The SEC football season will begin 2015 the way they have so many others, at the top of college football. Of course, I don’t mean to say that the SEC is on top of the preseason AP Poll, because Ohio State and TCU are one and two respectively in that poll. Instead, I mean that the SEC is once again littering the poll with its teams.
10 out of the top 27 teams in the country play in the SEC, including three out of the top nine in Alabama (3), Auburn (6), and Georgia (9). But, while the teams in the SEC are easily placed into a national poll, they aren’t so easily ranked inside of their own conference. That’s exactly what I’ll try to do.
Preseason Awards
Offensive Player of the Year: Nick Chubb (RB-UGA)
Defensive Player of the Year: Myles Garrett (DE-Texas A&M)
The East
- Georgia
- Tennessee
- Florida
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- South Carolina
- Vanderbilt
Lets just get this out of the way: the Eastern division of the SEC is the worst it has been in a very, very long time. The consensus pick (worth very little) has been Georgia really since the end of last football season. However, UGA may have more questions than anyone else in this division. A new quarterback in Greyson Lambert, new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and a rebuilding wide receiver unit has the Bulldog offense full of questions heading into the Fall. Having Nick Chubb should balance those questions out however.
Tennessee is the team “on the rise” and for good reason. Butch Jones has got the UT program going through the right process to return to the spotlight and this season is a big step in that process. Florida scares me because A.) I picked them to win the east last season and that turned out terrible. B.) A new coach combined with a so-so quarterback (Treon Harris) is not a recipe for success in my book.
Out of all of the teams in the east, I really like Kentucky to improve the most this season. Patrick Towles is a star at the QB position but he just hasn’t had the help to truly shine in Lexington. This year he does. Returning his top two RB’s and four offensive linemen, third year head coach Mark Stoops (7-17 first two years) has his team heading in the right direction. I like the Wildcats to win 7-8 games this season and if they can get a couple of things to go their way, it could be more.
The West
- Alabama
- Auburn
- Arkansas
- LSU
- Mississippi
- Texas A&M
- Mississippi State
Every single team in the West was ranked in the top-27 by the preseason AP voters. While the East is going to be shaky at best this season, the West is loaded as usual. The classic powers of Alabama, Auburn, and LSU are very similar this year. They are all uber-talented, but lack a solid and dependable QB option, for now. All three schools have talented quarterbacks preparing to start for their schools, but none of the signal-callers have done anything of merit in SEC game-play. I may not be going out on a limb here, but whichever QB can start the fastest in September, his team will have a leg up in the division.
Arkansas is the most underrated team in the SEC. Yeah, I said it. The Hogs are more talented than people in the South are giving them credit for, but besides that, they are about as experienced as you can be in this era of college football. Brandon Allen returns as the schools first three-year starter since Matt Jones (2000-2002). The offensive line returns four starters to protect Allen and All-SEC running back Alex Collins.
Texas A&M and the two Mississippi schools are tough to predict. The Aggies may have the best skill players in the country as a group, but they have many questions everywhere else which makes it difficult to project. Mississippi State may be the best, last ranked team in the history of college football. Fox Sports Clay Travis said that he “wouldn’t be surprised if any given team in the West finished first or last.” Simply put, the SEC West is a gauntlet, as always. Let the games begin.
Sport by Travis 