re: Predict the SEC West next year, provided Cam is gone

They will definitely be better, but they don't get better in a vacuum. LSU will be better, definitely. With a lockout, ARK, BAMA, LSU, and AU will all be better. I just don't see MSU beating those 4 teams if they return their juniors.

there is not going to be a lockout and there will be a draft in April...

Even if there is somehow a lockout- we still have an easier schedule with a better team returning

How is Aubarn going to be better after losing as many seniors as they lose? They lose 4 starters on the OL- their OL wont even be close to this season...their D isnt very good as it is- how will it get better with the losses?

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State is going to be better in 2011 than they were in 2010...no way they finish worse than 8-

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Why? Do you really think Relf and his backs are going to have a much better year next year? Your OL wont be bad, but it wont be as good as it was this year, which was the strength of your team. I dont see your O improving at all and you lose two of the best LB's in the nation along with Mcphee. I do think that your DL will be as good if not better, probably better. LB worse and secondary a little better. All in all I dont see that much improvement. Though this years state team finishes 3rd in the west next year IMO

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dont see you being any better and obviously you guys thought you would win all 4 OOC games this year- but that didnt work out did it?

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you really dont? We return everyone except Masoli and Markeith offensively. Summers lost us two games and while Masoli played hard, he really screwed with team chemistry and Mackey will be playing with a much better set of OL, RB, and WR so I dont see a drop off at the QB position. So we improve at every postion offensively exept QB, which is just a lateral move. We return our top 3 men in the secondary, 4 out of our top 6 LB's and get Lockett back. Now honestly I dont see that much improved talent wise on D. But we will be much faster, better conditioned, and will play harder. Just the fact that Nutt and Nix know their job is on the line would make us a better team next year with the same talent. But with obviously better talent at every position on the Offensive side of the ball and equal at worse on the Defensive side I cant see why you'd think we wouldnt improve.

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It's because Nutt has proven that those nonconference games are not gimmies by any means.

And losing one of those quickly deflates your team.

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I understand that though process. Our only 2 ooc games we should even think about losing this year is BYU which is at home and Fresno St. who we beat his year with a terrible defense. We should be ok in those for the simple fact we out talent them. I don't think it is that big of a stretch for us to be Vandy and sneak up on someone like UK or UGA which is at home and even though we will be underdogs we could pull an upset against MSU like they did to us in 09.

If y'all beat BYU I will quickly change my prediction, because early confidence is so important, especially when you are a little less talented than the upper-tier SEC teams. I just expect yall to lose to them. I hope I am wrong though.

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Why? Do you really think Relf and his backs are going to have a much better year next year?

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Yes, it was the first year to start in D-1 for all 3 of them- they will be better.

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Your OL wont be bad, but it wont be as good as it was this year, which was the strength of your team.

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We return 7 of the 10 deep, with 3 starters coming back, and a back-up Center that started 3 games in 2010 for one of the guys we are losing. This group will be very good again.

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I dont see your O improving at all

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Well, it will. Relf will have a year of starting under his belt, our RB's will have adjusted to D-1, and we dont lose a single WR, plus get the ones we RS'ed into the fold.

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I do think that your DL will be as good if not better, probably better

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yes, with 7 of 8 guys returning, our DL will be better.

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LB worse

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yes, we wont be as good but our guys returning did get experience. This is a concern for us.

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secondary a little better

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we have 9 of 10 on the depth chart returning here...much improved in 2011

bottom line- you cant return all the players we return and not be better.

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We return everyone except Masoli and Markeith offensively

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you lose 2 of 4 WR's, 1 TE, and your QB. Mackey will not be as good as Masoli no matter how many times you tell yourself he will be.

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We return our top 3 men in the secondary, 4 out of our top 6 LB's and get Lockett back

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you lose 2 starters on the DL, 2 at LB, and 2 in the Secondary- if you had better players, they would have played. It's scary to think, but your defense may actually be worse in 2011.

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Just the fact that Nutt and Nix know their job is on the line would make us a better team next year with the same talent

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Thats crap. They wont coach any different. They will do the best they can do as usual. It wont be enough.

5-7 in 2011 at best. And you better get a plan B- Mackey wont last long weighing 175 pounds

We bring back our entire O line. We didn't use a tight end except for blocking so it doesn't matter if he is back or not. Our whole recieving core minus Summer but we get Vincent Sanders off of a redshirt.

Our D line will not be very good but our LB should be. Mike Marry played a lot at MLB, Shakelford will move from end back to LB, and Kite who had a Sophomore slump will be back. Grimes and Sawyer will be better at corner and Mathews who is coming off injury plagued freshmen year at SS and Damien Jackson at FS.

Our back 7 will be improved. Our D line not so much.

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you lose 2 starters on the DL, 2 at LB, and 2 in the Secondary- if you had better players, they would have played. It's scary to think, but your defense may actually be worse in 2011

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This is hard to explain. While DT is our best defensive player Cornell got the start over him simply because he played hard and was a 5th year senior. He will be missed for leadership and was tough, but was slow. Everyone on the board will agree that DT was better than Cornell, and that he was and still is our best player on defense. Its tough to explain that situation. Allen Walker would not have started the second half of hte season if Clarence Jackson did not get suspended. Once again, anyone who followed OM the entire year would agree with this. Our best corner was a freshman and didnt start over our senior for two reasons. A freshman isnt going to jump a senior at the beginning of the year until the freshman proves he is vastly superior, which Sawyer did, but got injured after his first start and didnt fully recover until senior night, once again, senior gets the start. Sawyer, Temple, and Grimes were our top 3 corners and all three return. (Grimes was another freshman who got suspended) Now Safety is tough because we did lose two guys. Yes they sucked, were slow, and out of position, but they gave us dept that we will not have next year. We wont be improved at safety simply because our backups arent going to anywhere as good as this years. Our starters should be a little better though. On the DL we return Lockett and the rest of our DE's, but lose our top 3 DT. I dont see much improvement there, but should have a decent pass rush on passing situations moving DT down and having him and lockett come off the edge.

So to recap.
LB's- much better
Corners- much better
Safeties- no improvement
DL- no improvement

(overall D will be bad once again, but not the worst in the conference.)