Which wide receiver, if any, will emerge as the leader at the position? Who will be the Bulldogs’ No. 2 running back? Which sophomore(s) will really step up on defense? Which early enrollee(s) will stand out? There will be a number of storylines to keep in mind when Georgia opens spring practice in less than a week. Spring practice has changed drastically since the beginnings of the sport. Therefore I've randomly chosen an intriguing springtime anecdote from each decade or so, to compile a timeline of the history of spring football practice at Georgia.

1901: I found that Georgia began practicing in the spring as early as 1901, if not before, under Billy Reynolds, the Red and Black’s eighth head coach entering only the school’s tenth year of football. Believing practicing football as early as possible was a “necessity,” Reynolds taught a number of fundamentals that spring, including not to “run away with the idea that the best kicker will always be placed at fullback,” and “for God’s sake, keep politics out of athletics”—lessons seemingly rather fundamental to me.

1914: Alex Cunningham, Georgia's head football coach from 1910-1919, believed his team would need extra work entering the spring because of the departure of legendary halfback Bob McWhorter. Cunningham wanted to take advantage of the preseason period for those players who still needed "to learn the game." However, the head coach’s spring practices were seemingly far from stringent; there was "no tackling, no charging nor scrimmaging." Instead, it was reserved for merely "forward passing, falling on the ball, punting, and the receiving of punts."

Compared to today's standards, Cunningham might have taken it easy on his team during the spring; nevertheless, the innovative coach was undoubtedly effective as he remains one of the most valuable figures (and perhaps the most underappreciated) in Georgia football history. Whereas the first 18 seasons of Georgia football witnessed 14 different head coaches and endured 11 non-winning seasons, Cunningham's stay at UGA lasted a full decade and suffered just one losing campaign.

1923: By the early 1920s, the Georgia football program was considered one of the best in the South. Still, first-year head coach George “Kid” Woodruff, who had been part of Georgia football’s successful foundation during the early 1910s as a player, was not overly impressed. Just before his first spring practice, Woodruff not only informed his squad that “all fundamentals” of football would be engaged, but the head coach went even further, delivering an open-tryout request to the UGA student body: “Come one, come all. No matter how green, how small, you will be welcomed.”

1940: During spring practice, it was reported that seven UGA athletes were performing “double duty” by enduring head coach Wally Butts’ grueling football practices in the afternoon, and then practicing with the Bulldogs’ basketball team at night—and, seven was only the number of freshmen players!

1963: The first day of spring practice was an omen of sorts for Johnny Griffith and what would be his final season as Georgia’s head coach. Reportedly, Griffith had “nothing but disgust” for the play of his first team—so much so, he made the first unit scrimmage an extra hour following practice against the team’s fourth unit. After the scrimmage, an incensed Griffith refused to talk with the media, leaving assistant coach John Gregory to sum up the performance of the Bulldogs’ first team: “It was just like the upsets you see during the season when one team rests on its—to be polite—laurels.”

1971: When spring practice of 1971 opened, Georgia’s inspirational defensive coordinator Erk Russell was spotted wearing a t-shirt with “New Life, Work Harder” printed across the front. Onlookers assumed it was Russell’s way of motivating a “new” squad belonging to a program which had gone 5-5-1 and 5-5 the previous two seasons. However, “That [shirt] was something I had left over from last year,” Russell said to the contrary following practice. “I guess it still applies, though, doesn’t it?”

1981: It has long been believed by some that quarterback Eric Zeier, coming off a phenomenal high school career, was the first Georgia player to carry out in 1991 what is now commonplace: enroll early in college in order to participate in football for spring practice. However, a decade before, upon the Bulldogs losing their All-American placekicker Rex Robinson to the NFL, Georgia asked kicking standout Kevin Butler from Redan High School to enroll early for the spring before his freshman year. Problem was that Butler was also a standout soccer player. Nevertheless, having played in just six games for Redan’s soccer team that winter and spring, he enrolled early at UGA, where he was met by Robinson, who offered some advice on the in-game pressure of placekicking: “Rex told me this spring to . . . concentrate on just kicking the ball [during games] like you would in practice,” Butler said.

1996-1997: With the arrival of head coach Jim Donnan in 1996 came defensive backs coach Greg Williams, who was seemingly always quick with a quip for the media during spring practice. The first spring, Williams was asked about junior safety Armin Love who, after starting nine games the season before, had entered the spring fourth on the depth chart, but was starting to show some improvement. "Armin was in the doghouse,” Williams said. “But he got in a Corvette and drove it right out of there." A year later, he was asked about the progress of sophomore Earl Chambers, a former quarterback-turned- wide receiver, hoping to challenge for the starting strong safety job once he adapted to the secondary. "Earl's not used to wrapping his arms up on tackles," Williams said. "I don't know if he's got a girlfriend. If he doesn't, we may have to get him one so he can learn to wrap up."

2006: Before the days of spending their entire spring break lifting weights at home or staying in Athens to work out, players usually spent the break relaxing (and partying) somewhere hot, and with a beach. Yet Mario Raley and Ray Gant might have ventured to Miami for their break to hang out with former UGA tight end and then-Miami Dolphin Randy McMichael. But according to Gant, the time was spent getting “a little motivation from a guy who made it [in the NFL].” Of course, that same year, highly-touted freshman quarterback Matthew Stafford, who had enrolled early at Georgia, left the school and his new teammates for spring break, joining his high school friends from Dallas, Texas, for a five-day, four-night vacation in Mexico. "For me, it was way worth it," Stafford said regarding his week-long adventure south of the border.