SEC Football: What Each Team Must Overcome To Be Successful This Season

Auburn: The Tigers most glaring weakness in their receving core. Their returning leading reciever is senior Montez Billings, who had just 321 yards and 1 TD last season. This year, as most of us know, Auburn will be running a new offense, the spread.

A big part of the spread is throwing the ball even if it is a run first scheme. Take a look at Florida, Missouri, and Oregon, for example. In a spread offense you will usually have three, four, or five recievers on the field at all times. Hopefully, for Auburn fans, someone will step up.

Another possible weakness is their quarterback situation. Actually, there is no "situation", the man for the Tigers is Kodi Burns. He will be a sophmore this year with very limited experience. Last year, in nine games, Burns completed only 10 of 26 passes for two TD and one INT. He is obvioulsy very raw as a passer. How much he has improved over the offseason will be huge for a team that struggled to score last season.

Although running will be their main focus, unless you have Darren McFadden and Felix Jones on your roster, you can't be one dimensional.

Alabama: The biggest concern for the Tide is on the defensive side. Last year they gave up 22 points per game and every one of them mattered because all of Bama's losses came by seven points or less. They need to sure up their secondary and create a bit more pressure on the QB.

Most people would say John Parker Wilson is a weakness for Alabama and I'll agree to a point. Right now he is the best QB in the division and has the most experience by far. His stats aren't bad either. He's talented but he doesn't manage the game well. He must stop making crucial mistakes. A second year under Saban will hopefully help him live up to his capabilities.

Just like Auburn, the receiving core is concern. DJ Hall, Matt Caddell, and Keith Brown are all gone. The bright spot is that the Tide did grab Julio Jones, who was ranked as the number one receiver of last years class.

LSU: Jamarcus Russell is the number one pick in the NFL draft. That's okay they have Matt Flynn! Matt Flynn just won the National Championship and was signed by the Packers, but that's alright they still have Ryan Perilloux! Perrilloux is kicked off the team but that's okay LSU still has. . .  wait. . . who do they have?

The answer to that question is Andrew Hatch, and Jarret Lee. Hatch is known more for his book smarts than his ability to play football. He played on the J.V. squad at Harvard.

At LSU, he has only completed one pass for nine yards. Lee is a true freshman and is supposed to be pretty good. However, unless Hatch implodes under the pressure, Lee will not play very much this year.

Les Miles is looking for the QB who is least likely to make the big mistake and at this time that guy looks like Hatch.

The only other concern at this time is at the corner back position. Both Jonathon Zennon and Chevis Jackson went to the NFL. Both played big roles in last year's National Championship game and it will hard to replace them immediately. Another possible concern could be at linebacker, where they lost Ali Highsmith and Luke Sanders.

Florida: After the 2006 pounding that the Gators gave Ohio State in the National Championship game, the bulk of their defensive left for the NFL and it showed in 2007.

With new starters at jalmost every position the Gators really struggled to stop the opposing team last year. They gave up 28 points to LSU, 45 to Kentucky, 42 to Georgia, and 41 to Michigan. With one year of experience underneath their belt, the Gators are hoping they can become a formidable defensive group.

I would say the running game is a weakness but even without a go to guy at this point, the running game didn't seem to matter much last year when UF had one of their better offenses historically.  

Georgia: Do they have any weaknesses? I'm confident that they will not go undefeated this year but where do they suffer most? Their defense is stellar, Mathew Stafford is coming into his own, and Knowshawn Moreno is a Heisman candidate.

The one problem they could have is at wide receiver, where they lost their top two receivers. However, they did sign A.J. Green who was right behind Julio Jones as the nations best WR coming out of High School.

Tennessee: Even though most people considered Erik Ainge to be a bad QB, he did throw for 50 TD and 19 INT in his last two years.

This year, they will start Jonathan Crompton who underwent arthroscopic surgery over the off-season. He will be a senior this year but has only thrown 78 passes in his career.

The defense for Tennessee last year was very inconsistent. They gave up 45 points to Cal, 59 to Florida, 41 to Alabama, and 50 to Kentucky, even though that was in OT. On the other hand they gave up just 14 to Georgia, 13 to Arkansas, 21 to LSU (but only 14 on defense) and 17 to Wisconsin.

If they want to win the almighty SEC then they must play more consistently on defense.

Arkansas: Where do I begin?

Darren McFadden and Felix Jones are gone so the offense will suffer tremendously.

Casey Dick is far from being an established QB at the college level and Ryan Mallet will have to watch from the sideline this year.

Marcus Monk is also gone. The defense last year was bad and even if they improve some, Arkansas will still be a bad team in 2008.

Kentucky: Andre Woodson, who deserves a lot of credit for putting Kentucky on the college football map, is gone.

He was truly the heart and soul that program has been looking for for a long time. How will they make up for 40 TD through the air? They also lost their top two WR, and their starting running back, Rafael Little.

However, Derrick Locke is more than adequate to replace Little in the running game. He had over 500 yards last year on 5.5 yds/carry.

Defensively the Wildcats were one of the worst teams in the SEC last year, giving up 30 ppg. If that doesn't improve drastically, Kentucky could be in for a rough year when you factor in their offensive woes.

Mississippi State: Last year they snuck up on a few teams and pulled out wins. This year those teams will be looking for payback.

Wesley Carroll did a nice job managing the game last year but he must improve if he is to take Mississippi State to the next level. Sylvester Croom should get a lot of credit for what he has done with this program.

The biggest problem that Mississippi State faces is that they don't recruit well. With powerhouses in the recruiting world like LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia, it's tough to have continued success in the SEC. This team actually averaged a loss points-wise last year, a negative 2.4 points per game margin.

Vanderbilt: Vandy hasn't posted a winning season in God knows how long. They've only won 20 games in the past five years. The just aren't going to be very good this year.

Ole Miss: Ole Miss made a nice move by grabbing Houston Nutt even if he is only an 8-4 type coach. But for Ole Miss that would be a blessing. They should improve some, it's hard to go 0-8 in conference play two years in a row.