2011 College Football Preview: The SEC

It’s that time again.  College football is kicking off in a month.  Summer practice is about to begin, we have a bunch of new coaches, a bunch of conference realignment, new championship games, and a bunch of scandal to keep us entertained until the season actually starts!

SEC:  Winners of the past five BCS National Championships, the conference is going as strong as ever.  Will it be six straight?

-Vanderbilt:I like Vandy's new coach, but this is still Vanderbilt.  A 6-6 record is impressive at Vandy, and that won't happen this year.

 -Kentucky: With Louisville on the rise, Kentucky is going to have issues keeping up what it has done over the past few years.  Joker Phillips is a good coach, but this is Kentucky football, not basketball.  A bowl game is not off the table, but that's the limit.

-Georgia: An 0-2 start will doom Coach Richt and the rest of the year.  A 2-0 start will get the hype machine going until the middle of the schedule hits.  UGA is good enough to win the east and bad enough to finish with Kentucky and Vanderbilt at the bottom.  There will be little difference between First and Fourth place in the SEC East.  I'm predicting the 0-2 start, especially if Boise blows out UGA in Atlanta to start.  UGA won't beat South Carolina no matter how the game in Atlanta goes.

-Florida: A new coach means attitude and playbook adjustments which means at least two conference losses.  To be fair that may still be good enough to win the SEC East, remember South Carolina won it last year with three conference losses.

-South Carolina: The Gamecocks are good enough to repeat, if the team can keeps its collective head together.  With all the off-field issues this off-season, there is no telling what the team will be like.  If South Carolina can go to Athens and win in week 2, the sky is the limit.

-Tennessee: Every year there is a coach in his second year with a school that surprises everyone and wins a division/conference/national title.  While I don't think Tennessee is good enough to win the entire SEC, there's no reason to believe the Volunteers can't win the SEC East.  Every team in the division has a lot of questions and nobody is penciled in as the champion, so why not?  Recently dismissed safety Janzen Jackson will be missed on the defense. 

-Ole Miss: Last season was an absolute disaster for the Rebels.  This season looks to rebuild as well.  The SEC West was the toughest division in the country last year and the Rebels ended up at the bottom of it.  The other five members of the division were all ranked when Ole Miss played them, but none ended up being close.  Losing to Vanderbilt and Tennessee from the SEC East had to sting as well, given that the SEC West was 16-3 against the SEC East last year (South Carolina over Alabama was the other).  The climb up will be a long one, and Coach Nutt may not last long enough to see it.

Auburn: Nobody predicts the Tigers to do much and its hard to replace that much talent.  Auburn will be decent, eight wins is possible and there will be an upset or two for a team that doesn’t take them seriously.  The coaching staff is still the same, and they know how to get stuff done. 

-Arkansas: Everyone expects Tyler Wilson to step in and be a perfect replacement for Ryan Mallet.  It is never that easy. Arkansas will be tough, but the preseason ranking of #15 is a bit high.  Look for Arkansas to finish with 8 wins and a lower ranking.

-Mississippi State: If they were in the SEC East I would pick them to win the division.  As it is being in the West, it isn’t going to happen.  Mississippi State hasn't beaten anyone in the SEC West outside of Ole Miss in the past two years and that has to change in order for them to move up in the rankings.  Look for a few good wins and some ugly division losses.

-LSU: Some say BCS, some say SEC Champion, some say National Champs.  With a QB situation that’s unsettled I would say fourth place in the SEC West.  The recent suspension of Jordan Jefferson is going to hurt the team tremendously, he was a leader on the field as well as a good quarterback. 

-Alabama: With all the talent on the team last year the Tide had three losses.  Less talent means that Alabama isn’t going undefeated this year either.  Replacing Julio Jones will be the toughest part in my opinion.  I still say Alabama wins the SEC West, and the SEC too, but no national title for the Crimson Tide this year either.