(Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)
The SEC has gone through some major changes in the past five years. Some coaches were fired, other coaches were hired, and there were even a couple of coaches who left the SEC only to return and start all over at a different school.
In this period of time, the SEC has won three National Championships and four out of the last six BCS titles.
All this was accomplished while every school in the SEC except three—Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Georgia—went through coaching changes.
Some schools changed coaches more than once.
There was a changing of the guard during that time. Powerhouse football programs like Tennessee and Auburn lost ground, while teams like Alabama and Ole Miss gained ground.
Here are the standings for all the SEC teams and my opinions on their chances in 2009.
(1) Florida
Urban Meyer has the Gators poised for another SEC Championship and a possible National Championship.
Everything seems to going the Gators' way.
The only fly in the ointment for Florida is the rumors of Meyer leaving next year for Notre Dame, as well as the 24 football players that have been arrested since Meyer arrived on Gainesville.
If Meyer can keep those things from spilling over onto the field, they may succeed in winning both championships again.
(2) Alabama
Nick Saban has led Alabama out of the NCAA purgatory that the Crimson Tide was cast into in 2001. In two short years, Alabama has gone from a middle of the pack average team to one of the fastest rising stars in NCAA football.
The only bump in the road so far for Saban has been another brush with the NCAA, this time involving misuse of textbooks by some student athletes. Saban has two No.1 recruiting classes in the pipeline and is working on a third.
The future looks bright in Tuscaloosa, but I am not sure if the future will start this year or next.
(3) Ole Miss
Houston Nutt left Arkansas for Ole Miss, and that move is paying off in spades for Nutt and the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss is loaded with talent and has one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC.
They are expected to contend for the SEC West title and may be headed for Atlanta.
The question is, can Ole Miss and Houston Nutt handle success?
Ole Miss has always been an "also ran" in the SEC, and so has Nutt. Both have had a flash or two of greatness over the years, but neither has been able to cash in.
Expectations can become a very heavy burden if you aren't used to dealing with them.
(4) LSU
Les Miles and LSU took a major hit last year by falling all the way from defending National Champions to third in the SEC West. Going 8-5 and losing to rivals like Alabama, Ole Miss, and Arkansas, as well as Florida and Georgia, left a bad taste in LSU fans' mouths.
Losing at home to Saban was a hard pill to swallow and left Miles looking for answers.
On the upside, Miles did land another top-ranked recruiting class last year and hired Tennessee's former defensive coordinator in hopes of improving his defense.
30 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete