Will Grier may have a leg up in the Florida quarterback battle. (USATSI)
Will Grier may have a leg up in the Florida quarterback battle. (USATSI)

Saturday marked the first truly busy day of nationwide spring game action. Here's a quick look at the major games played over the weekend, and the immediate takeaway from each. This post will update as Saturday progresses.

FLORIDA: Orange 31, Blue 6: The Gators appear to have a frontrunner in the battle to become Jim McElwain's starting QB. Redshirt freshman Will Grier got the initial snaps with the first string Orange team and outplayed Treon Harris in the first half, going 7 of 9 for 130 yards. Harris had the unenviable task of starting behind the Blue team's numbers-shy offensive line (against the Gators' defensive first-stringers, no less) and made some plays in the second half. But McElwain didn't sound impressed at halftime:

FLORIDA STATE: Gold 38, Garnet 17. The good news: there's still no busting Jimbo Fisher's recruiting chops, as early-enrolling blue-chips George Campbell and Jacque Patrick both broke free for explosive first-half touchdowns. The bad news: likely starter Sean Maguire started off sloppy, got much better, then got sloppy again, even when not facing the Seminoles' first string:

The Seminoles will still be supremely talented. But after Maguire's two interception, zero-touchdown game, Saturday won't have quieted worries among the FSU faithful the quarterback position may not be strong enough to make the 'Noles a national contender.

USC: Offense 37, Defense 23. First of all, kudos to Steve Sarkisian for an offense-vs.-defense scoring system that produced an actual football score. Second, the Trojans' secondary is a bit depleted ... and against Cody Kessler and Adoree Jackson, that's not so great: 

NEBRASKA: Red 24, White 15. Mike Riley wasn't a hire that set national pundits' pulses racing, but no one in Lincoln got the memo they weren't supposed to be excited about the new hire. Announced attendance Saturday hit 76,881 -- higher than any team's since 2013. And it didn't even take the promise of a totemic housecat appearance to bring the Husker faithful out.

Also: GoPro footage!

GEORGIA: Black 24, Red 17: Brice Ramsey may not have the Dawgs' starting job in the bag yet. The 2014 backup behind Hutson Mason remains the favorite, but after Ramsey's G-Day performance included both some misfires as well as sharp throws, Faton Bauta may have a real shot. The junior went 10 of 13 for 127 yards and a touchdown, including a 6-for-6 showing when playing with the first string. That Ramsey started with the first team indicates he's still in the catbird seat, but Bauta may make things interesting. 

The best part of the day for Georgia fans? They didn't even have to leave the stadium to get Masters updates:

CLEMSON: White 35, Orange 24. It's the classic spring game dilemma: is it good news that even without Deshaun Watson (not to mention Chad Morris, of course) the Tigers' gaggle of playmakers exploded for 35 first-half points against mostly the team's first-string defenders ... or bad news that without Vic Beasley and the gaggle of defenders that carried the Tigers through their offensive hiccups in 2014, the Clemson defense was shredded by an offense without Watson and Morris? We'll find out in September.

OKLAHOMA: Red 20, White 7. Spring game stats should always be taken with whole shakers of salt. Nonetheless, this isn't a good look for Trevor Knight, as the kids say:

SOUTH CAROLINA: Black 14, Garnet 13: Connor Mitch hit a 42-yard completion to Jerell Adams to set up a touchdown on the Garnet team's first drive, and that was about it for any serious football in Columbia; that drive was capped by a TD toss to Darius Rucker, and Steve Spurrier said in his postgame there "were no mistakes" on defense because "when you only play two coverages it's hard to make a mistake." But we did get this from quarterback coach G.A. Mangus:

OLE MISS: Blue 17, Red 7: You wouldn't think Hugh Freeze brought in Chad Kelly to ride the bench. The lightning-rod former Clemson signee had by far the best spring game for Ole Miss, going 9 of 19 for 104 yards with a touchdown and pick for the Blue team. The Red's Ryan Buchanan went 5 of 16 for 49 yards while Devonte Kincade -- who played on both squads and, unlike Kelly and Buchanan, was allowed to be tackled -- hit 9 of 18 for 93 yards with 50 yards rushing. But afterwards, Freeze told the Clarion-Ledger that redshirt sophomore Buchanan had a "minute" lead -- an indication he has been the more reliable option across spring (and that his lead might not actually be so minute). 

But even accounting for the excellence of the Rebels' secondary, a lack of better play than put on display Saturday might require miltiple quarterbacks to get their shot.

ARIZONA: Offense 96, Defense 68: How committed is Rich Rodriguez to playing up-tempo? The Wildcats ran off 100 plays in their spring scrimmage Friday night. Anu Solomon looked improved, hitting 19 of 25 for 175 yards and a pair of scores.

TCU: New Uniforms 1, Haters 0. As expected, the Frogs' offense is out in front of the Frogs' defense at the moment -- the latter lost a lot off of the 2014 edition, you'll recall -- but there's no time to worry about actual football when there's new frog-skin-inspired uniforms to worry about: