Predicting the SEC. Will Texas rule?
I hate the term “Any Given Saturday” when it applies to the SEC, but it isn’t true. Weird things happen (see Alabama v Vanderbilt), but generally the top teams don’t lose to the bottom ones. It’s just right. But there’s a lot of fun with the mediocre ones.
You’ll see how I rank them.
- Texas: The monster game at Ohio State and the trip to Georgia are the big ones on the schedule. OU’s on a down year and they’ve got Texas A&M at home. Otherwise, it’s a bit of a joke. If Arch Manning has a good game in Columbus, then the Heisman chat is going to get very boring, very quickly. A lot of talent’s back, but we simply don’t know about the offensive line.
- Georgia: Georgia loses a ton of talent this year, but Kirby Smart has always been great at replacing it (funny what happens when you’ve got a top-ranked recruiting class year after year after year). Georgia’s schedule is tough, with games against Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss and Auburn on the slate. Having said all that, it’s Georgia.
- Alabama: The Crimson Tide have an incredible talent on its books in WR Ryan Williams, but a lot of questions will be asked by new QB Ty Simpson. The game in Athens on the 27th in going to be a lot of fun, but it’s the banana skins that will come in the away trips to South Carolina and Auburn that should really show us something.
- Missouri: The positive: Beau Pribula is going to be really good in an Eli Drinkwitz offense. The negative: Beau Pribula might be the second coming of Lamar Jackson, but when he’s not got Luther Burden or Theo Wease to hit, it’s going to be difficult. So why am I so high on them? They should go 9-3 (home games against South Carolina, Alabama and Texas A&M) but quite possibly 10-2. Without really showing anything.
- LSU: The Tigers spent big in the transfer portal this year, getting two of the better receivers out there in Nic Anderson (OU) and Barion Brown (Kentucky). But starting at Clemson won’t be fun for them, and a rejuvenated Florida will be a real test. Then there’s Texas A&M and going to Alabama. Not fun.
- Ole Miss – Another year, another battle for Ole Miss to make the play-off. After a disaster of a loss against Florida and an even worse one against Kentucky last year, Lane Kiffin must have felt seriously punched in the face. But what has he done? Going to Georgia won’t be fun, and nor will LSU be at home. But the schedule is doable.
- Texas A&M – With one of the best offensive lines in the sport, Marcel Reed will have the blockers to do damage. A&M certainly won’t find it easy playing at Notre Dame on Week 3 of the year, and there also Texas, LSU, Missouri to play. It might not be a thrilling, one, but it should be a productive enough one to get the Aggies into the play-off conversation.
- Tennessee: I was really high on Nico at the start of last year, and it turned into an absolute shambles. I’m not sure about Joey Aguilar being a vast improvement, but the Vols defense should be nasty, returning 7 defensive starters and getting coveted DB Josh Schell in the transfer portal. Georgia, Alabama, Florida and a home game against should-be-improved Oklahoma are going to be testy.
- South Carolina: Shane Beamer’s got things going in Columbia, and a lot of that’s due to QB LaNorris Sellers, who ran for 674 yards last year. The loss of RB Raheim Sanders (graduation) is going to be a massive loss for the Cocks, so it will up to transfer Rahul Faison and Oscar Adaway III to do their bit. Although the defensive unit is going to get up to shape pretty quickly, the schedule doesn’t get demented until the trip to Missouri on Week 4. But for years you could count out South Carolina in a lot of games, but now you can say a lot of them are winnable. That’s how much BeamerBall II has changed South Carolina.
- Oklahoma: OU could be one of the nicest surprises of the year bearing in mind no-one expects them to do very much this year. However, they have one of the funnest QBs around in John Mateer, who threw for over 3,000 yards and 29 TDs at Washington State and Cal RB Jayden Ott, who’s filthy. Brent Venables should shore up the defensive frailities. The schedule is no help to them, with games against Texas, Michigan, LSU, Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Tennessee on the horizon. Eesh.
- Florida: Billy Napier and the Florida faithful would be ecsastic with a 6-6 season, bearing in mind the horror of the schedule (LSU, Miami, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee are all on it), but really let’s see how DJ Lagway does and go from there.
- Auburn: Jackson Arnold will get the best QB coach he’s ever had at Auburn. He needs one after getting benched at Oklahoma after a string of piss-poor performances. There will be new help in the backfield with Eric Singleton, and Cam Coleman is going to be a Top 10 receiver in the whole of College Football. A lot has been talked about Malcolm Simmons in the offseason, but not in a good way (he was arrested for domestic violence). Freeze also had to boot from D’Angelo Barber after he was busted for a myriad of stuff. Anyway, back to the football…Auburn’s got a tough schedule, but it’ll be another improvement from last year. Slow and steady, Hugh.
- Arkansas: Cometh the year, cometh the talk about Sam Pittman losing his role as Razorbacks head coach. We don’t really know how big it is, but if things are truly appalling, Jerry Jones would probably help boot him. Taylen Green’s going to be fun under the Bobby Petrino offense – but BP had better get it together with 10 transfer coming in to help his QB out. The team will be at best mediocre – especially with Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Missouri, LSU, Texas A&M and Tennessee on the sked as well as a nasty trip to ‘We’ve got to prove we belong’ Memphis, who recently got rejected from a Big 12 bid.
- Vanderbilt: There’s a lot of hope with Diego Pavia returning for his 900th year, but let’s be honest, they aren’t exactly world-beaters. We love that they’ve brought Eli Stowers back (49 catches, 638 yards, 5 TDs), but let’s be honest– they’re Vanderbilt. While 4-1 to start the year looks a distinct possibility if not probability, the aim for 6-6 could be difficult with LSU, Georgia and South Carolina on the ticket.
- Mississippi State: If there were nice things to say about Mississippi State in 2024, we couldn’t find them. The pressure on Jeff Lebbe is increasing, and if MSU are horrible in 2025, then he could find himself out of a job. The schedule is horrific, with SEVEN matchups against preseason Top 25 teams. No-one would wish that on The Devil, let alone a bulldog.
- Kentucky: The fact that they beat Ole Miss provided some excellent comedy last season, but Wildcats fans are going to have to face the facts this season — Firstly, their team’s not going to be very good (Zach Calzada, who lost the starting job at Texas A&M will be the QB), and secondly, they are probably going to get their ass kicked by Louisville. Looking at the schedule, we can only see one SEC victory this year, and even that will be a toss-up.