Sorry LSU and Alabama, South Carolina Is the Best Team in the SEC

Forget about the Pac-12 North.

Who cares about the new Legends division?

It’s clear as day that the SEC West is college football’s true super division this 2011 season.

Rarely do you see four of the top five teams in a conference all residing in one division; the power scale isn’t usually tipped so heavily in favor of one side.

Sometimes it just plays out that way though.

There’s no other division in the ACC, Pac-12 or Big Ten that can boast the kind of depth you see in the SEC West.

LSU and Alabama are two top-five caliber teams that will both be on the short list of preseason national title contenders, not to mention Arkansas and Mississippi State look like they’re about ready to burst onto the scene as legitimate contenders.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the defending champion of the sport, the Auburn Tigers.

Even Mississippi, the least-talked about of the division’s six teams, could actually be an undervalued commodity going into the season.

Long story short, the SEC West is legit this year.

The division may house four of the top 20 teams in the country, but it can't take credit for having the best team in the SEC.

LSU and Alabama, as always, will receive most of the offseason attention this summer, but Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks are actually the real team to beat in the SEC.

From top to bottom, the Gamecocks have the most talented starting lineup in the entire conference, and that's saying something, considering the SEC runs deep with great players.

It all starts with South Carolina’s five future first-round draft picks: WR Alshon Jeffery, RB Marcus Lattimore, CB Stephon Gilmore, DE Devin Taylor and DT Travian Robertson.

But it doesn’t come close to ending there.

The offensive line has three of the conference’s best linemen in center T.J. Johnson and tackles Rokevious Watkins and Kyle Nunn.  Johnson, Watkins and Nunn are all battle-tested veterans, and they know what it takes to get the job done in the SEC trenches.

The defense, which finished in the middle of the pack last season, is also stronger in key areas.

It seems like it’s taken far too long for Spurrier to build South Carolina into a contender, but it now appears his team has finally had the breakthrough season they desperately needed.

Last year’s SEC East crown can either become a peak or a stepping stone—it all depends on whether this South Carolina squad can play up to its potential.

The major keys to success will be Lattimore and Jeffery, the two stars of the offense who also happen to be the two most well-known faces on the team.

Both Lattimore and Jeffery developed into elite-level contributors in 2010.

As a heralded freshman, Lattimore made good on his high school hype, totaling more than 1,600 yards of offense and scoring 19 TD's last season.

The 6'0", 230-pound sophomore became an instant star, but his fellow offensive counterpart, Jeffery, actually came close to outperforming and outproducing him.

Jeffery hauled in 88 passes for more than 1,500 yards and nine TD's last season as he matured into one of the most unstoppable receivers in the country.

The offensive trio is rounded out by QB Stephen Garcia, who returns for his final season in Columbia under close scrutiny.

This spring, Garcia found himself back in Spurrier’s dog house, and he initially had to deal with being suspended from the team because of another embarrassing off-the-field incident. The troubled quarterback has been given his one final chance at redemption for what seems like the 2,667th time.

All that’s important to Gamecocks fans is that their senior signal-caller is back on board and ready to steer the offensive ship to success.

Garcia really came into his own in 2010, throwing for more than 3,000 yards and 20 TD's, but it was his SEC-worst 14 interceptions that kept irking his head coach. Mistakes cost Garcia the chance to finish the job against Auburn last season, and it opened up the door for intriguing young backup Connor Shaw to enter the discussion for the starting job.

If Garcia behaves and performs, he should be able to stave off Shaw’s attempt to steal away his starting spot this summer.

We know the South Carolina offense should be even more dangerous this season, but we also know that it's the defense that always plays a pivotal role in winning a championship.

If you look past the shoddy play in the secondary, you’ll see the South Carolina defensive front seven played at a near-dominant level throughout the 2010 season.

Taylor and Robertson were the two breakout stars up front. The two combined for 11.5 sacks and 23 tackles for loss, and they really opened the eyes of NFL scouts across the country.

And they are far from the only future pros on the South Carolina defense.

Gilmore and linebacker-safety hybrid DeVonte Holloman will both be playing in the NFL someday, but first, they must take that next step and finally reach their enormous potential. Gilmore and Holloman are two proven playmakers who know how to find the football no matter where it is on the field.

It also doesn't hurt that the defense is welcoming in freshman DE Jadeveon Clowney, one of the most celebrated and hyped No. 1 high school recruits of all time.

When you’ve got as many standouts as South Carolina has, and you surround them with quality depth and a strong supporting cast, great things can and will happen.

The Gamecocks will probably be ranked as a fringe top 10-15 team in the preseason polls. But remember, that’s how last season’s two National Championship participants, Oregon and Auburn, were regarded last summer.

We’ll find out awfully quick just exactly what the Gamecocks are made of when they travel to Athens to take on Georgia in a crucial early-season division clash Sept. 10.

The full slate isn’t overly daunting, but just like any SEC schedule, there’s simply no way you can classify it as easy. Once October hits, South Carolina will have to face Auburn, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida consecutively with one bye week thrown in the middle.

We’ve seen some of Spurrier’s previous South Carolina teams flop when the pressure and expectations got ratcheted up, but this year’s crew looks remarkably different than their failed predecessors. The Gamecocks got a taste of success last season when they won the SEC East, but it could turn out to be just the appetizer to the main course.

Spurrier has thought about bringing a SEC Championship to South Carolina since the day he took over, and this seems like the best shot he’s got to do it.

The Ol' Ball Coach will need maturity out of his quarterback, star play out of his two main offensive weapons and a steady effort out of his stout defense to reach that lofty goal.

But the bottom line is, the Gamecocks are good.

Very good, in fact.

Now we just have to wait and see if they can be great.

Lattimore, Jeffery, Taylor, Gilmore, Garcia, Clowney—all the big names are there. 

The diehard LSU and Alabama fans may not like to hear it, but South Carolina is the most talented team in the SEC.