Top SEC Players to Watch in Saturday's Spring Games
Five SEC teams will open their doors this weekend to fans looking to get a preview of what the 2015 season will look like.
Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State and Missouri will all host their annual spring games, with all five schools looking to make noise in college football in 2015.
Alabama and Missouri met in last year's SEC Championship Game, Auburn played in the national title game two years ago and was in a playoff spot in November of last year, Mississippi State is fresh off a 10-win season, and LSU is still a potential power despite last year's struggles.
What players should you watch in this weekend's SEC spring games? Our picks for offense and defense based on skill, scheme and depth charts are in this slideshow.
Alabama: QB David Cornwell
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Jake Coker is back for his second run at winning the Alabama quarterback battle, and it looks like the sequel is following a similar script to the original.
Coker lost out to Blake Sims last summer despite many assuming the job was his when he arrived on campus for the summer session. Instead, Sims, the underdog, won out, led Alabama to the SEC title and a berth in the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Playing the part of the underdog this year during spring practice is redshirt freshman David Cornwell.
The 6'5", 240-pound pro-style passer from Norman, Oklahoma, has earned first-team snaps in practice late this spring and has emerged as the primary contender opposite Coker for the top spot on the depth chart.
"He has done probably as good a job as anybody this spring," Alabama coach Nick Saban said Saturday, according to Bleacher Report Alabama Lead Writer Marc Torrence. "He’s very bright, has a great understanding of the offense, does a great job from a leadership standpoint of helping other players play better when he’s in there. And he has played smart for the most part all spring."
The truth is, we don't know what that means. Alabama's practices are closed to the public, and Saturday's spring game will be the first chance for people outside the walls of the football complex to get a look at what Cornwell truly is.
Auburn: RB Jovon Robinson
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Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn has proved over the better part of the decade that he can produce results on the ground. His offenses have produced 12 1,000-yard rushers in nine seasons as a college head or assistant coach. This season, he has a solid group of talented but unproven running backs to choose from.
Sophomore "Roc" Thomas is the most experienced of the bunch from a carries standpoint, and Peyton Barber is in his third season in the system, but all eyes should be on junior college transfer Jovon Robinson on Saturday afternoon on the Plains.
The 6'0", 230-pounder played the last two seasons at Georgia Military College and won the Junior College National Player of the Year award in 2013, when he racked up a junior college record 2,387 rushing yards, according to his Auburn bio. He has the size to be a force but also the speed to be a weapon in space, and he can give Malzahn everything he wants out of a true No. 1 tailback.
The one issue for Robinson is pass protection, which is something he's had to learn on the fly since he signed with Auburn in December.
How will he look? Can he do all the staff wants him to do in protection? How comfortable is he with the playbook?
Tigers fans will get answers to those questions on Saturday.
LSU: QB Anthony Jennings
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Has Anthony Jennings really turned the corner?
His performance last weekend in a scrimmage where he completed nine of 14 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns suggests he might have. Sometimes, though, spring statistics released by the school are about as useful as a coffee mug with a hole in the bottom.
That will change on Saturday, when Jennings will get a chance to play on spring's biggest stage in the hopes of separating himself further from sophomore Brandon Harris, who doesn't have the experience but perhaps has more upside in terms of his ability as a dual-threat quarterback.
For Jennings, it's all about consistency. He only completed 48.9 percent of his passes last year, and that left a sour taste in the mouths of Tigers fans.
Has he taken the next step, or is this more of an indictment on Harris? We'll find out this weekend.
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Mississippi State: RB Dontavian Lee
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Ashton Shumpert is the most experienced, and Aeris Williams and Brandon Holloway were in the mix heading in, but another running back has emerged this spring as a contender to earn carries for Mississippi State.
Redshirt freshman Dontavian Lee.
Lee, a 6'1", 220-pounder from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, rushed 15 times for 90 yards and two touchdowns in Mississippi State's most recent scrimmage, which was a team high for the outing.
"He runs the ball hard. As he continues to grow there are a couple of cuts he's going to do better," head coach Dan Mullen said according to Michael Bonner of The Clarion-Ledger. "He's going to see some things a little better out on the field. But that comes with time and experience."
The race to replace Josh Robinson might go to a committee rather than just one player, and if Lee can be a major participant in that committee, it will only help matters for a Mississippi State team that's looking to build off of 2014's 10-win season.
Missouri: QB Maty Mauk
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For the first three quarters of virtually every game last year, Missouri quarterback Maty Mauk seemingly forgot how to play football. He threw 16 touchdowns and all 13 of his interceptions during the first 45 minutes of games. In the final 15 minutes, though, he caught fire, tossing nine touchdowns and posting a 166.31 passer rating.
He has to become more consistent if Missouri is going to win its third straight SEC East title.
The junior has the arm strength and experience to be a star, but he can't continually put Missouri in bad spots early and hope to dig out of them late.
What's more, Missouri's entire wide receiving corps has a grand total of 10 career receptions this year. According to David Morrison of the Columbia Daily Tribune, that wide receiving corps had 10 drops in Tuesday's scrimmage and ran nearly 250 plays this spring in scrimmages before posting a passing touchdown.
Mauk needs to be the guy who kickstarts the offense, and its starts on Saturday.
Alabama: CB Tony Brown
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If it sounds like a broken record, it's because it is.
Alabama has a cornerback problem.
The Crimson Tide gave up an SEC-worst 133 plays of 10 or more yards last year, despite the fact that starter Cyrus Jones got better and better as the year progressed. Jones has been out all spring, which has given the rest of the cast—Tony Brown, Marlon Humphrey, Bradley Sylve, Anthony Averett and others—plenty of chances to impress new defensive backs coach Mel Tucker.
Let's see what they've got on Saturday—specifically Brown.
As Bleacher Report Alabama Lead Writer Marc Torrence notes, Brown seems like he's earned a starting spot after Eddie Jackson's move to safety. That's nice, but can he be effective as a starting corner? Alabama definitely needs him (or somebody) to step up to the plate, and the fact that he seemingly had a part in a part-time starter's position move certainly bodes well.
At this point, though, you have to see it to believe it based on the recent track record of Alabama's cornerback play.
Auburn: DE Carl Lawson
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Auburn sorely missed sophomore defensive end Carl Lawson last year, as the Milton, Georgia, native sat out recovering from a torn ACL. He'll be back on Saturday, according to Greg Ostendorf of ESPN.com, after sitting out Auburn's last scrimmage.
How will he look and, more importantly, how will new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp use him?
Lawson, who finished the 2013 campaign with 7.5 tackles for loss and four sacks, will be playing the same "Buck" position that Dante Fowler played under Muschamp last season at Florida. At 6'2", 257 pounds and with quickness off the edge, he's as much of a Fowler clone that exists on Auburn's roster.
It's now up to Lawson to replicate that same kind of success, and Tigers fans will get to see how far along he is both in his recovery and in his new role on Saturday during the annual A-Day Game. If he can become a force, Auburn could be looking at an immediate defensive turnaround.
LSU: DE Maquedius Bain
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LSU needs more consistency from its defensive line, and it appears sophomore Maquedius Bain is ready to be a key part of that equation.
The 6'4", 299-pound former defensive tackle has been playing defensive end this spring, which suggests he will have a home along the line whether new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele runs a 4-3 or a 3-4.
He's big enough to be a force inside, but he has the quickness to get after the quarterback as an end in either scheme, and that's something LSU desperately needs. The Tigers managed just 19 sacks last year and lost both starting defensive ends, which leaves the door wide open for new playmakers to step up.
Bain should be one of those players, and we'll see if he's up for the challenge on Saturday.
Mississippi State: DT Chris Jones
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Chris Jones came to Mississippi State with enough 5-star hype to fill Starkville. Through his first two seasons, though, he's been more sizzle than steak.
He was part of the Bulldogs' stellar defensive line rotation last year after a solid freshman campaign, but he didn't make a start and hasn't become the disruptive force inside that many thought he'd be. Jones only has six sacks for his career and is being counted on this year to become that force for the new-look Mississippi State defensive line under coordinator Manny Diaz.
Let's see what he's made of on Saturday.
The 6'5", 300-pounder clearly has the size to be a space-eater but has the speed and quickness to be a monster. It just hasn't come together quite yet.
It needs to in 2015 if Mississippi State is going to sustain momentum from last year's remarkable 10-win season.
Missouri: DT Harold Brantley
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Missouri has become known as "D-Line Zou" over the last decade, and if that moniker is going to continue through 2015, some new faces will have to step up to become stars.
Most notably, defensive tackle Harold Brantley.
The 6'3", 280-pound junior has been solid over his first two seasons, notching 54 tackles (12 for loss), and is the most experienced and versatile lineman on Missouri's roster. With the size of a tackle and the quickness of an end, Brantley can be used in a variety of different ways by new defensive coordinator Barry Odom. He already seems to be a leader for the 2015 Tigers.
"I’m tired of hearing them cheer over there!" Brantley shouted after Missouri's offense scored a touchdown on a 20-yard drive on Tuesday—the offense's first passing touchdown in nearly 250 spring scrimmage plays, according to David Morrison of the Columbia Daily Tribune.
That speaks to the high level of play Brantley not only expects from himself, but from his teammates. Let's see more of that on Saturday, because Missouri is counting on Brantley to be a monster in 2015.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com, unless otherwise noted, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports' composite rankings.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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