Position wise, how will we stack up in the SEC in '14

I think we will have a GREAT team next year, and we'll be Top 3 in the SEC for many positions.

QB - #1 with out question (if Manziel leaves)
Dylan, Nos, Mitch. I think we have incredible depth there. We will have the only returning QB who's beaten 3+ ranked teams. Dylan is a 5th yr Sr with a lot of snaps already. Nos will be a RS Soph, was a Parade All American, and brings the Shaw/Dual Threat factor. Mitch is the gunslinger of the future and still holds MANY NC HS passing records. I don't think anybody in the conference is as deep as USC at QB.

RB - Top 3
Mike Davis comes back and was 1st or 2nd in the conference for many statistics. We have some depth behind him with game experience as well. I'm looking forward to seeing David Williams play for the 1st time. I think that uga will be #1 at RB b/c of so much depth, but I won't be surprised if Mike Davis leads the SEC in all categories next season.

WR - Top 2 (if Ellington returns) Top 3 (if Ellington leaves early)
We are just too deep. If Ellington returns, our top 6 WR's return with a QB who is more of a passer than a runner. I wouldn't be surprised to see us have 3 WR's with over 700 yards next season.
Even if Ellington leaves, we're going to have a ton of experience in the WR position, with an experienced OL and QB. This just simply bodes really well for the passing game. I'm eagerly looking forward to the Rise of Roland, he's got 1st Rd talent. Also, our FR All SEC/FR All American Pharoh Cooper is the truth.

TE - Top 3ish
We didn't use the TE nearly as much this year as I thought we would, but we're incredibly deep at the position. Moving Zandi to a 6'9" 290 lb blocking TE was freaking brilliant. We have both fantastic receiving and blocking TE's, we just have to figure out how to use them more and sustain drives so we can.

OT - #1 (If Robinson and Shell return)
If both guys come back, we'll have the biggest OT's in the conference. Their run blocking is already proven, but both will really need to work on the pass blocking in the offseason. I'm sure whoever. WIth the Volol's OT's, Gump's and aTm's OT's leaving, there isn't really anyone who can seriously match our starting 2.

OG - Top 4ish
Cann will keep us in the Top half of the conf argument for OG. However, we have to find a quality RG. Maybe Na'Ty will take that roll, we have some solid depth on the OL, so somebody will step up.

OC - Top 3ish
I really don't know a lot about the other C's in the league, but we're returning 2 C's with SEC starting experience, so our depth is automatically better than most other teams.

DE - Around 10th
This is one of the biggest ? marks for next season. We've recruited really well this year, and the potential 2 highly rated JUCO DE's could see the field immediately. I also like Dixon and English's development, but each needs to get much better. Honestly, this will probably be the area we've had the biggest drop off in performance over the past 4 season. Norwood, Matthews, Geathers, Ingram, Taylor, and Clowney have spoiled us at this position. Until someone steps up and starts making plays, I couldn't justifiably put us higher than Top 10.

DT - Top 4ish
We have much more depth at DT. Surratt is a returning Starter, and we're returning 3 of the guys from the '13 2 Deep. Green, Griffen, Dukes, Abu, all will bring competition for that position and I think we'll field a very solid 2 Deep at DT. We have a lot of experience and highly rated players at the DT position, but so does the rest of the SEC.

MLB - Top 4ish
Kaiwan Lewis immensely impressed me during the Wisc game with his ability to make 2 INT's against a running team. Wisc RB's didn't hit their season avg rushing numbers against us, and Lewis was focused on stopping the nation's best RB duo, but he still adjusted so quickly to passing plays and came away with 2 INT's. I think he is raising his ceiling. With another year of great strength/conditioning training, solid coaching and we're going to have a guy who can challenge for All SEC next year. Also, TJ Holloman will be in his 3rd year, but now fully recovered from his injury in '12 and he and Walton will push Lewis for PT. The competition will make all of them stronger heading into '14's season.

OLB/Spur- Top 3ish
Skai Moore...FR All SEC, FR All American, 2 turnovers in Wisc game, led the team in Tackles and INT's...Enough said....actually not...We are DEEP at the OLB position and with BAW coming in, it's only getting better. We will have 2 RS Jr's backing up Skai.
Our Top3 Spur's are all back. Golightly exceeded my expectations this year and the year of experience will only make him better. I still think Diggs is the future of the position, but they'll battle it out this Spring and we're going to have quality players/depth.

CB - Around 10th
We lost our Top 3 CB's from the '13 season. We are going to be counting on a whole new 2 Deep of guys that haven't played much and some FR who haven't played in the SEC at all. Grady and Ward are FANTASTIC coaches, they'll train whoever it is to do well, but until we see the product of their work, I can't justifiably rank them any higher. I do believe they'll be better than whatever garbage aTm, uga or kent field though. If both Green and Smith come to USC, I think we'll see before the midpoint of '14 that we have a Top 5 CB group.

S - Top 3ish
We return the entire 2 Deep form '13 we are stacked at Safety. Brison will be a 3 year starter and be a leader out there for us, he knows the system and where everyone needs to line up. Elder had a fantastic RS Fr year and took over Marcus' starting spot. We have some great competition for PT at the S position, we're going to field a great product there.

PK - Top 3ish
Elliott "Somebody Get Me a Cheeseburger" Fry is back, following his FR All SEC season, Fry will continue to improve. He will undoubtedly add 3, maybe 3.5 lbs and he's already earned the trust of Spurrier, which is clutch.

P- 14th, dead last
fuc...bless Tyler Hull's heart. He was dead last in the SEC and almost last nationally. I wouldn't expect anything different in '14, if we don't get a new punter. This is a guy who's already 3 years out of HS. Past performance is the best indicator of future performance.

PR - Around 10th
We weren't awful at PR last season, but we weren't great. We were a far cry from the product we put on in '12 (when we were #2), Ace was the man. Pharoh should get most of the PR's, so I think we'll be ok, but we didn't do anything this season to warrant a higher ranking.

KR - Around 10th
Again, we made too many stupid decisions in '13 to warrant a higher ranking. We'll be better than the bottom feeders of the SEC, but our inability to grasp the concept of taking a knee in the endzone will get you a free 25 yards...
that's going to keep us from being ranked higher.


The 2 biggest concerns next year are DE and CB, followed closely by Spec Teams play overall. If we do a good job with the DE/CB situation, we could have a similar season. If we fix those 2 issues and get better at Spec Teams (even just in the Top6 for many of those rankings) we could have the best season ever.