In SEC, blending new coaches and quarterbacks was tough enough. Then the virus hit
The SEC returned to the top last season, when LSU completed a 15-0 run by defeating Clemson for the College Football Playoff championship. That’s 10 national titles in 14 years for the conference, captured by four different schools: Alabama, Auburn, LSU and Florida.
In the land of “It Just Means More,” the SEC is poised for another championship run at the top with several candidates: In no particular order, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, LSU and Auburn.
But when will workouts resume and the season commence? We have only conjecture to this point; ideas put forth so far include playing the 2020 season in the spring of 2021, holding games in empty stadiums and/or expanding next season’s playoff field beyond four teams.
Here, we present a look at how a post-shutdown SEC season might shape up.
New staff disadvantaged
Coaches and players were in the early stages of acquaintance at Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi State and Mississippi when the pandemic interrupted spring workouts. And now programs that changed coaches this offseason are forced to continue forming bonds at a distance, via phone and video calls.
“It really hurts first-year coaching staffs and programs,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said recently.
Missouri got in three practice sessions before stopping.
“You always want to design your game plan around your players’ strengths, not around what your ideas are,” Tigers coach Eliah Drinkwitz said.
Three of the four schools with new head coaches could start a transfer at quarterback whenever the new season commences. Mississippi State’s K.J. Costello played 29 games at Stanford the last three seasons and at least he’s joining a coach, in Mike Leach, who knows his game from his Pac-12 days at Washington State.
The Razorbacks’ Feleipe Franks transferred from Florida, where he threw 38 touchdown passes in 28 games over three seasons.
Shawn Robinson, who started his career at TCU, is part of the quarterback battle at Missouri. Unlike Costello and Franks, Robinson was at his new program last season, sitting out under NCAA transfer rules while now-departed Kelly Bryant operated the offense under former coach Barry Odom.
Coaches and players are connecting through technology for now, but the programs with new coaches need the reps, practice time, film study and trust-building afforded through face-to-face, in-person interaction.
When football resumes, and how it will look, is uncertain. What’s known is that when it comes back, schools with new coaches have more than lost time to make up.
Florida-Georgia line looms
Since Missouri won the SEC East in 2013 and 2014, the division has been the domain of Georgia and Florida. Those two programs have combined to win the last five division titles and play in the SEC Championship game five times straight, and the early sense is the division once again will come down to the Bulldogs and Gators.
Let’s break down the programs by advantage in a few categories:
- Quarterback: Florida gets the nod. The Gators are in the enviable position of having two capable quarterbacks in Kyle Trask and Emory Jones. The Jake Fromm era is over at Georgia, which brought in Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman to take over. The dual-threat quarterback will work with new offensive coordinator Todd Monken and looks like an ideal fit in Athens.
- Defense: Georgia. Eight starters are back from the nation’s third-ranked unit of 2019.
- Schedule: Florida. The Gators’ crossover games are home against LSU and at Mississippi. For the second time since 2008, Georgia faces Alabama in a regular-season game, visiting Tuscaloosa for the first time since 2007. Before the first half of the season is complete, Georgia will play host to Auburn.
- Prediction: The Cocktail Party will decide it, and Georgia has won three straight in that rivalry. Make it four.
How about ‘Bama?
A season preview cannot be considered legit without an examination of Alabama.
Starting in 2008, Nick Saban’s second season in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide have spent at least one week ever year as the nation’s top-ranked team. That’s 12 straight years, and five times they’ve emerged at season’s end as the nation’s top team.
Chances are Alabama will spend one or more weeks at No. 1 again, even coming off a “down” year — 11-2 and no appearance in the CFP for the first time in its first five years — so how do the Tide shape up this fall?
Um, excellent.
When quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was lost to a season-ending injury last fall, Mac Jones took over and ended the season with a pair of 300-yard passing games against Auburn and Michigan. He’ll be pushed next season by five-star freshman Bryce Young.
Running back Najee Harris (1,224 yards, 13 touchdowns) returns as the top offensive weapon in Tuscaloosa, and keep in mind the last two Heisman winners that weren’t quarterbacks were ‘Bama running backs: Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram.
After missing last season with a knee injury, Dylan Moses is back as one of the nation’s top defenders.
A drop-off for the nation’s top program over the past decade or so? Don’t count on it.
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 2:23 PM.