SEC Football's Best in the West? Ranking the Projected QBs' Seasons

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer)—Two years ago, when I was a new featured writer, I wrote an article saying Greg McElroy would not play like a "rookie" QB and finish the year as one of the top QB's in the SEC.

I was laughed at, but we all know the little ditty about he who laughs last.

Let me start by saying there's only one quarterback in the entire SEC that could simply dazzle us all and carry his team on his shoulders, and that is Aaron Murray at Georgia and they're in the East.

So who's going to be the best in the West?

6. Ole Miss

Ole Miss is in a fine mess. Last year, rather than develop a quarterback for this year, Houston went nutty and simply wasted a year on a former Oregon quarterback who brought nothing to the team but dissension and one season in the crapper, with nothing to show for it.

Now they have no prepared QB to come in and play this season.

The probable starter should be Nathan Stanley, and he comes in projected at dead last in the SEC West in anticipated stardom. He has the most Div. I experience on that team and knows the system the best.

The best thing you can say about him at this point is that he is serviceable and could do an adequate job this year.

They also have two JUCO QBs, Zack Stoudt, son of former NFL QB Cliff Stoudt, and a speedy Randall Mackey.  The dual-threat junior Mackey red shirted last season after arriving from East Mississippi Community College, where he threw for 3,122 yards and 32 touchdowns in 2009, but he has a year of rust on him.

5. Auburn

At Auburn last year, it was the Cam Newton show. Nobody else was even noticed and no other QB got anything but garbage time. This year they turn to the left overs and the one that seems to have risen to the top is Barrett Trotter.

He only threw for a paltry 64 yards last season as Cam was padding his stats for the NFL and a Heisman Trophy.

The sad thing if you're a Trotter fan, is that Chizik is not likely to be very patient in developing Trotter long term.

Why?

The answer to that is Kiehl Frazier, a 6-3, 210-pounder that threw for 2,975 yards and 42 touchdowns and rushed for 1,164 yards and 22 scores as a senior in Springdale, Ark. and he was USA Today’s national offensive player of the year.

Trotter better not stumble very much.

4. Mississippi State

Chris Relf is one of those quarterbacks who can play beyond his talent level and drive his team. He has the potential to do some wonderful things this year, as Mississippi State is getting better and better.

Relf is a fifth year senior, and last year you could see his confidence and knowledge of Mullen's system grow each week until he simply destroyed Michigan 52-14 in the Gator Bowl. He is the dark horse to be the number one QB in the SEC, but that horse is really dark indeed.

But if he can simply maintain the quality of that Gator Bowl and keep pulling off those Tebow type runs too, this could be a great year in Mississippi State.

3. Arkansas

Tyler Wilson may make the Hog fans say Ryan who? He has the mechanics to break Mallett's records; he just needs the reps.

Last year, he came in cold off the bench against one of the nation's best defensive lines and the eventual national champion, Auburn, and completed 25 of 34 passes for 332 yards and four touchdowns. However, he had too much on him too quickly, and had two late throws intercepted before losing the game 65-43.

Wilson is a junior and could be ready for a really killer season next year once he has a whole schedule of SEC experience under his belt, and the undivided attention of one of the best QB mentors in the college game, Bobby Petrino.

2. LSU

LSU could easily make the case to be the best team this coming season in the West, but it won't be because of their quarterbacks. None of them look solid at this point.

When he's hot, Jordan Jefferson is smoking, but you never know from one week to the next if he's going to be on or off.

Will he be the three-for-10-yards-and-two-interceptions QB he was against Tennessee last year, or the hotshot that rocked the bowl game?

The team is good enough to still beat most teams on his off day and any team on his best day. The question for LSU this year is can he stay one top of game for the big ones and especially Alabama?

1. Alabama

Speaking of a team that covers for a so-so player with a wealth of talent everywhere else, what happens when you have a hot prospect QB on a team that could cover up a lesser one?

That is A.J. McCarron.

He is covered up in talent around him, like two great running backs, Richardson and Lacy, and a possible third star of the future in freshman Dee Hart.

He's got an offensive line most SEC QB's would kill for and a bevy of great receivers to throw to.

Put that together with a defense that could be one of the stingiest in the SEC, one that could keep A.J. from having to put up so many points himself, and you have the reasons why A.J. McCarron will be the most successful QB in the SEC West.

I think the numbers could bear it out alone, but the real measure is in wins, which I think McCarron will have in big numbers, both this year and next. And for anyone who thinks a "rookie" QB can't do all that, just let me remind you of a guy named Greg McElroy, who was not only the SEC's best QB in the West his first year, but is wearing a national championship ring to prove it.

I'm going out on the same limb I did two years ago when I picked Greg McElroy and for most of the same reasons plus two more. McCarron has the same great supporting cast that McElroy had, but the plus in an NFL arm and nerves of steel.

Stay tuned, because next we'll go over the crop of QB's in the East and there are some goodies over there that will make this season interesting. You can see that article here.