Anonymous coaches speak about SEC teams

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"You can reduce them down to the quarterback. If Jaxson Dart is a dude, they're gonna be lethal on offense and can win as many games as last year. If he's not, it's gonna be a really long, bad season. This program is going to live and die with quarterbacks as long as Lane Kiffin's there, so … low floor, high ceiling."

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"As far as the football, they need a quarterback, they need a much better offensive line, they need to replace a ton of guys in the secondary and receiving corps, and they've bled a lot of Gus Malzahn's guys in the portal because of all the off-field stuff. Is it a lost cause? Maybe not. They're creative on offense."

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"Don't take this as a knock on the head coach, but maybe the greatest coaching hire since Joe Brady went to LSU is Barry Odom to Arkansas. It's not even close. He's completely changed that culture, and they are absolutely playing above their talent level. They shouldn't be as effective as they are."

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 "In terms of pure talent, the roster is probably the fourth best in the East and lower than that in the West. But they didn't have much to start with at Louisiana, either. The really unique thing about Napier is that he's always unafraid to do the necessary, ugly football stuff that isn't exciting, but this is a higher platform than he's ever been on as a head coach."

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"Nick Saban loves a losing year, even in the national title, because it kills whatever assumption that current group might have about their value. He's a genius because he can reduce all that success from last season into a lesson about failure, and they'll have to buy into the work ethic. It's amazing."

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"What are they going to do on offense with that personnel? It seems like they want to go dual threat and run with their QB, but that's really just (Jayden) Daniels, not the other guys. They've got some playmakers on the perimeter, and they need to have an effective downfield passing offense with that personnel. I think you might see them rotate QBs, which could be a different set of problems."

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"They're loaded with elite young guys coming in, but they aren't going to have the luxury of that defense from last season. So eventually, they're going to have to open the offense up and push Stetson Bennett. They won a national title in the most comfortable way possible for their head coach: The best defensive players in the country doing their thing, and then playing a safe offensive game. That will have to change some."

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"Jimbo Fisher might be a mad genius when it comes to media because they get talked about alongside Georgia and Alabama, and they're every bit an 8–4 program. He knows it, too, but I think that's part of the plan."

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"They're pretty easy to break down because that offense is pretty easy to break down: You're a six-win team if your quarterback is decent, and you've got a two- or three-game ceiling if he can make plays. Having (Joe) Milton as the backup is a big luxury; you don't want to be rotating them at all, but if you have an injury, you've got a guy with game reps in the system, which is rare in the portal era."

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