Expectations are high in Alabama for coach Mike Shula and his Crimson Tide, as polls have ranked them in the top 10. There’s no question about his talent and team speed, but the big question surrounds quarterback John Parker Wilson. He took most of the snaps last spring and summer when Brodie Croyle was recovering from knee surgery. This time he is taking them knowing that he will be the man under the center. If he plays well, the Tide could become a BCS bowl.
Arkansas finished just 2-6 in conference play a season ago, but the Razorbacks are hoping they can turn things around quickly with a new playcaller. First-year assistant coach Gus Malzahn will call the offensive plays in place of head coach Houston Nutt, who made many suspicious calls a season ago. Malzahn will also coach receivers and will see extra effort from him to get the ball airborne so his receivers can make big plays. Expect great things from Marcus Monk, who caught 7 touchdown passes last season. While things seem to be heading in the right direction as the Arkansas coaching staff seems to be better focusing their talents, things won’t go rosy in Malzahn’s opening act. He expects just a 1-2 game improvement in conference play.
Things are looking good for Auburn, which went 7-1 in the tough SEC last year, as their big quarterback Brandon Cox once again runs the show. In his first season in charge, Cox passed for more than 2,300 yards and threw for 15 touchdowns. He’ll be even better with another year of experience under his belt this season, which leads me to believe Auburn will take the SEC.
LSU has the most quarterback depth in the conference, but it will be JaMarcus Russell under center this fall. Russell won 10 games for the Tigers last season before suffering an injury in the SEC title game, but he’ll be in check with Flynn and Perrilloux proving they can get the job done, too. LSU will have a lot of work to do to get back into the SEC title game.
Ole Miss has a hard time competing against the elite team in the SEC and it’s even harder to compete without a Manning on their team, as we’ve seen the past two seasons. It’s set them back even further that they couldn’t have this season’s quarterback, Brent Shaeffer, taking snaps until this summer, since he had to finish college. Former Miami assistants Werner and Kehoe will try to boost the Rebels’ offense this season and show they’re not finished, but the harsh reality may be that Ole Miss simply doesn’t have the talent that the conference giants do.
The Ole Miss neighbor was also her twin sister last season, as they both went 1-7 in the SEC and 3-8 overall. But Miss State edged out Ole Miss by beating them 35-14 in the season finale. This season Mississippi State is poised to take down the Rebels once again as the freshmen Coach Croom brought in are now juniors and he is confident in their abilities and can see the experience pays off.