SEC Extra Points with Barrett Sallee: Coaching Silly Season, Dak's Return
SEC Coaches Playing Musical Chairs
The movement among assistant coaches this offseason has been mind-boggling, and in some ways, a flow chart of departures and arrivals will look eerily similar to a circle that consists solely of SEC teams.
John Chavis made a lateral move from LSU to Texas A&M to become the new Aggie defensive coordinator; Kevin Steele moved from a position coach at Alabama to take Chavis' place at LSU; and Crimson Tide outside linebackers coach Lance Thompson moved across the state to become the linebackers coach for Gus Malzahn at Auburn—who recently hired former Florida head coach Will Muschamp to head up his defense along with defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Confused?
It has been quite the wild ride around the coaching silly-season carousel. So what do we make of it?
For LSU, it's all about scrambling. Head coach Les Miles wasn't happy about the Chavis rumors in the press conference following the Music City Bowl Dec. 30, mostly because the timing wasn't great.
He tried to get Penn State's Bob Shoop but settled on the combination of Steele and new defensive line coach Ed Orgeron. That's good enough.
"Ed has done a great job at every coaching stop he’s made," Miles said in an emailed statement from LSU. "His teams are always well-prepared, played hard on every snap and fed off the enthusiasm and excitement that he brought to the field."
For Alabama, the news isn't great.
The Tide weren't going to keep Steele after he got a coordinator gig, but Thompson's move hurts more than Steele's departure. 247Sports ranked Thompson as the fifth-best recruiter in the country before he left Alabama. He was third in 2013 and instrumental in the Tide's reeling in some top-tier prospects.
Despite that, as Aaron Suttles of TideSports.com notes, he might have been nudged out the door:
That may be true, but head coach Nick Saban probably didn't expect Thompson to head down the road to Auburn.
Could Alabama's defense use a tweak? Absolutely.
After giving up a country mile (well, 230 yards) to Ohio State's Ezekiel Elliott on the ground in the Sugar Bowl and dealing with pass defense issues for two years, maybe a slight change will work wonders. It's a risk, though. Now Thompson will be across the state with Alabama's biggest rival and a grudge in tow, which will add some heat to an already spicy rivalry.
For Auburn and Texas A&M, it's all about recruiting.
Chavis' presence got the Aggies back in the mix for 5-star defensive tackle Daylon Mack, who decommitted from the program Dec. 19. As Justin Hokanson of AuburnSports.com notes, Auburn is putting the full-court press on defensive end CeCe Jefferson with its coaching hires:
Essentially, the combination of Muschamp's being on the market and Chavis' move to College Station has set off a mad scramble of defensive coaches during the recruiting dead period.
Thankfully, it has settled down. As Dan Wolken of USA Today notes, Auburn could be considered the big winner:
Return of the Dak
Quarterback play was more of a problem than a positive this season in the SEC, but don't blame Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott, because it wasn't his fault.
The junior signal-caller for the Bulldogs announced his return to Starkville during a press conference on Wednesday.
A national title may be a bit much to ask, but his return will keep the Bulldogs competitive.
Another double-digit-win season would be a stretch, especially since three members of the defensive line moved on, linebacker Benardrick McKinney and running back Josh Robinson declared early, and the schedulemakers decided to send the Bulldogs to Auburn, Texas A&M, Missouri and Arkansas in 2015, in addition to giving them tough home games vs. Alabama and Ole Miss.
Personnel turnover and a tougher schedule will make things harder for Mississippi State in 2015. But it's well-coached, made the right choice turning to defensive coordinator Manny Diaz in the wake of Geoff Collins' departure to Florida and has a bona fide superstar taking the snaps.
That will keep the Bulldogs around the eight-win mark and in most of the ballgames they lose. Even though, technically, that would be a step back, it wouldn't be a collapse. That'd still be progress for a team that has historically struggled to sustain success.
Old School
One of the more under-the-radar coaching moves this offseason was Shannon Dawson's move from West Virginia to Kentucky to become the new offensive coordinator for head coach Mark Stoops.
He's a perfect fit.
Stoops went old school when he got the job prior to the 2013 season, bringing in Neal Brown to run the air raid that Hal Mumme made popular when he was Kentucky's head coach from 1997 to 2000. Dawson is a Mumme protege—one Mumme tried to run out of the program, as Kyle Tucker of The Courier-Journal notes, via such extreme measures as not paying him and giving him every bad job he could think of.
Dawson talked to Mumme after he got this new role in Lexington.
"I really was talking to him more and thanking him for the nice things he said about me because there were some bad things he could have said about me too," Dawson said in quotes released by Kentucky. "I was really appreciative. I talked to him after the fact, not before the fact.”
Dawson's West Virginia offense finished 12th in the nation in total offense (499.8 yards per game) in 2014, and his air-raid style has worked at a high level in stints as the offensive coordinator at Stephen F. Austin and Millsaps.
More importantly, though, it keeps the identity of Kentucky intact. The Wildcats are fighting a personnel battle with the rest of the SEC, and because of that, the unique nature of the offense gives opposing defenses something different to look at during game week.
That gives Kentucky a puncher's chance.
Quick Outs
- Arkansas is going to be a trendy choice to make some noise in the SEC West next year, but let's not hype the Hogs too much quite yet. The offense will return almost intact, but the defense has to deal with major losses, including defensive end Trey Flowers, linebacker Martrell Spaight and defensive tackle Darius Philon, who declared for the draft early. Arkansas will be competitive, but SEC West champs? Too soon.
- Is the SEC fighting an uphill battle with the Big Ten? Not yet, but the emergence of Ohio State, the presence of Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and James Franklin recruiting his tail off at Penn State certainly make the top end of that conference formidable. More parity around the country may prevent the SEC from winning titles, but it is good for the sport—which, in turn, is good for the SEC.
- No team has won back-to-back SEC titles since Tennessee in 1997 and 1998. Will Alabama change that? The uncertainty of the SEC will lead to some bizarre predictions in 2015, but don't count out the Tide.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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