SEC Post-Spring Reset
By Matt Smith
SouthernPigskin.com
As we reach the midway point of the offseason, let’s review where things stand and what’s left to shake out before toe meets leather in late August.
Spring practice wrapped up in the SEC a week ago with Georgia’s annual G-Day “game”. We now enter what The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) sportswriter Marc Morehouse has aptly dubbed “the horse latitudes” of the college football calendar. The horse latitudes are, in addition to a song by The Doors, subtropical regions of the Earth with little wind and little precipitation. In other words, not much is going on. That’s the next two-and-a-half months, a time in which no news is good news before the start of “talkin’ season” come mid-July.
Unless you’re one of those weirdos who hates warm weather (and if you are, you probably don’t live in SEC country) late spring and early summer will ultimately fly by, and it’ll be time for preseason training camp before you bat an eye. As we reach the midway point of the offseason, let’s review where things stand and what’s left to shake out before toe meets leather in late August.
Quarterback Competitions
Ten SEC quarterbacks should feel pretty safe about their starting roles. Eight of the 10 are returning starters, while a ninth, Missouri’s Kelly Bryant started 18 games at Clemson over the past two seasons before being displaced by wonder boy Trevor Lawrence. Here are the 10:
Alabama: Tua Tagovailoa (Jr.)
Florida: Feleipe Franks (Jr.)
Georgia: Jake Fromm (Jr.)
Kentucky: Terry Wilson (Jr.)
LSU: Joe Burrow (Sr.)
Ole Miss: Matt Corral (So.)
Missouri: Kelly Bryant (Sr.)
South Carolina: Jake Bentley (Sr.)
Tennessee: Jarrett Guarantano (Jr.)
Texas A&M: Kellen Mond (Jr.)
If you’re smarter than a fifth grader, you know that leaves four SEC teams who will have quarterback battles into August camp. Three of the four are extensions from the spring. Arkansas will add in Texas A&M transfer Nick Starkel in the summer to compete with SMU transfer Ben Hicks, who has two legs up from playing for head coach Chad Morris with the Mustangs and having gone through spring drills in Fayetteville.
Arkansas: Ben Hicks (Sr.) vs. Nick Starkel (Jr.)
Auburn: Joey Gatewood (rFr.) vs. Bo Nix (Fr.)
Mississippi State: Keytaon Thompson (Jr.) vs. Jalen Mayden (Fr.)
Vanderbilt: Riley Neal (Sr.) vs. Deuce Wallace (Jr.)
My predictions? I’ll take Thompson, Neal, Hicks and Gatewood.
Nix is the future at Auburn and is likely to see meaningful playing time this fall, but I’ll mention one of my favorite quarterback-related anecdotes: The last SEC true freshman quarterback to start a season opener was Tennessee’s Brent Schaeffer in 2004. That was 15 years ago. It’s a rarity, so I’m not going to predict it until it happens again.
New Coordinators
All 14 head coaches are back from last season, but there were some significant staff overhauls, with 11 new coordinators coming onboard or receiving promotions.
Alabama: Steve Sarkisian (Offense), Pete Golding (Defense)
Auburn: Kenny Dillingham (Offense)
Georgia: James Coley (Offense), Dan Lanning (Defense)
Kentucky: Brad White (Defense)
Ole Miss: Rich Rodriguez (Offense), Mike MacIntyre (Defense)
Tennessee: Jim Chaney (Offense), Derrick Ansley (Defense)
Vanderbilt: Gerry Gdowski (Offense)
Many of the new coordinators were on staff last year, including both at Georgia, but Sarkisian, Dillingham, Rodriguez, MacIntyre, Chaney, and Ansley all were elsewhere in 2018. Sarkisian was, of course, the interim coordinator for the Crimson Tide in the 2016 season’s national championship game loss to Clemson, but left Tuscaloosa for the NFL just prior to Tua Tagovailoa’s arrival on campus.
The biggest visible differences will likely come at Ole Miss. Rodriguez made his mark on the sport with his zone-read game, and he’ll bring that to a Rebels offense that saw a gutting of its passing game after last season. On the other side of the ball, MacIntyre has implemented a new base 3-4 scheme to help what has been the league’s worst defense over the past three seasons.
Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia probably won’t look much different than in years past due to the preferred identities of their respective head coaches, even with Tigers’ defensive boss Kevin Steele the only coordinator returning among the six from a year ago.
Tennessee is the wild card. Both Chaney and Ansley have previously worked at Tennessee, while Ansley spent time with Jeremy Pruitt at Alabama in 2016 and 2017. Expect more tight end usage from the Volunteers offense under Chaney, but Pruitt is a Nick Saban protégé, so his freedom may be restricted.
Spring Standouts
Southern Pigskin released its all-SEC Spring Game Team earlier this month, but I’ll highlight a few names that shined and raised their expectations heading into the season.
-Georgia CBs Tyson Campbell and Eric Stokes: Someone has to replace first-round NFL Draft pick Deandre Baker. These two sophomore both have proven to be capable options as No. 2 corners, but it can be different taking over the No. 1 role. Stokes stood out in the spring game with an early pick-six of Jake Fromm.
-Kentucky RB Kavosiey Smoke: Benny Snell is gone, and the redshirt freshman looks to have a big role in replacing the former Wildcats star after averaging 26 yards per carry in the Wildcats’ spring game.
-Alabama WR John Metchie: Oh look, Alabama has a stud true freshman wide receiver. After Jerry Jeudy in 2017 and Jaylen Waddle last year both dazzled as first-year players, we may be able to expect the same from Metchie after an MVP performance in the Crimson Tide's A-Day game. Metchie caught five passes for 133 yards, but will face an absolutely loaded depth chart in the fall with Jeudy, Waddle, Devonta Smith, and Henry Ruggs III.
-Texas A&M TE Baylor Cupp: With Jace Sternberger off to the NFL, Cupp has the opportunity to play right away. After leading the team with 88 yards in the Aggies’ spring game, he is well on his way to starting as a true freshman this fall.
Way-too-Early Predictions
With four months until the season, here’s how I envision the SEC divisions shaking out:
SEC East
1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Missouri
4. South Carolina
5. Tennessee
6. Kentucky
7. Vanderbilt
SEC West
1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Texas A&M
4. Auburn
5. Mississippi State
6. Ole Miss
7. Arkansas
I believe South Carolina is the third-best team in a muddy middle tier of the SEC East, but they draw both Alabama and Texas A&M from the West, while Missouri gets Arkansas and Ole Miss. In addition, the head-to-head meeting between the Gamecocks and Tigers is in Columbia West. I whiffed on Kentucky last season, and I may be making the same mistake again, but the Wildcats just have too much to replace to replicate their 10-3 2018 season.
There’s a pretty clear dividing line in the SEC West between No. 4 and No. 5. Both Mississippi State and Ole Miss had four players selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft, so there is some serious star power that has to be replaced in the Magnolia State after disappointing 8-5 and 5-7 seasons respectively in 2018.
What’s Next
SEC Spring Meetings take place in Sandestin, Florida, beginning on May 28. That event generated plenty of news in the early part of the decade when expansion, scheduling, the SEC Network, and the College Football Playoff were all major topics. As those issues have moved to the back burner, expect minimal developments to come out of the Florida panhandle that week.
SEC Media Days return to their longtime home in the Birmingham area after a one-year stint at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. The four-day event begins July 15 at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama.
The SEC will take part in “Week 0” for the first time since pre-Labor Day weekend games resurfaced in 2016. Florida will renew its old rivalry with Miami (FL) on Aug. 24 in Orlando. The teams haven’t played annually since the ‘80s, but they have met six times since 2000, with the Hurricanes winning five of them.
By Matt Smith
SouthernPigskin.com
As we reach the midway point of the offseason, let’s review where things stand and what’s left to shake out before toe meets leather in late August.
Spring practice wrapped up in the SEC a week ago with Georgia’s annual G-Day “game”. We now enter what The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) sportswriter Marc Morehouse has aptly dubbed “the horse latitudes” of the college football calendar. The horse latitudes are, in addition to a song by The Doors, subtropical regions of the Earth with little wind and little precipitation. In other words, not much is going on. That’s the next two-and-a-half months, a time in which no news is good news before the start of “talkin’ season” come mid-July.
Unless you’re one of those weirdos who hates warm weather (and if you are, you probably don’t live in SEC country) late spring and early summer will ultimately fly by, and it’ll be time for preseason training camp before you bat an eye. As we reach the midway point of the offseason, let’s review where things stand and what’s left to shake out before toe meets leather in late August.
Quarterback Competitions
Ten SEC quarterbacks should feel pretty safe about their starting roles. Eight of the 10 are returning starters, while a ninth, Missouri’s Kelly Bryant started 18 games at Clemson over the past two seasons before being displaced by wonder boy Trevor Lawrence. Here are the 10:
Alabama: Tua Tagovailoa (Jr.)
Florida: Feleipe Franks (Jr.)
Georgia: Jake Fromm (Jr.)
Kentucky: Terry Wilson (Jr.)
LSU: Joe Burrow (Sr.)
Ole Miss: Matt Corral (So.)
Missouri: Kelly Bryant (Sr.)
South Carolina: Jake Bentley (Sr.)
Tennessee: Jarrett Guarantano (Jr.)
Texas A&M: Kellen Mond (Jr.)
If you’re smarter than a fifth grader, you know that leaves four SEC teams who will have quarterback battles into August camp. Three of the four are extensions from the spring. Arkansas will add in Texas A&M transfer Nick Starkel in the summer to compete with SMU transfer Ben Hicks, who has two legs up from playing for head coach Chad Morris with the Mustangs and having gone through spring drills in Fayetteville.
Arkansas: Ben Hicks (Sr.) vs. Nick Starkel (Jr.)
Auburn: Joey Gatewood (rFr.) vs. Bo Nix (Fr.)
Mississippi State: Keytaon Thompson (Jr.) vs. Jalen Mayden (Fr.)
Vanderbilt: Riley Neal (Sr.) vs. Deuce Wallace (Jr.)
My predictions? I’ll take Thompson, Neal, Hicks and Gatewood.
Nix is the future at Auburn and is likely to see meaningful playing time this fall, but I’ll mention one of my favorite quarterback-related anecdotes: The last SEC true freshman quarterback to start a season opener was Tennessee’s Brent Schaeffer in 2004. That was 15 years ago. It’s a rarity, so I’m not going to predict it until it happens again.
New Coordinators
All 14 head coaches are back from last season, but there were some significant staff overhauls, with 11 new coordinators coming onboard or receiving promotions.
Alabama: Steve Sarkisian (Offense), Pete Golding (Defense)
Auburn: Kenny Dillingham (Offense)
Georgia: James Coley (Offense), Dan Lanning (Defense)
Kentucky: Brad White (Defense)
Ole Miss: Rich Rodriguez (Offense), Mike MacIntyre (Defense)
Tennessee: Jim Chaney (Offense), Derrick Ansley (Defense)
Vanderbilt: Gerry Gdowski (Offense)
Many of the new coordinators were on staff last year, including both at Georgia, but Sarkisian, Dillingham, Rodriguez, MacIntyre, Chaney, and Ansley all were elsewhere in 2018. Sarkisian was, of course, the interim coordinator for the Crimson Tide in the 2016 season’s national championship game loss to Clemson, but left Tuscaloosa for the NFL just prior to Tua Tagovailoa’s arrival on campus.
The biggest visible differences will likely come at Ole Miss. Rodriguez made his mark on the sport with his zone-read game, and he’ll bring that to a Rebels offense that saw a gutting of its passing game after last season. On the other side of the ball, MacIntyre has implemented a new base 3-4 scheme to help what has been the league’s worst defense over the past three seasons.
Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia probably won’t look much different than in years past due to the preferred identities of their respective head coaches, even with Tigers’ defensive boss Kevin Steele the only coordinator returning among the six from a year ago.
Tennessee is the wild card. Both Chaney and Ansley have previously worked at Tennessee, while Ansley spent time with Jeremy Pruitt at Alabama in 2016 and 2017. Expect more tight end usage from the Volunteers offense under Chaney, but Pruitt is a Nick Saban protégé, so his freedom may be restricted.
Spring Standouts
Southern Pigskin released its all-SEC Spring Game Team earlier this month, but I’ll highlight a few names that shined and raised their expectations heading into the season.
-Georgia CBs Tyson Campbell and Eric Stokes: Someone has to replace first-round NFL Draft pick Deandre Baker. These two sophomore both have proven to be capable options as No. 2 corners, but it can be different taking over the No. 1 role. Stokes stood out in the spring game with an early pick-six of Jake Fromm.
-Kentucky RB Kavosiey Smoke: Benny Snell is gone, and the redshirt freshman looks to have a big role in replacing the former Wildcats star after averaging 26 yards per carry in the Wildcats’ spring game.
-Alabama WR John Metchie: Oh look, Alabama has a stud true freshman wide receiver. After Jerry Jeudy in 2017 and Jaylen Waddle last year both dazzled as first-year players, we may be able to expect the same from Metchie after an MVP performance in the Crimson Tide's A-Day game. Metchie caught five passes for 133 yards, but will face an absolutely loaded depth chart in the fall with Jeudy, Waddle, Devonta Smith, and Henry Ruggs III.
-Texas A&M TE Baylor Cupp: With Jace Sternberger off to the NFL, Cupp has the opportunity to play right away. After leading the team with 88 yards in the Aggies’ spring game, he is well on his way to starting as a true freshman this fall.
Way-too-Early Predictions
With four months until the season, here’s how I envision the SEC divisions shaking out:
SEC East
1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Missouri
4. South Carolina
5. Tennessee
6. Kentucky
7. Vanderbilt
SEC West
1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Texas A&M
4. Auburn
5. Mississippi State
6. Ole Miss
7. Arkansas
I believe South Carolina is the third-best team in a muddy middle tier of the SEC East, but they draw both Alabama and Texas A&M from the West, while Missouri gets Arkansas and Ole Miss. In addition, the head-to-head meeting between the Gamecocks and Tigers is in Columbia West. I whiffed on Kentucky last season, and I may be making the same mistake again, but the Wildcats just have too much to replace to replicate their 10-3 2018 season.
There’s a pretty clear dividing line in the SEC West between No. 4 and No. 5. Both Mississippi State and Ole Miss had four players selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft, so there is some serious star power that has to be replaced in the Magnolia State after disappointing 8-5 and 5-7 seasons respectively in 2018.
What’s Next
SEC Spring Meetings take place in Sandestin, Florida, beginning on May 28. That event generated plenty of news in the early part of the decade when expansion, scheduling, the SEC Network, and the College Football Playoff were all major topics. As those issues have moved to the back burner, expect minimal developments to come out of the Florida panhandle that week.
SEC Media Days return to their longtime home in the Birmingham area after a one-year stint at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta. The four-day event begins July 15 at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama.
The SEC will take part in “Week 0” for the first time since pre-Labor Day weekend games resurfaced in 2016. Florida will renew its old rivalry with Miami (FL) on Aug. 24 in Orlando. The teams haven’t played annually since the ‘80s, but they have met six times since 2000, with the Hurricanes winning five of them.
