As the annual pilgramage of media folks to Hoover begins from all across the South for SEC Media Daze, there are about three things you can count on happening this week:
- Alabama will be picked to win the SEC West
2. Georgia will be picked to win the SEC East
3. Arkansas will be picked dead last in the West
Everything else is wide open with the possible exception nobody representing a school will doubt their program is going to have a losing record.
Well, there is always the annual game of how close the transcription of LSU’s Ed Orgeron talk gets to what he actually said, but it’s doubtful anyone will understand a big part of it. Usually, you can simply recycle the clichés he uses every year.
The prevailing thought among media members across the SEC this summer is that the Razorbacks won’t make a bowl game, but should have a better record.
Don’t be surprised if that’s about the most positive thing you hear over the next few days, not counting comments from Chad Morris and players Devwah Whaley, Sosa Agim and De’Jon Harris.
Many of the Hogs’ fan base have their own doomsday predictions.
While I’m not ready to put this Razorback team in the College Football Playoff, it will be surprising if they don’t rebound better than most predict. That’s just how things have gone with the Hogs for, well, the entire history of the program.
The biggest results usually come when the least is expected.
Here’s my predictions for the annual gathering:
SEC West
1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Texas A&M
4. Arkansas
5. Auburn
6. Mississippi State
7. Ole Miss
SEC East
1. Florida
2. Georgia
3. Tennessee
4. South Carolina
5. Kentucky
6. Missouri
7. Vanderbilt
SEC Champion: Alabama
The explanation
While I think the Hogs will be drastically improved, there are also going to be some teams in the SEC West that will come down a few notches, despite having a deeper roster.
Auburn is walking a tightrope in maybe the most fragile environment in the division. Plus, they have one of the most brutal early schedules in all of college football.
Oregon, Texas A&M, Florida and Mississippi State are all in the first six games to open the season.
A loyal, hopeful, devoted fan base with a massive inferiority complex to the big elephant up the road. When they lose a game, half are ready to dump the coach.
Let’s face it, Gus Malzahn was one officials’ call away from probably getting fired in 2016 in the LSU game, but it was the Tigers who dumped Les Miles. We’ll never know, but that was the feeling of many.
Mississippi State had four of the first 44 players taken in April’s NFL Draft and lost a fifth-year senior quarterback … from a team that was 7-5 last year in the regular season.
That’s a lot for a team to replace and they are going to a new look offensively in Joe Moorhead’s second season. They want to throw it around a little more.
Ole Miss is debuting a new quarterback with two new coordinators on both sides of the ball, so it won’t be surprising to see them struggle a little early and by the time they get it figured out, well, it might be too late.
Plus, on the Hogs’ schedule, Kentucky and Missouri are the teams from the East and I don’t think either one’s going to be as good as last season. Yes, I know Kelly Bryant is the quarterback for the Tigers, but he’s not Drew Lock, who was the biggest problem for Arkansas in 2016-17.
Finally, last season was a complete train wreck for Morris in his first season. There’s been a lot of addition with, simply, some players not coming back and an influx of talented young players at positions where they can contribute immediately.
The last thing you want from a bad team is a large number of returning starters.
And the guess here is that won’t be a big number.
