Tell me why y'all DON'T win the SEC west this year

We also lost Trey Flowers and Martrell Spaight. Those were our 3 best defensive players, but we also return the majority of our 2 deep on the DL and our entire secondary except our nickelback. We added army all-american Hjalte Froholdt and the #2 ranked juco DT to our defensive line so hopefully we can replace the production. Plus going into year two of Robb Smith can't hurt.

The receivers still aren't great but should be better than they have been. Hatcher (our best WR) is back and we added juco speedster Dominique Reed. 4* JoJo Robinson will also be in the mix after redshirting last year. We have a great group of TEs though that will be targeted often.

LB depth and our kicking game is what concerns me. Plus we haven't proven that we can win on the road or come back through the air once we get down. I think most fans expect 8-9 wins.

Schedule is brutal. Back to back road games twice. It's very difficult to win on the road in the SEC.

Unknown ability to rush the passer with the loss of Philon and Flowers. We also lost Spaight which makes our 3 best defensive players.
They were the main reason our D was so good down the stretch. They put them all on the same side of the field and it was very disruptive.
CBB has stated that our Dline is very deep though.

Recievers are also an unknown but we have some young talent there.
JUCO Dominique Reed could be huge for us because of his speed and our style of play. Should see some deep balls off of play action.

Hunter Henry will be a beast and will command double teams.
That should open the door for one of our other TEs to make some plays. Possibly someone like Jeremy Sprinkle could have the opportunity to make a lot of big plays for us.

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We also lost Trey Flowers

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Forgot about Flowers.

I have us winning the West which is a homer pick I know, but for many of the reasons you've laid out.

Our offense will be a lot better this season for a couple reasons:
Dan Enos offense is more in line with what CBB likes to do
Allen should have a higher completion percentage and more TD's with the new OC passing philosophies
Addition of 2 dynamic WR's

Quite honestly, Philon was a beast but our DL is the deepest its been in years. Not too concerned with LB play as Ellis will be in contention for ALL-SEC at the end of the year. We have some nice talent at the other spots.

Our secondary is very underrated going into the season. We had one of the better units in the SEC last season and lose actually two of bottom end defenders to graduation.

EDIT: Forgot about losing Mitchell who really came on his Senior year, but Henre Tolliver should feel that role nicely. Played a lot as a true freshman last year

We return 15 starters, 8 on offense, 7 on defense.



All 4 lost starters on defense were drafted.



The only guy drafted on offense was the backup tight end. The lineman we lost was easily the worst starting offensive lineman. Our line play will be a lot better this year as should every single facet of our offensive play.


Defensively, the key to our defense was Brooks Ellis. When he wasn't in the lineup our D was completely lost. He's back and our Defensive line looks to be as good if not better than last season and considerably deeper. Our secondary will also be better than last season. Our linebacking corps remains our weakness and it has the worst depth.

I don't understand how our D-Line will be better.

We lost Philon and Flowers.

I think we are deeper which will help, but we definitely lost our best talent on that side of the ball to the draft.

If you're asking me why we WON'T win the West, here are a few reasons:

- If lack of LB depth bites us in the arse
- If replacements for Flowers and Philon don't step up
- If Robb Smith has a sophomore slump
- If Brandon Allen doesn't take that next step
- (related) If our passing game doesn't gel
- If our kicking game is inconsistent
- If we're playing the refs in addition to the opponent

they arent saying Gus wont adapt, just that a passing offense wont have him at his best. I dont thinks thats debatable even for an auburn fan

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Your defense won't be as good as last year, lost too many stars. And your offense won't be able to compensate and keep up.

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Actually, we only lost one "star" from this time last year, Flowers.

Philon was still young and largely unproven, while good, he was far from a "star" and has a guy who shares his description going into the season last year with Jackson this year.

Spaight was only known for hitting hard in practice, his Junior year he was on the field, but largely a non factor. The difference in his performance was largely due to the time in the film room he spent, something the rest of the LB corp has picked up on.

The main difference between these guys and the two seasons in Robb, he put them in a position to succeed and used schemes to make offenses think their best chance was to take the ball to their side of the field.

Our DBs will be better this year which will more than make up for the losses of these three in the passing game while the replacements get up to speed. The defense may not be a top 10 defense again, but it will not fall back to Petrino level of being in the field during the game because the rules say so.

Our o-line and WR play will be better this year giving BA a better chance to succeed in what he needs to do. If the play calling is better this year (hard to believe it could be worse) the offense will be able to compensate for the loss on defense by sustaining drives keeping the D off the field for rest.

If the offense shows you can run or pass out of both the shotgun and from under center, it will immediately be more effective than Chaney's motto of shotgun = pass, under center = run.

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What year is Allen in?

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He will be a senior.

His little brother and Ty Storey are both more physically gifted at the position, both are young and lack experience. This offense isn't one where you "just" play, a lot is asked presnap and during the play at the position.

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But I think 3-4 losses is very realistic for your hogs. You can spin the losses on defense however you like but they will take a toll.

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3-4 Losses minimum is realistic for every team in the SEC West. The difference is teams that find ways to win these 3-4 games verses ways to lose these games. The team last year found ways to lose them.

If you look at Robb's track record you can see his approach to defense puts players at certain positions in a very strong chance of success, if he was an OC we would call these guys system QBs, plug, play, see results.