1. LSU 2. Alabama 3. Texas A&M (Sumlin will always have this team competitive and exciting to watch) 4. Auburn (Hired the mastermind behind the Cam Newton offense, top 10 recruiting class again) 5. Arkansas (Hired a great coach in Bielema, he will run and play defense and win plenty of games SEC style) 6. Mississippi State (Getting more and more competitive each season) 7. Ole Miss (New head coach has turned this program around, 3 excruciating losses to LSU, A&M and Vandy had them oh so close to a 9-3 season) There is not a gimme game in this division anymore.
This. I thought for sure they would get rolled in their first year. New coach, new QB, losing their best RB, no Von Miller. Hate to say it but I had them read all wrong. Even worse is I'm not sold that Johnny whats his name won't be there for 3 more years. If this maroon turd gathers some steam they could be a tough out for a long time to come.
I'm not convinced Malzahn will do anything at AU unless they can buy another Newton, so that may be a gimme win.
Well, he is an offensive coordinator...if he hires a good DC they could be in business (to buy another Cam).
Yep. He's in that strange abyss of being a phenomenal college player but not a good pro prospect. He's probably too diminutive to switch positions to WR, so I suspect we'll be dealing with him until he gets his diploma. Malzahn may be a good OC, but a) he caught lightning in a bottle with Cam. They weren't so unstoppable when Chris Todd was under center, and b) a good OC does not always make a good HC. There are a million other things that an HC has to deal with, and he must be able to lead, above all. These things take away from the time that he can dedicate to implementing his system.
I'll have to actually see Malzahn as an SEC head coach before I fear him. Perhaps, Cam Newton made him look good the way Brett Favre made Curley Hallman look good. And we all know how that story ended. As for Manziel, I would not be the least bit surprised to see him hang around for 3 more years. However, I'm interested to see 1) how he does after SEC defensive coordinators know more about what he does; he was largely a surprise this year, and 2) how he does without some of his senior WRs and OL. Possibly, he could fall into a sophomore slump next year. That's wishful thinking at least.
What people don't realize about that team was yes Cam was very very good, but that offensive line they had was flat out nasty!! One of the best I had seen in a long time.
Very true. They had a great OL and Dirty Nick Fairley, who was easily one of the most disruptive D-linemen I've ever seen at the college level. Their secondary was awful, but it often didn't matter because he was sacking the QB (and then taking a cheap shot or trying to gouge his eyes). As great as Cam was, without Fairley, Auburn doesn't get into the NCG that year.
