SEC Football: Top 10 Conference Storylines for Spring Ball

As we are now more than a month removed from the national championship and the recruiting process has died down, it's time to get ready for spring football. This is where coaches try and figure out what type of team they're working with and players try to climb up that depth chart.

Teams are beginning to take the field for practices and preparing for their spring game. We may still be several months away from the next season kicking off, but there is so much to talk about as spring ball has us in full gear.

Here are the top 10 storylines for the SEC heading into spring ball.

Who's Florida's Quarterback?

Florida is returning nine starters from a very solid defense, but has questions on the offensive side of the ball, particularly quarterback. It was painfully obvious that John Brantley was not the answer, now it will come down to two youngsters in Jeff Driskel or Jacoby Brissett.

Driskel has an extremely strong arm and is very mobile, while Brissett has fantastic size and a great arm as well. Florida is a team that's on the rise and is bringing in great recruiting classes, but the quarterback question needs to be answered.

New offensive coordinator Brent Pease has some work to do.

Can Isaiah Crowell Get Going?

Georgia is a loaded football team that returns 15 starters from a year ago. But there is no player that needs to step up more than Isaiah Crowell. He was a top recruit a year ago, and didn't quite live up to his potential as he rushed for 850 yards and only had six touchdowns his freshman year.

Crowell is a home run hitter and has potential to become one of the better backs in the entire country. Georgia may be a team that is deep at the running back position, but with a playmaker like this, he has to step up and provide another weapon for Aarron Murray and company.

Is Marcus Lattimore 100 Percent Healthy?

Maybe people forgot because South Carolina finished the year 11-2, but they did that without their best player in running back Marcus Lattimore. This is a back who rushed for over 1,100 yards in 2010 and 818 last year in only seven games before tearing a knee ligament.

There are reports that he is ahead of schedule and should be ready to go, but nobody really knows for sure until he hits the field.

If Lattimore is in fact healthy, he is an instant Heisman candidate, and the Gamecocks are a dark horse candidate for the BCS National Championship.

Can Tennessee Finally Get Their Act Together?

Tennessee has had many talented teams over the years, but have only won one bowl game since 2004 and didn't even make a bowl last year. This season they return a total of 19 starters and could actually get back on track in the SEC.

Last year they showed positive signs at times when they only lost by eight points to Georgia and kept them competitive against Florida and South Carolina. We're used to seeing the Volunteers compete in this conference, and this may be the year they take a step in the right direction.

Auburn Needs a Quarterback

Auburn is a very talented and young team, but like many needs to find an answer at quarterback.

With Barrett Trotter now out of the picture, it now creates a three-team race for the Tigers. They can either go with the junior in Clint Moseley, the fan favorite in Kiehl Frazier or the true freshman in Zeke Pike.

Whoever becomes the quarterback of this team doesn't necessarily blow the doors off right away, but the production has to be better than 105th ranking they had last year in passing yards.

Mosely obviously has the more experience considering he threw 108 passes last season. Frazier is the dual-threat quarterback that also has a very strong arm and can kill you multiple ways. The long shot in this race would be Pike, but at 6'6", 225 pounds, you have to love his potential.

This quarterback competition won't draw as much hype as the other ones going around in college football, but it's a question that must be answered.

Texas A&M Needs to Find a Quarterback as Well

The newbie team needs to find a quarterback as well as Ryan Tannehill has graduated.

It's never easy replacing a senior quarterback, especially when that player threw for over 3,700 yards and 29 touchdowns last season. It's even more difficult when the quarterback you're replacing him with has only thrown five passes in his career.

Jameill Showers is a big kid at 6'2", 219 pounds and has an absolute cannon for an arm. He also has great mobility and is able to move the chains with his feet when he has to. Overall, he's a great prospect and should be able to earn the starting spot in spring.

But regardless of how he plays, he'll still be going up against SEC defenses, and that can't make any Aggie fan too comfortable. If he's not able to produce quickly enough, quarterbacks such as Johnny Manziel, Matt Joeckel and freshman Matt Davis will be waiting for their shot.

How Effective Will Dorial Green-Beckham Be?

For those that don't follow college football recruiting very closely, meet the next big wide receiver in Dorial Green-Beckham. Missouri was the team that was fortunate enough to land him and he should do many great things during the college football season.

He's 6'6", 220 pounds and runs a 40 in the 4.4 range. Good luck stopping that on Saturday afternoons as this kid has the physical gifts to become one of the top receivers in the country in no time.

We just all want to know how long it will take for him to dominate the SEC.

Can Zach Mettenberger Keep the Tigers Afloat?

The LSU Tigers lost two starting senior quarterbacks in Jarrett Lee and Jordan Jefferson. That now leaves junior quarterback Zach Mettenberger to take over, despite the fact that he has very little experience.

You may remember him from his off-the-field issues when he was with Georgia, but he has all of the tools to become a great quarterback. He's a big quarterback, has an extremely strong arm and is accurate with the football.

Will LSU continue their ground-and-pound game or will they trust a very talented kid to lead them back to the national championship?

How Will the Newbies Do?

I like the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri and think it will make the conference even stronger overall. (If that was even possible.)

But just how good will they be in their first year?

Missouri has a really explosive offense, but has holes on the offensive and defensive lines. The Aggies have a majority of their team returning and are a physical team, although they have a whole new coaching staff taking over.

These are two great programs with promising futures, but the first season could include a lot of growing pains they'll have to work through.

Can the SEC Make It Seven in a Row?

This is the question that every fan of the SEC will be asking throughout the year. This conference has won the last six national championships in a row and has several talented teams that are capable of making it seven.

Sure, teams like Alabama and LSU have several questions that need to be answered throughout the offseason, but they remain two of the top teams in the country. Teams like Georgia, Arkansas and even South Carolina are on the rise as well.

This appears to be another fantastic year for this conference, and it's going to be extremely fun to see if they can pull off a seventh national championship in a row.

Randy Chambers is a B/R featured columnist that covers college football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail].