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Sunday, December 7, 2008

SEC Could be Down Again in '09

Check out the final BCS standings for 2008...

1. Oklahoma (12-1)
2. Florida (12-1)
3. Texas (11-1)
4. Alabama (12-1)
5. So. California (11-1)
6. Utah (12-0)
7. Texas Tech (11-1)
8. Penn State (11-1)
9. Boise State (12-0)
10. Ohio State (10-2)
11. Texas Christian (10-2)
12. Cincinnati (11-2)
13. Oklahoma State (9-3)
14. Georgia Tech (9-3)
15. Georgia (9-3)
16. Brigham Young (10-2)
17. Oregon (9-3)
18. Michigan State (9-3)
19. Virginia Tech (9-4)
20. Pittsburgh (9-3)
21. Missouri (9-4)
22. Ball State (12-1)
23. Northwestern (9-3)
24. Boston College (9-4)
25. Mississippi (8-4)

Remeber when the SEC had five teams in the top 10 after three weeks of the season? Wonder how many people would've figured then that the conference would end up barely getting four teams into the top 25.

That's what happens, though, when no more than three teams in the conference had strong QB situations entering the season. More worrisome, however, is that looking ahead to next year only Ole Miss seems to have solved its QB problems. Meanwhile Georgia and Alabama could be losing their starters.

That's not good for a conference that had seven of its 12 members finish 87th or worse in scoring offense nationally this year. In fact, Florida was the only SEC team to finish in the top 28 nationally in scoring. Think the Gators were dominant this year? Check out how bad the SEC's offenses could be next year...

Here's a quick rundown of what the potential starting QBs could be in 2009 (NOTE: I'm not including any true freshman who could start next year, as they likely won't be a significantly better alternative.):

UGA: Joe Cox (1 career start)
Tennessee: Jonathan Crompton/Nick Stephens (combined 50% comp, 8 TDs, 8 INTs in '08)
Vanderbilt: Mackenzi Adams (49% comp, 5 TDs, 8 INTs)
Florida: Tim Tebow (He's good)
South Carolina: Stephen Garcia (53.8% comp, nearly as many arrests as TDs)
Kentucky: Randall Cobb (52.5% comp, 2 pass TDs, 5 INTs)

LSU: Jaret Lee (53% completions, 14 TDs, 16 INTs in '08)
Ole Miss: Jevan Snead (clearly the second best QB in the conf)
Alabama: Greg McElroy (20 career attempts, only QB on Bama's roster with experience)
Mississippi State: Tyson Lee (JuCo transfer with 8 career starts)
Auburn: Kodi Burns (2 TDs, 7 INTs in '08)
Arkansas: Nathan Dick (1 career start)

Who would you pick as the third best QB in the conference?

ADDENDUM: I didn't mean to discount the significant possibility that Ryan Mallett will likely be the starter in Arkansas and Jordan Jefferson likely will be the QB at LSU. I simply didn't include anyone who had not played (other than about a dozen snaps in Jefferson's case) this year. Even including either of them, however, does not discount the original point, which is that there won't be much experience at QB in the SEC next season.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a Dawg fan and may be somewhat biased but I think Joe Cox is a darn good QB. If Stafford had gone to another school I think Joe Cox would have done just as well.

Brett said...

haha love the Garcia comment, honestly I have no clue who the third best is. I think Cox will do ok next year if need be, but you still cant justify he is the third best by no means.

Anonymous said...

I am tired about hearing of all these players going early because of the cap. Going early will not make up for lack of experience or talent. Stafford nor Colt mcCoy is ready to go pro, even if they will ever be able to. There is not one player on the GA defense who could play pro as they have yet to prove they could be good in college.

Anonymous said...

Joe Cox is the 3rd best QB...to be honest, I think he'll be more than fine- looked pretty decent 3 years ago as a freshman, plus he'll have a very talented (if healthy) O-Line, plus a very good receiving corps.

As for Anonymous' comment, I think Rennie Curran has proven he can be good in college, and will be in the NFL. Jeff Owens, Geno Atkins, and Asher Allen will both make it in the NFL too. If Kade can stay healthy next year he could be poised for a monster year, plus there's no telling how good some of the younger guys could turn out to be

Ben said...

You think Dick will be out Mallett at Arkansas?