re: Who wins the SEC?

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In a climate like this...you ask "who is best positioned to win the conference with good but not incredible QB play".

Normally, I would say if you look at returning production outside of QB play...it's a good place to start. This is a weird year, because:

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When you continually recruit top five classes, returning starters doesn't mean as much. Saban and Kirby have proven that.

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TrueLefty

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Kelly

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Oh there’s a fricking surprise.

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Not trying to be a homer but I like us to get there due to having the least amount of questions at the QB position.

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LSU has probably the best QB/Wrs groups in the SEC. My questions for them are defense and offensive line? I think the defense will probably be around average in the conference which might be good enough for them, but what are yall hearing about the offensive line group? I know there’s several new starters. A below average offensive line could derail the whole offense, especially for a pro style sit in the pocket type quarterback that you have

Florida and South Carolina should also have some optimism in that regard.

Usce is the ole miss of this year, lotta dark horse talk but just lije ole miss, championship level football isn’t in their dna.

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Bama Defense has 8 starters returning (most in the SEC) and I don't know if that's an advantage or disadvantage.

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With a first year coordinator running a new system they finished

#10 FEI
#9 Yards Per Play Defense
#10 Scoring Defense
#10 QB Rating Against Defense
#28 Rush YPA Defense

I'm going to go with advantage.


Gave up an average of 15 PPG the last 8 games of the season (along with just over 300 YPG), and in reality that was more like 12-13 PPG as the offense gave away 28+ pts between the Oklahoma and Michigan games.

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Looking at the overall season (NCAA.com stats):

Yards per play - 4.72. That's 10th best in the country and 4th best in the SEC...
Yards per game - 320.1 - That's 21st in the country, and 7th best in the SEC.
Rushing YPC - 3.68 - That's 27th in the country and 8th best in the SEC.
Rushing YPG - 138.1 - That's 48th in the country and 11th best in the SEC.
TD to opponent TD Margin - (-2) - The only SEC team whose opponents scored more TDs than they did for the season. So, that's 16th place.


So...they may be good overall...but I don't think that the defense puts them in a place statistically to be a favorite to win the conference.

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I'll say it again. I think Nussmeier and Sellers are good QBs. If they were great, they would have left last year. Incredibly weak QB class last year.

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LSU gave Nussmier 1.5 million reasons to stay and improve his draft stock. With the WR room that LSU has what QB would turn down that opportunity?

Dark horse: Florida

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shitty bama team

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So your fanbase was crying over a "shitty" team not making the 12 team playoff??

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Bama Defense has 8 starters returning (most in the SEC) and I don't know if that's an advantage or disadvantage. They gave up around 140 yards on the ground per game and nearly 200 in the air (over 10 yards per completion). 2 years ago, Bama with 8 returning defensive starters would be scary. Now, it's kind of encouraging. - Bama Offense has 6 returning starters from a middle of the pack group...meh

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It's hard to predict that when the year you're referencing is the first year of a coaching regime that includes new defensive and offensive schemes. There's a learning curve for adjusting to the new schemes that, more times than not, produces not-so-favorable results in year 1 that don't happen in year 2.

My guess is, from a defensive perspective, we will not see the breakdowns in year two that we saw in year one, because a lot of that last year was the players playing in a new defensive scheme. The encouraging thing is the recruiting has not dropped off at all. Recruiting is the life blood of college football and players matter. So, I highly doubt we'll continue the dominance Saban had but I wouldn't count on Bama wallowing in "mediocrity" with only 8 and 9 win seasons as the norm. I highly doubt that happens.

LSU, Georgia, or Bama are ones with a chance.

Texas had the easiest SOS in SEC last year, someone posted SOS rankings week 14 last year. Their 7 SEC wins went 18-38 in the SEC last year and had no ranked wins going into the CFP last year, were 0-2 vs Top 25. They better get an OU type schedule in 2026, as I still think they're faux.