LSU Football: Ranking the SEC West Post-Spring
The SEC West is by far the best overall division in college football with the winner winning the BCS national championship in three of the past four seasons.
The cream of the crop lies in Auburn, Alabama and LSU, but the rest of the division has a lot of talent as well.
This division will most likely yield the 2011 BCS National Champion, and whichever of these teams makes it through the regular season as the No. 1 will truly deserve that title.
The 2011 season will be battle each and every week for teams in the SEC West, and fans should be getting excited to see if their team has what it takes to win this division.
6: Ole Miss Rebels
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Sorry, good people of Oxford, but this will not be your season to shine.
Unfortunately for the Rebels, they are in the toughest division in the country and will have brutal games each and every week they play in conference.
The Rebels have had a few rough seasons, and this year will be no different.
Rebel fans can wait for that big upset game that Ole Miss has become known for lately.
Who will it be this year?
Will they take down LSU, Bama or Arkansas?
Highly unlikely.
5: Auburn Tigers
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Lucky for Auburn, they are in a division with Ole Miss so they won’t go from first-to-worst, but it could be close.
Auburn loses almost everything after going “all in” in 2010.
Cam Newton accounted for 51 touchdowns for the Tigers last season, and if they are going to have any chances of being competitive this year, they’ll have to find someone to make up for some of that productivity.
As usual, Auburn will have a good defense that will keep them in games.
They just need to find a way to score points.
4: Arkansas Razorbacks
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Arkansas would have a really good chance of winning almost any division and many conferences around the country, but in the SEC West, they will be no better than fourth.
The first task for the Razorbacks will be to replace Ryan Mallett, the strong-arm quarterback who was a staple for them for the past three seasons.
Mallett is off to the NFL, and with him gone, the chances of the Razorbacks winning the SEC West are as well.
Arkansas will have the luxury of easing Mallett’s replacement into live action with not one, but three warm-up games against Missouri State, New Mexico and Troy before traveling to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama.
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3: Mississippi State Bulldogs
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Ole Miss fans will hate to read this, but they are now at best the second best team in the state of Mississippi.
Dan Mullen has brought a Mississippi team that was in the gutters for the past decade back to life and built excitement around the program.
The Bulldogs are one of the most underrated teams in the nation thanks to overshadowing figures within their own division, but make no mistake about it, they are capable of beating any team in the SEC West from top to bottom.
Mississippi State’s first big test will be in Week 3 when they host LSU.
2: Alabama Crimson Tide
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Alabama comes out of the Crimson and White game with no clear answer at quarterback, with sophomore A.J. McCarron and red-shirt freshman Phillip Sims taking their competition into the summer.
The two quarterbacks had virtually identical numbers in the spring game.
Despite the uncertainty at quarterback, head coach Nick Saban is poised for another championship.
Saban has a history of winning with less-than-stellar quarterbacks who simply manage the game and don’t hurt the team with turnovers or mistakes.
He will definitely field a strong defense that will give the Crimson Tide a chance to win every game regardless of their offense's production.
Saban will have his team ready and should make a strong push for the SEC West title.
1: LSU Tigers
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Barely edging out Alabama, LSU is still tops in the SEC West despite a looming question mark about incumbent quarterback Jordan Jefferson.
Jefferson started the spring game with a sharp and effective scoring drive, causing skeptics like myself to wonder if he had finally developed into the leader that head coach Les Miles had been looking for.
His subsequent drives showed that he is still as inconsistent as he was last season.
Miles and the Tiger coaching staff will get production out of the quarterback this season, whether that be through Jefferson or one of his backups.
Regardless of the quarterback, the Tigers have enough explosiveness on offense to win the SEC West with the help of their stellar defense, though it won’t be easy.
The LSU/Bama matchup in early November will not only determine the SEC West champion, but probably the BCS National Champion as well.
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