Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Football Hosts Annual Spring Game Friday Night
4/15/2025 1:50:00 PM | Football
Lewisburg, Pa. - The Bucknell football team's annual Spring Game will be held on Friday, April 18 at 6 p.m. at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.Â
Friday marks the final time Bucknell will take the field for the spring, as a culmination of the month of practice. The Spring Game will be a competition between the Bison's offense and defense. The event will be open to the public and free of charge.
"This will be the first time the spring game is taking place on a Friday night and I am really excited to see what the atmosphere will be like," said Bison head coach Dave Cecchini. "Like in past years, we will be having a modified scoring system. The game will be broken up into three segments. The first will be a traditional move-the-ball scrimmage, the second will be a red zone challenge and the third will be a 4th down competition."
The team will take the field at 6 p.m. to stretch, warm up and do some quick 7 on 7 before heading to the sidelines to get ready for the start of the scrimmage segments. Around 6:30 p.m. Cecchini will announce the 2025 captains, as voted by their peers.Â
After the announcement and kick-off section, the three scored situational segments of the Spring Game will commence with a traditional move-the-ball scrimmage. There will be a modified scoring system for this event as shown below:
The Defense can score:
- 1 point for an accepted offensive penalty
- 1 point for a defensive stop resulting in a punt or 2 points for a stop on 4th down.
- 2 points for a missed FG attempt
- 3 points for a turnover that is whistled dead
- 6 points for a turnover returned for a TD
The Offense can score:
- 1 point for an accepted defensive penalty
- 3 points for a made FG
- 6 points for a TD
- 1 point for a successful PAT
- 2 points for a successful 2 point playÂ
The unit with the most points at the end of the segment will be declared the winner. Last year, the offense won the move-the-ball segment by scoring touchdowns on two of four drives.Â
Once the move-the-ball segment concludes, there will be a quick punting section before moving onto the second scored segment of the night, a red zone scrimmage. In this segment the offense will execute four drives, each beginning at the defense's 20-yard line. The offense will be attempting to score at least 20 points over the course of the four drives using the traditional scoring system. If the defense can hold the offense to under 20 points, they will win the segment. The defense won the red-zone scrimmage last year, only allowing the offense to score once.Â
There will be a quick field goal section before moving on to the final scored segment of the game which will be a 4th down scrimmage where there will be a total of 12 fourth down plays. The offense will receive one point for each successful 4th down conversion, while the defense will receive one point for each successful stop. If there is a penalty on the play that does not result in a 1st down, that play will not count and the down will be replayed. If there is a tie after 12 plays, there will be a winner-takes-all 13th play. Last year, the offense and defense tied at six conversions and six stops and forced the winner-takes-all 13th play, which would also be the deciding factor in which side won the overall competition. The defense was able to make a stop to seal the victory for the defense, who has won each Spring Game since 2019.Â
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