Conference Preview - SEC

Last year's national champion, Auburn, came from the SEC. It could come from the SEC again for the sixth straight year. Alabama is looking like a top contender for the championship, and I think they'll win the west. In the east, it looks like South Carolina is going to be the top team.

Alabama lost three games last year. They were all against top-20 opponents and two were on the road. The other loss was to national champion Auburn in a game where they led 24-0 in the first half. They return 17 starters from that team, and that could almost be considered 18 returning starters because RB Trent Richardson saw so much playing time last year. Richardson carried the ball 112 times for 700 yards (6.2 YPC) and 6 touchdowns. The hardest players to replace on offense will be QB Greg McElroy and WR Julio Jones. Sophomore QB A.J. McCarron played some last year, completing 62.5% of his 48 passes for 389 yards and 3 touchdowns. Wide receivers Darius Hanks (456 yards, 3 touchdowns last year) and Marquis Maze (557 yards, 3 touchdowns) will not be able to completely make up for the loss of Julio Jones, but they should provide a good enough effort that the passing game will still be effective. With 4 returning starters on the offensive line, the offense should be just fine. The defense returns 10 starters from a group that was 5th in total defense (286.4 YPG) and 3rd in scoring defense (13.5 PPG). It's going to be difficult for anyone to put up many points on Alabama. This year, I think Alabama will have a top 5 defense and a top 20 offense, and their schedule is nice. They do play at Penn State in the second game of the season, so getting McCarron up to speed will be very important in the season opener against Kent State. But in conference, they don't play Georgia or South Carolina and they get LSU and Arkansas at home. If McCarron does well early in the season, I see Alabama going 12-0 in the regular season.

I know that a lot of people are picking Georgia to win the east, and I disagree. They were 6-7 last year and only return 12 starters and just 63% of their lettermen. They did have four losses by 7 or less points. In the SEC East, my pick is South Carolina. They return 13 starters, including sophomore RB Marcus Lattimore who rushed for 1,197 yards and 17 touchdowns. Junior WR Alshon Jeffrey (1,517 yards, 9 touchdowns) is also back, and he should be Garcia's top target again. Garcia was a pretty inconsistent quarterback last year, but completed 64.2% of his passes for 3,059 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. His biggest problem has been turnovers - fumbles and interceptions. South Carolina also has a favorable schedule this year. Their toughest non-conference game is at home against Clemson, and is the last game of the season. They do have to play at Arkansas and at Georgia, and I expect them to lose one or both of those games. They get the benefit of not playing Alabama or LSU from the west division.

South Carolina will make it two straight trips to the SEC championships, and two straight bad losses. I think Alabama is going to steamroll right over South Carolina on their way to play for the national championship.