It's the year of the quarterback and the offense this season. There will be good defenses of course. Alabama and Auburn will be very good on defense, so will LSU, Florida, and Georgia has 10 defensive starters returning. South Carolina will be better. Vanderbilt will be pretty solid on defense. A&M should be better, but you never know with them. Their front 7 is always a question mark. Ole Miss will need to improve, same with State. Tennessee, who knows with them. I guess they'll be better. They've recruited well, but haven't seemed to develop a good defense. They have question marks overall on their team. Kentucky should be pretty decent on defense. Stoops is doing a good job in Lexington. Arkansas, like A&M, needs to improve on defense to be a competitor in the west. But overall, fairly solid defensive play this season. Defense is key a lot of times, but these quarterbacks will be electric this season.
Quarterbacks in the SEC
1. Alabama-Jalen Hurts, primed for a big year. Tua Tagovailoa will play a role and has unlimited talent.
2.Auburn-Looking for a big year out of Jarrett Stidham, and they like their depth with Sean White, who will be competing for the starting job in fall camp, and freshman Malik Willis has a ton of ability.
3.Georgia-Jacob Eason should have an excellent year.
4.Ole Miss-Shea Patterson has off the charts talent.
5. Arkansas- Austin Allen is outstanding and very tough.
6. Mississippi State-Nick Fitzgerald is a phenomenal runner and passer. Needs to develop his downfield passing a little more.
7.South Carolina-Jake Bentley. The sophomore from Opelika, AL. is an outstanding passer and can move.
8. Kentucky-Stephen Johnson is another Fitzgerald-like player who passes it and runs it well.
9. Vanderbilt-Kyle Shurmur-Another excellent passer. Not too mobile, but with protection he can really pick apart a secondary.
10. Missouri-Drew Lock-Has a chance for a really big 2017. Outstanding arm, moves pretty well when necessary, but more of a pocket passer. Like him a lot. Should have a big junior year.
Teams that need to find a good quarterback.
All 4 of these teams have options, but need to develop a leader of their offense.
11. Florida- Has 4 players competing. Malik Zaire transferred from Notre Dame, and he has got a lot of running talent and some passing talent, but he'll be battling it out with 3 others including Luke Del Rio, who I personally like a lot.
12. A&M- Jake Hubenak is back, and he may be good enough, but there is a competition going into fall camp.
13. LSU- Danny Etling is back. Not sure he's the answer to making LSU a contender for the conference title. And there will be a competition come fall camp.
14. Tennessee- Two guys competing for the job right now. Undecided who the guy will be. One guy is Dormady. Jones likes both, so one of them will need to take the bull by the horns this August if Tennessee expects to challenge for the East crown.
Winners in the West and the East
West-Alabama, but Auburn will really challenge the Crimson Tide.
East-Georgia, but Florida will put up a big time fight with the Dawgs.
SEC championship game
Alabama 38, Georgia 34-Bama captures another SEC title under Nick Saban and heads to its fourth straight playoff.
Playoff teams
Alabama vs. Southern Cal
Penn State vs Florida State
Semifinals
Alabama 42, Southern Cal 28
Penn State 45 Florida State 42
National Championship game
Alabama 41, Penn State 27
Will have breakdowns of all SEC teams along with other national contenders in Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida State coming up in the next 3 weeks. Thanks.