Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) First of all, don’t expect team altering decisions to come from this spring game. The coaches don’t look at it as a game, just a glorified practice, and the outcome of who’s hot in the spring game has nothing to do later with depth chart assignments.

If it did, A.J. McCarron would have been the starter last year and other backups would have nudged out a first teamer.

So what SHOULD you expect from the spring A Day game at Alabama?

You should expect it to be chance for fans to celebrate the unveiling of Nick Saban’s statue on the Walk Of Champions just outside the stadium before the game.

You should expect to see entire families, who may not have access or the finances to take a family five to an Alabama game, to come and marvel the wonders of now fully renovated stadium and excitement that comes with game day.

You should expect to see both defenses playing one of the four basic defensive sets, and the offenses playing base offensive plays.

There won’t be jail house blitzing allowed, quarterbacks are not allowed to be sacked and punt, and kickoff returners are basically playing touch football. Nick Saban doesn’t want his skilled players needlessly subjected to a chance of a season ending injury.

You should expect to see the number one offense and the number two defense take on the number one defense and the number two offense. Some players may change sides depending of the whims of the coaches.

But this year, there are some different quirks to the roles of the quarterbacks. Both quarterbacks will take time with both the first and second team offenses to give each a similar shot of success with both units.

You’ll see Barrett Jones at left tackle in the A Day game, even though it’s very unlikely that he’ll ever do that during the regular season. Why? Because like many players, coaches want to “experiment” with players and positions to see how they react and do in case of future injuries or needs.

These are quirks that you’ll see this year you haven’t seen before.

What you have seen before and can expect again is liberal officiating, because that’s how Nick Saban likes it. Game clocks don’t matter if Saban doesn’t want them to.

You can’t read as much into the stats as you want to, because one back was running against the first team defense and the other is running against the second team. The same could be said about any of the players.

It sounds pretty bland, so why should you watch it?

You will see players have a chance to shine that you won’t see much of during the season. You can see if there’s that rare “break through” moment when a young player, not picked for much playing time, has the game of life, or the play of the day, that catches the eye of the coaching staff and makes them wonder aloud in the coaches meeting, “Do we need so And so a little more time working the one’s and two’s to see if that was a fluke?

You’ll see you favorite offense lineman pancake a guy at least once, you favorite receiver streak down the sidelines and grab a catch, or maybe that new rookie running back break off a long run. These things can leave you feeling good about not just your favorite players, but the team itself.

You should watch it because it’s fun, because it’s Saturday and your team is on the field and you’ll see good plays from both teams and lots of reason to be hopeful over the upcoming season.

But the main reason you want to watch is because it’s the only football you’ll see them play for several months and the hard core fans can barely wait that long.

And you have to be ready to reanalyze the game in great detail with your fellow fans and argue why you think someone had a better game than someone else.

The A-Day will be held at 2 p.m. on April 16 at Bryant-Denny Stadium and will be on ESPN television again this year.

Read more College Football news on BleacherReport.com