SEC Doormats-You just have to hope that your team draws one or two
of these two from the other division.
Tennessee Volunteers, 4-8
Arkansas Razorbacks, 3-9
Kentucky Wildcats, 3-9
Kentucky
very well could have been the worst BCS Conference team last season. A 2-10 finish with a loss to Western Kentucky
was not the start that new head coach Mark Stoops was hoping for. Offensive Coordinator Neal Brown has a better
quarterback this season in Patrick Towels.
The 6’5’’ cannon-armed
sophomore redshirted last season, learning the offense and the intricacies of
the position. He takes over with a new
running back in transfer Braylon
Heard who averaged almost seven yards per carry at Nebraska. Stoops still does not have the amount of
talent necessary to compete on defense, but he might make the turnaround sooner
rather than later.
Bret
Bielema’s wife really
stuck her foot in her mouth/Twitter last year, Tweeting “Karma” after a
Wisconsin (his former coaching stop) lost a game… then Arkansas promptly lost
every game for the rest of the season.
The Razorbacks have not defeated a Big-5 conference team since October
13th, 2012 for a 13-game losing streak. Bielema at least has the type of two-headed
monster at RB that was the staple of his Badger teams. Alex Collins led the team with 1,026 yards
and Jonathan Williams
was right behind at 900 yards. The
trouble is on the defensive side, where Arkansas only held one SEC opponent
under 28 points and that was the offensively challenged Mississippi State squad
that still put up 24. Defensive End Trey
Flowers has 32 career TFL, 12 sacks and should be a top-3 round pick next spring. He will have to deal with the loss of his bookend
Chris Smith who took on the lion share of the double teams last year. The real problem is the schedule: Arkansas
plays nine ranked teams, as well as two road games at teams receiving votes in
the polls along with having two of the most hostile environments in the country,
Lubbock, Texas and Starksville, Mississippi.
The
good news is Tennessee returns its starting quarterback, second-leading rusher
and top five receivers from a year ago.
The bad news is all of those guys led to the 112th passing
attack and 96th scoring offense.
Justin Worley was unspectacular behind the center last year before
missing the final four games due to injury.
None of the returning receivers had 500 yards, but there are two new
targets: transfer Von Pearson and highly touted freshman
Josh Malone. Malone racked up 31
touchdowns and over 1,600 total yards as a high school senior last year. Pearson had 93 catches for 1,601 and 12
touchdowns at Feather River College in California. Both are big bodies that can go up and get the ball. On defense, A.J. Johnson is the best
linebacker in the country that no one knows about. He has averaged over 9 tackles a game over
this three seasons while never missing a start. He has even doubled as the team’s goal line
back on occasion and he will definitely be on a roster, maybe even atop the
depth chart, for an NFL team next season.
A difficult non-conference game against Oklahoma as well as drawing
Alabama and a road-trip to Mississippi from the West will leave the Volunteers
looking to build for next season.
The Bloated Middle-Just like with the ACC, the SEC only plays eight
conference games in an unbalanced schedule so the tiers get ballooned due lack
of a true round robin.
Mississippi Rebels, 8-4
Mississippi State Bulldogs, 8-4
Missouri Tigers, 8-4
Florida Gators, 7-5
Texas A&M Aggies, 7-5
Vanderbilt Commodores, 6-6
Vanderbilt
loses head coach James Franklin to Penn State, and all he did was have the best
three-year stretch in the school’s history going 24-15 with back-to-back 9-win
seasons. Also gone are the athletic
Austin Carta-Samuels and all-time leading receiver Jordan Matthews. Taking over at QB is Phillip Rivers’ little
brother, Stephen Rivers, who will have two years of eligibility left after
transferring from LSU. Rivers will have
Jerron Seymour next to him in the backfield, who scored 13 touchdowns
last year. The schedule is friendly
enough with a couple of FCS teams that the Commodores will likely sneak into a
bowl.
Johnny
Manziel is holding a clipboard in Cleveland for the time being, so the Kenny
Hill Era in College Station begins. The
former Southlake Carroll standout will have a healthy Ricky Seals-Jones and
5-Star recruit Speedy
Noil to throw to. He will also have
the best Left Tackle in the country protecting his blind side in Cedric
Ogbuehi, who will seriously threaten to be the top pick in the draft next
year. The defense was 96th in
the country in scoring, but part of that was due to the amount of possessions
they had to defend due to the Aggies’ quick pace offense. There will be three seniors in the secondary
with a ton of experience between them.
Sumlin has recruited extremely well though, so expect a lot of youth to
work in on the defensive side of the ball.
This year will be difficult though with a stretch of 5 out of 6 games to
end the season going: Ole Miss, at Alabama, at Auburn, Missouri, and LSU. Drawing South Carolina and Missouri from the
East Division will not due the Aggies any favors and this should be a
rebuilding year towards a possible contender next season.
Oh
how the mighty have fallen. The Gators
lost to a mediocre FCS Georgia Southern last season to emphasize a
season-ending 7-game losing streak.
Florida returns the injury-prone Jeff Driskell at quarterback who hopes
to finally finish a season healthy. Mack
Brown came out explosively last year at running back, tallying 112 yards and 2
touchdowns but finishing the year with only 431 more yards and two more
touchdowns over the final 11 games. Both
of them will have to step up for an offense that was 114th in
scoring last season at just 18.8 points a game.
The thing is the defense is as stalwart as always led by lock-down corner Vernon
Hargreaves III. Hargreaves had three
interceptions and 11 passes defended as a freshman and that was with opposing
quarterbacks throwing away from him the whole second half of the season. Defensive End Dante Fowling Jr. will likely
move on the NFL after this year, but the Gators will need him to emulate the 12
TFL and 3 forced fumbles he had last season.
Florida also drew LSU and Alabama from the West Division, so if they
don’t pull an upset or two this year, it could be Muschamp’s last in
Gainesville.
Missouri
was quite a surprise last year reaching the SEC Championship, but I think they
are getting a little too much credit going into this season. The Tigers lose their leading passer, rusher,
and two leading receivers from a year ago, as well as the Co-Defensive Player
of the Year. Maty Mauk filled in
admirably for James Franklin a year ago throwing for 1,071 yards, rushing for another 229
with 12 total touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. With a full offseason as a starter Mauk
should make a leap in production, but Dorial Green-Beckham will be sorely
missed as he tries to regain eligibility at Oklahoma. The schedule is not too bad getting Texas
A&M and Arkansas from the West Division, but I could see the Tigers
slipping up at Florida after playing South Carolina and Georgia the two weeks
prior.
Mississippi
State seems to be stuck in the rut of 7-9 wins and holding steady. They are always a team that can beat anyone
on a given day, but can never win high-profile games consistently. Dak Prescott is back at
QB after leading the team in passing and rushing last season (1,657 yards
passing/751 rushing, 18 total touchdowns).
He also returns both of his top receivers, Jameon Lewis and Robert
Johnson. Lewis may be diminutive (5’8’’)
but his got some serious
moves. The strength of the Bulldogs
is their defense with linebacker Benardrick McKinney. McKinney is the top-rated outside linebacker
prospect in next year’s draft after recording 173 tackles in his first two
seasons. Helping McKinney will be
sophomore DT Chris Jones who had three sacks, seven tackles for a loss and ten
QB hurries in his first season. I can’t
see the Bulldogs pulling out an upset against any of the top-four in the SEC
West, but they should win the rest of their games getting Vanderbilt and
Kentucky from the East Division.
Ole
Miss’ recent run of strong recruiting classes could start to pay off this
season. Senior QB Bo Wallace threw for
3,346 yards and 18 touchdowns last year but had one disturbing trend: all ten
of his interceptions came in just came in just 5 games, four of which were
losses in the Rebels’ biggest games.
Wallace will need to step it up against the tougher competition and
sophomore Laquon Treadwell will be his go-to target. Treadwell was the SEC Offensive Freshman of
the Year after catching 72 passes for 608 yards and 5 touchdowns. The number one overall recruit from 2013
Robert Nkemdiche will move inside to DT after an injury-plagued freshman
year. When he was healthy, Nkemdiche
showed signs he could be the next Jadaveon Clowney. Free Safety Cody Prewitt comes back after
garnering All-American honors last season with six interceptions. This team is another that would need some
luck to contend this year, although they do get Arkansas and Tennessee from the
East Division. However with Dallas-born
QB Devante Kincaide ready to step in next season, the Rebels could be a force
for the next few years.
Multiple Playoff Contenders-If any conference has a chance at
getting multiple teams in the Playoff, it will probably be from this group.
Alabama Crimson Tide, 11-1
LSU Tigers, 11-1
South Carolina Gamecocks, 11-1
Georgia Bulldogs, 10-2
Auburn Tigers, 10-2
Auburn
made one of the more surprising SEC Championship runs last season than I can
remember in recent history. I completely
under-rated them last year, but I was far from the only one. They also had a fair bit of luck to get to the
championship game, and I doubt everything falls right into place again. The Tigers bring back the majority of their
offense from last season, but do lose the best offensive lineman in the country
Greg Robinson. They also lose Tre Mason
and his 1,600+ rushing yards, but do return QB Nick Marshall with a full
off-season of practice. Marshall will be
the first quarterback that Malzahn has had for more than one season as a
coordinator or head coach. Center Reese
Dismukes looks to pivot the nation’s best rushing attack again and is probably
the best and most consistent center in the country (37 starts). Wide Receiver Sammie Coates
is back as well after over 900 yards and 7 touchdowns last season. Auburn does play one of, if not the most
difficult schedule in the country with a non-conference road trip against a
ranked Kansas State team, as well as road games at Mississippi State, Ole Miss,
Georgia, and Alabama (along with home contests against LSU, South Carolina, and
Texas A&M). Having to play both the
Gamecocks and Bulldogs from the East Division is brutal, and will be the main
reason that the Tigers do not repeat as division champions.
Speaking
of the Bulldogs, Georgia loses the SEC’s all-time leading passer, and
Bachelorette-winning brother, Aaron Murray.
Hutson Mason got a head start on this season having to fill in at the
end of last year when Murray got hurt.
Mason will have the help of the best running back in the country Todd Gurley, behind
him. Gurley had almost 1,000 yards
rushing despite missing three and a half games, but really added to his
importance by catching 37 passes for 441 yards.
Those screens could be huge in building Mason’s confidence. Georgia should also have its top three
receivers (who all missed time last year due to injury) in Michael Bennett,
Chris Conley and Malcolm Mitchell. The
table is set for Hutson Mason to have a season to remember. On defense, the Bulldogs have the best line-backing
trio in the SEC with Jordan Jenkins, Ramik Wilson and Leonard Floyd. Jenkins
is a likely first round pick from the outside, Wilson led the SEC in tackles
(133 tackles/76 solo) and Floyd had 6.5 sacks and 22 quarterback hurries. The schedule is the one thing that really
holds Georgia back, as they open with Clemson at home and a road game at South
Carolina right after. If they get out of
those two games unscathed, look for them to win the East and make the Playoff.
There’s
one certainty I can tell you about South Carolina: we will know a lot more
about them Friday morning after they play Texas A&M. The Gamecocks lost the number one overall
pick in the draft (Clowney) and their starting QB Connor Shaw, but are projected
by most experts to be better this season.
Dylan Thompson is a more prototypical passer than Shaw was, and showed
his ability as a sophomore in limited action, throwing for 10 touchdowns to
just 2 interceptions. With an entire
offseason as the starter, I think Thompson steps it up this season. One of the main reasons for that is RB Mike
Davis, who many draft experts have as a better prospect than previous Gamecock
back Marcus Lattimore. Davis had over
1,200 yards last season on less than 200 attempts while chipping in almost 400
yards receiving. He has more big play ability than
Lattimore every possessed, and an offensive line that has one of the best left
sides in the country. Guard A.J. Cann is
the second ranked interior lineman eligible for the draft next season, and
tackle Corey Robinson is not much further down the chart. The defense will definitely miss Clowney, but
sophomores Gerald Dixon and Darius English and big, athletic guys that are more
than ready to pick up the slack. South
Carolina dodges both Alabama and LSU but do have to visit Auburn. I think we will see the extant of the
Gamecocks’ ceiling by the night of September 13th, as they will have
already played both A&M and Georgia.
I
really cannot explain too much why, but I have a strong feeling about this LSU
team. They lose Zach Mettenberger, but
Anthony Jennings has shown flashes of his skill and athleticism. La’el Collins is possibly the second best
tackle in the country, and combined with Vadal Alexander at guard give the
Tigers a formidable left side as well.
More importantly, LSU has one of the deepest stables of backs in the
country, led by the number one overall recruit Leonard Fournette. All Fournette did in high school was rush for
7,619 yards and 88 touchdowns while being hailed as the next Adrian
Peterson. I am not going to say he will
live up to that much hype… but I also can’t dismiss it either. He is that good. The defense might only start two seniors, but
they will have possible NFL roster-guys at every level. Jermauria Rasco will anchor the pass rush and
D.J. Welter will clean up the middle. I
like their schedule as well: they get Alabama at home and draw Florida and
Kentucky from the East Division. I fully
expect the Tigers to be a contender for the SEC West title and what would be an
almost automatic Playoff spot.
Then
there’s the other top contender (who is pretty much just that every single
year) the Crimson Tide of Alabama. The
Tide loses 2-time National Champion A.J. McCarron at quarterback, but have two
fine options in Blake Sims and Jacob Coker.
I think the Florida State-transfer Coker will win the battle, mainly
since people that I trust their opinion have said he is a possible first round
draft pick. Either way, whoever starts
at QB will have the best RB duo in the country in T.J. Yeldon and Derrick
Henry. Yeldon rushed for 1,235
yards and 14 touchdowns on just 207 carries as his first season as the
starter. Henry did not get much action
until late in the season, and then averaged 10.6 yards per carry including a dominant performance in the
Sugar Bowl. Amari Cooper is one of
the best receivers in the country and will build on the 1,700+ carrer yards and
15 touchdowns. Free Safety Landon
Collins became the stud everyone thought he would be out of high school last
year as a sophomore, impacting the game in every way possible: 70 tackles, 4
TFL, 2 forced fumbles, 2 recovered, 2 sacks, 8 passes defended and 2
interceptions. A’Shawn Robinson had 5.5
sacks and 8 TFL as a true freshman DT last season, and is almost certainly a
future first round pick. This team is
loaded and deep as always, and also has one of the best schedules. The opener against West Virginia seemed a
little tougher a few years ago. They get
both Auburn and A&M at home. They
get Tennessee and Florida out of the East Division. The table is set for the Crimson Tide to make
the first Playoff.
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