spark provided by one or two players stepping up in the spring. Could we have seen that for Ohio State this spring with early-enrollee Johnnie Dixon? His crazy day in the Ohio State spring game is a great example of just how important spring can be to finding that one difference maker to put a team over the top.

That’s not to say a superstar emerges on every team, but it could be finding a right tackle that provides the right chemistry to the offensive line or that linebacker who is assignment sure and shores up the defense. Heck, it could be finding that special teams ace who makes the big plays that go unnoticed by the casual observer. Again, every team will be different in what that looks like, but good teams find those difference makers for the fall in the spring.

Now… can we do something about how ridiculously pointless the spring game itself has become?

Kevin McGuire: Finding as much stability as you can possibly get in the spring should be the most common goal. Doing so allows a program to move forward to the summer and preseason camps having a good sense for what the team is going to look like in the fall, and the fewer questions in need of answers in August the better.

The spring is the first chance coaches will get to evaluate their players on the practice field since the bowl season (or maybe the regular season if things didn’t go well in the fall), and with graduating seniors, underclassmen declaring for the draft, and transfers coming and going, there is a whole new roster to work with every spring. Not all of the position battles will be determined in the spring, but if a coach can get out of the spring with a good sense of who his starters and maybe second-team players will be, the more he and the staff will be able to focus on the finer points later on.