SEC: 5 Burning Questions About Football's Most Powerful Conference

The SEC has dominated the college football landscape over the past decade and there is no apparent reason to believe that the SEC’s path of destruction will dwindle to a halt in the near future. They possess the physical and mental prowess to dominate college throughout the 2011 season.

With that being said, let’s take a look at five key questions facing college football’s most powerful conference for the upcoming season.

Mark Richt and Job Security, Will He Survive?

The Georgia Bulldogs are entering the 2011 season as an early favorite to unseat the defending champion Gamecocks. Aaron Murray and company possess one of the most talented rosters in the land, including the aforementioned Murray.

Murray burst onto the scene during a tremendous freshman campaign and is poised to become one of the most dominant quarterbacks in the history of the conference. During his freshman season, he threw for over 3,000 yards and 24 touchdowns, but was unable to lead the Bulldogs to a winning record, and the disappointing loss to Central Florida still lies fresh in the mind of the state of Georgia.

Mark Richt has reeled in even more talent this offseason to supplement an already-loaded roster, and anything less than a tremendous season will have Georgia fans calling in the reaper. We will, most likely, find out early in the season if Richt will provide enough flare to save his job.

If Georgia is able to sneak past Boise State and South Carolina in the opening weeks of the season, they could rebound and be headed for a BCS berth. Back-to-back losses to open the season, and Richt may need to start speaking with a realtor because relocation will be on the horizon.

Is Tyler Bray Poised to Join Murray Among the Elite QBs in the SEC?

Tyler Bray replaced Matt Simms and received his first start against Memphis late in the season and it may have been the most intelligent move of Derek Dooley’s young coaching career. The 6’6” Bray showed a cannon for an arm and the moxie to become the leader of a struggling Volunteer squad.

In his second start, Bray torched the Kentucky Wildcats for 354 yards passing and firmly solidified himself as the quarterback of the future. Bray continued his strong play through the bowl game and many are wondering if he is capable of competing with Aaron Murray as the SEC’s quarterback of the future. Bray is not blessed with the skill position talent that Murray has at his disposal in Athens, but the gap in talent between the two quarterbacks is not extreme. 

It will be extremely interesting to see how much Bray progresses throughout the beginning of this season, and we will have a semblance of an answer to this question by September 17th when Tennessee travels to Florida.

Marcus Lattimore or Trent Richardson?

Trent Richardson has shared a backfield, over the last several seasons, with a Heisman Trophy winner, and now has the opportunity to become the featured back for an extremely deep and talented Alabama squad. Richardson averaged over 6.2 yards per carry last season and displayed an explosiveness not often seen in college football.

Due to the ability to split carries over the last several seasons, Richardson will be extremely fresh and ready to punish defenses with his bruising running style, accompanied by tremendous breakaway speed. Marcus Lattimore became a household name following his 37-carry, 182-yard performance against Georgia in the second game of his short career.

Lattimore endured a lot of punishment throughout the season and nagging injuries began to surface. If the injury bug continues to nag at this elite running back, it will ultimately be the difference between the production achieved by these two dominant tailbacks.

Does the Houston Nutt Project End Following This Season?

Houston Nutt’s 2010 season could be described kindly as an epic failure. The season was a bust from the opening kickoff, which was followed by a terrible loss to FCS opponent Jacksonville State. The season continued to be a bumpy ride and finally ended with a loss in the Egg Bowl to Mississippi State in Oxford.

The offense was decent, the defense was terrible and Houston Nutt had the appearance of a man who had just had a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler headed down Interstate 55. This season, the highway to success does not appear to get any easier. The SEC West is an absolute monster of a conference and Nutt does not have the horses needed to compete. Ole Miss fans do not require excellence on a yearly basis, but they do require competence and a shot at the Cotton Bowl.

There is zero chance of that occurring this season and the best case scenario would be six wins and a lower tier bowl. The worst case scenario? Two wins, a last place finish in the SEC West, and Houston Nutt riding slowly off into the sunset. 

In the End, Who the Heck Wins the Conference Crown?

Last season was a truly dominant year for the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference. Auburn reestablished themselves as a national power with a BCS Championship, Alabama destroyed the No. 7 team in the country in the Capital One Bowl, LSU dominated Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl and the Bulldogs of Starkville embarrassed another Big Ten program.

We will not even touch on the Arkansas and Ohio State game that occurred in the Sugar Bowl and how the results would have been altered with proper suspensions by the NCAA. OK fine, we will—Arkansas would have most likely brought home another BCS Bowl victory if the NCAA had garnered some testicular fortitude and properly handled the Ohio State situation.

Considering the success that the SEC West achieved a year ago, one has to wonder if they can replicate those lofty numbers and once again dominate conference play. On sheer numbers and depth charts alone, it appears that the SEC West has the three most potent teams in the entire league, once again. Alabama, LSU and Arkansas are currently better than anything that the SEC East has to offer.South Carolina and Georgia are both solid and have the ability to contend, but neither are capable of winning an outright crown in the western half of the SEC.

Alabama and LSU return the most significant talent of anyone in the league, and approaching the fall are headed for a showdown to decide the eventual conference champion. Alabama receives the luxury of playing LSU in Bryant-Denny stadium and the home-field advantage will ultimately lead them to another Southeastern Conference Championship.