Thoughts from Media Days

Ready for another stellar SEC season after watching coaches in Media Days. All the coaches were optimistic, as one would expect. There is a lot of talent once again throughout the conference. Alabama and Florida are obviously the favorites, but ‘Bama is at Ark on Sept 25 and then at home to Florida on Oct 2; two critical games. Alabama is also at Tennessee Oct. 26 and at LSU Nov.6 with a bye week in between. If they win all those games they should be in SEC champ game to probably face Florida. Can Alabama repeat? They are of course thinking national championship after SEC champ. Depends on their defense. They have only one returning starter in the secondary, Mark Barron, who is an outstanding player, a possible All-American. Can guys like Dre Kirkpatrick and B.J. Scott step up at corners? Other young players will have to fill some voids left by the departures of Marquis Johnson, Kareem Jackson and Justin Woodall. Linebacker should have a lot of good players and dline will be younger, but talented. Will Marcell Dareus be able to play? Can Tide afford to play him and take the chance of forfeiting games if he’s declared ineligible due to agent situation? That’s a risk. Offense should be great. Hopefully for ‘Bama, Ingram is not in trouble with NCAA. I think he’ll be OK.
Some darkhorses in the West: Arkansas. Petrino  can really coach offense. Ryan Mallett could be poised for a big year. He has some good targets on the outside and a pretty good line with serviceable, if not quality, tailbacks. The question for Arkansas is their defense. Can they handle the offenses of Alabama, Auburn and maybe even LSU, if they can get it together offensively? They can score the points. Not sure how much they can stop the opposing offenses. They could get outscored some.

Auburn has a chance. There a lot of quality players and they’ve built their depth somewhat. They’ve got guys back in the secondary who were hurt last year which helps a lot, but their defensive depth is a concern. Josh Bynes and Craig Stephens are going to have to play a lot at linebacker along with Jonathan Evans. They’re all three quality players. Eltoro Freeman’s a player, but not sure if he’s out of doghouse with Chizik. Up front, not sure exactly what they have. Nobody stands out. They usually have pretty good players up front though. Antoine Carter should be good at dend. On offense, what can Cam Newton do? He has a great arm and wheels and certainly has the size at 6’6″, 240, but does he have the leadership skills and the clutch gene needed to win big games? Not sure about that. Have to see how he handles SEC defenses in his first year. That’s a major transition. Running back should be good but not deep with Mario Fannin, Robert Dyer, Eric Smith and Onterio Mccalebb carrying the load. Wide receivers should be great led by Darvin Adams, Terrell Zachery and Quindarious Carr. Those three could be All-SEC and even All-Americans. Oline should be solid led by tackle Lee Ziemba and center Ryan Pugh.

With Auburn, to me, it’s about depth. Gene Chizik is rebuilding a team that Tommy Tuberville kind of left in disarray. He may have another year or two of rebuilding to go. At Kentucky, at Ole Miss and at Alabama. LSU, Arkansas and Georgia at home. Fairly favorable schedule. Eight wins is realistic, but nine or 10 possibly. All depends on how healthy team stays.

LSU is interesting. They are loaded with athletes. Have one of best defensive backs in the country in corner Patrick Peterson and a great linebacker in Kelvin Sheppard. Have great talent on both sides of the ball. Les Miles says running game will be better. Jordan Jefferson is a mystery at quarterback. He has the tools, size, arm, running skills, and in the Chick Filet Bowl two years ago he was outstanding, but really didn’t do very well last year. Can he get it done? That’s a big question mark and will determine the Tigers’ season. Jarrett Lee will be called on if Jefferson can’t get it done. Jefferson’s decision making in year two as starter needs to be a lot better. Would help with a better running game. Their running backs were hurt all last year, but Miles is impressed with what he has coming back even though they lost Charles Scott and Kelland Williams have graduated.Richard Murphy is the first in line at tailback.They have a lot of young talent from the 2009 class that was ranked number one in the country by ESPN. Russell Shepard should be an awesome player at wide out. Terrance Toliver is a quality wide receiver. LSU has been an enigma since their national championship season. Les Miles needs to win pretty big this year or he could see some moving vans in his driveway. He starts off with North Carolina at Atlanta in Chick Filet game, then he goes to Vandy. Not too easy first couple particularly a good North Carolina team. They go to Florida, to Auburn and to Arkansas. They need to survive those games to have a chance at title. I don’t know if they can get’er done particulaly those three on the road.

Ole Miss lost a lot in Dexter McCluster and Shay Hodge along with Jevan Snead, who was average last year, but he did have experience. They lost some guys on the oline. John Jerry was stellar, so they’ll be young up front. Can Nathan Stanley (6’5″, 215) take over the helm and make explosive plays for this team at qb? Brandon Bolden is a quality running back. Rodney Scott should be high quality, too. Houston Nutt has recruited pretty well, so we’ll see if some guys can step in and play well. They could be good, not great. Alabama and Arkansas are both on the road in consecutive weeks in late October and Tennessee and LSU are on the road in November. That could be four L’s right there.

State is building. I think Dan Mullen is a good coach, but he’s at a tough place to win. Chris Relf is an athlete at quarterback; we’ll see how he does. Mullen was excited about his team at Media Days. He is a good coach, I believe, but can he get it done there? They’ve got a little ways to go. He’s instilled a hard working attitude on his team though.

In the East like Florida, of course, but Georgia and South Carolina are getting closer. Georgia plays at South Carolina Sept 11 a huge game for both teams. But South Carolina does not need to be looking past Southern Miss in their opener. I don’t think they will setting up a war in week 2. Georgia goes to Auburn and Colorado among others.

Florida will be looking at Jeff Brantley to take over from Tim Tebow. I think he’ll be good. He reminds me of Greg McElroy with a stronger arm. He should be solid and he’s got the playmakers around him with Jeff Demps, Andre Debose, Chris Rainey and Emmanuel Moody. They are loaded with offensive weapons. They lost a lot on defense, but have a lot of untested talent. Can their defense play well enough to get them to Atlanta and beyond. I think it can get them to Atlanta. Not sure about them getting past Atlanta and Tuscaloosa earlier in the season. Georgia and SC will battle the Gators, too.Both teams are looking at solidifying their quarterbacks. Aaron Murray will take over for the Dawgs. Washaun Ealey and Caleb King are outstanding running backs. The line is one of the best in the conference if not the country. Can Georgia play enough defense and get good quarterback play. New defensive coordinatorTodd Grantham has changed to a 3-4 and wants to play more aggressively. Mark Richt really shook up his staff after last season. This is an important year from him.

Can Steve Spurrier get over the hump of seven wins at South Carolina? Stephen Garcia will be the key. South Carolina has some great wideouts and Marcus Lattimore is the most heralded freshman running back in the country. Can their line protect Garcia and, if they can, will he perform? Spurrier has another qb waiting in the wings if Garcia doesn’t pan out. Defense should be solid under former Alabama assistant Ellis Johnson who does a great job there.

So Florida will be challenged. They play South Carolina at Gainesville and play Georgia at the regular neutral site at Jacksonville. Tennessee and Florida State are on the road.

Kentucky could be pretty good, but still be in the middle of the pack. They have some talent. Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb are outstanding, particularly Cobb. He is a gamebreaker. Can Morgan Newton, their quarterback, produce? Do they have enough on defense to keep their team in the game? They probably don’t have enough defensively to stop Florida or Auburn, but they could hang with Georgia, SC and others. They should be a pretty good team and their schedule is pretty favorable. Have Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina and Vandy  at home. At Florida, at Ole Miss, at State and at Tennessee. 4-4 in conference would be a success in Joker Phillips’ first year. Could be a 7-5 season. 8-4 would be outstanding.

Vandy may have a better team than last year, but only win two games again. Robbie Caldwell seems like a really good guy, but their quarterback status is still  up in the air. Larry Smith was not an SEC caliber quarterback last year and Jordan Rodgers, Aaron’s (Green Bay Packers) little brother, has not been in an SEC game. So that’s very questionable. Offensive line is also very questionable for starters and depth. Defense should be OK and rbs should be good led by Warren Norman, an All-SEC selection as a return specialist. WR’s need to be better. They have more talent there. It’s just getting them the ball may be a problem with Smith and/or Rodgers not having  a lot of protection. It’s tough at Vandy. They just have to keep fighting and recruiting.

See Florida and Alabama winning their respective divisions with Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, Auburn and South Carolina as darkhorses. Another excellent year for the conference is in store. Another nine to 10 teams will go to a bowl game unless they beat each other up too much and knock each other out.

(Mario Fannin, pictured above, will play a huge role for Tigers)