Player of the Year: South Carolina RB Marcus Lattimore
If – and it’s a big, giant if – Lattimore can be back to 100% after suffering a knee injury midway through last year, he should be the catalyst for potentially the best team in South Carolina history. At 6-0 and 218 pounds he’s perfectly built to be an NFL franchise back in the near future, but first he has to be a little lucky. Steve Spurrier has never been afraid to use his workhorse back a bit too much, but Lattimore should put up huge numbers for a team that will be in the SEC title chase all season long.
Conference Predictions
East
1. South Carolina - Not only is there a midseason stretch of three road games in four weeks, but the last two games are on the road at LSU and Florida after hosting Georgia. Throw in the home dates against Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee along with the end-of-the-year road trip to Clemson and there are more than enough landmines to worry about at least a three-loss season. However, if the Gamecocks can hold serve at home they should be in for a tremendous year and on to their second SEC title appearance in three years.
2. Georgia – The Dawgs are better than Missouri, but it’ll be the first SEC game in Columbia and the Faurot Field crowd will be jacked up. Going to South Carolina is bad enough, but it’ll be followed up by the Don’t-Call-It-A Cocktail Party game against Florida. The Auburn trip will also be nasty meaning it wouldn’t be a shocker if Georgia lost three of their five games away from home. They’ll beat Kentucky in Lexington and without having to play LSU, Alabama or Arkansas, there can be one slip and still win the East title. There will be more than one.
