Imagine a packed Grove of tailgaters and a raucous Vaught-Hemingway Stadium – in April. Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze is trying to take it from his imagination to reality.

Exactly one year after Freeze went on Nashville radio’s A to Z Sports with his idea of a new-and-improved spring football game, the Rebels didn’t have a spring exhibition. In-state rival Mississippi State could have done without the empty hoopla too.

Renovations at Ole Miss led to a 15th practice instead of an intra-sqaud game. Only a few hundred watched inside the indoor practice facility. In Starkville, 15,717 fans showed up to watch the Bulldogs take on the Bulldogs.

After his scrimmage, Freeze brought up the same idea he did a year ago. He is off-the-collar proposing to play spring games against an actual opponent.

And why not? The buzz isn’t there for most schools with the current setup. There are obviously exceptions. Georgia had 93,000 show up and Ohio State played in front of nearly 101,000.

But the biggest buzz in Starkville came twice — when the team showed former quarterback Dak Prescott on the jumbotron and when he snuck in from the sidelines to throw a pass.

Not to say coaches aren’t seeing things they need to see but it had a gimmicky, middling feel. Fans weren’t into it. And just as staffs need spring practice evaluation, fans need to be fed.

Right now they are being fed processed gunk.

Would fans be into it if there was someone to beat? There is an argument to both sides. Ole Miss beating someone regional like Louisiana-Lafayette may sound pointless. Just remember it sold out a pointless November game against Presbyterian in 2014. Presbyterian.

Fans want to see their team beat someone besides their team. They’ll pay for it. Freeze suggests the ticket price at $5 or even whatever fans can afford to pay and that it go to charity or charities of choice after paying the traveling team’s expenses. If you can afford $40, pay $40. If your son feels good about using the quarters in his piggy bank, let him drop those in the cup at Gate C.

Freeze intends to bring it up again at the SEC meetings in Destin and it could go further than just chatter. Alabama coach Nick Saban didn’t completely snide the idea when asked. Auburn coach Gus Malzahn told the Montgomery Advertiser he likes Auburn’s traditional setup – 45,723 fans agreed this year.

It would be easier said than done, but isn’t everything? Freeze is right.

The coaches would agree to play by the depth chart – ones on ones, twos on twos and down the line. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be FBS vs. FCS, as long as the team coming in isn’t on your schedule the next three or four years.

The idea has potential to create huge weekends. Imagine one year Ole Miss hosts UT-Chattanooga, then the next year goes to Memphis. There is something exciting about a full Grove in April, the next weekend a game-like atmosphere with thousands of Rebels fans on Beale Street.

Even if all parties agreed (the SEC and NCAA would have to stamp it), there are roadblocks. Not everyone is going to agree to make it as live as an SEC West showdown in October. But that seems to only way to carry it through.

If we’re going to go through the trouble of setting up game weekends in April, the quarterbacks need to get hit and there needs to be contested kickoffs, even if the final quarter features the walk-on quarterback being chased by the third-string defensive end.

It would have to be worked around SEC baseball weekends if the show starts going on the road. That’s doable. Plenty of fans would miss the second game of a three-game baseball series to see Ole Miss football play an actual Saturday game down at South Alabama.

Even more would show up to dress up and grill on a 70-degree day in April, all to tide them over between recruiting season and actual season.

TV would eat it up. A very limited number would complain if the SEC Network replaced Vanderbilt gymnastics with Ole Miss vs. Tulane spring football.

It is more than possible but has to be complete — with hitting, scheming and coaches in the press box calling live plays, not talking to Cole Cubelic at the line of scrimmage.