Author: Alex Haddon

The SEC Football Blog loves everything about SEC football. If it's news - and it's interesting - we'll be publishing it, and remarking on it.

Week 1 SEC Preview: Big week for Florida and LSU

  The Florida-Utah game on Thursday night, the South Carolina v North Carolina game on Saturday and LSU-Florida State games on Sunday night are the three biggest games on this week’s college football schedule. Elsewhere, SEC teams involved have pretty easy battles, even though there are things to watch all over the shop. So without further ado, here’s your Week 1 Preview (With betting predictions, and sorry if some are shorter than others. We didn’t see the point of writing an essay on Georgia and UT-Martin): THURSDAY Florida at No.14 Utah (-4.5) There was a lot of disturbance in the force when it was found out that Cam Rising wasn’t playing. But it wasn’t entirely surprising after he blew out his ACL

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SEC Preview: Can Florida get competitive again?

It seems like it was light years ago that Florida had two Heisman contenders, was one of the most exciting teams in college football, and played in a major bowl. But in fact, it was only 2020. Now, the architect of it all is out, and so is the quarterback, and the weapons who played alongside him. In came Luke Napier from ULL. He told everyone that it would be a slow process. Anthony Richardson in one game over Utah got the fanbase excited again…..and that was about it for 2023, as the Gators fell to a 6-7 (3-5 SEC) record which included a loss to Vanderbilt, which you can blame on inconsistent QB play as well as a bad

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SEC Preview: Getting Lucky In Kentucky?

Last year, Kentucky was meant to take a step back after a great 10-3 season in 2021. And it did, with a very ordinary 7-6 record. Will Levis was drafted exactly how we expected him to be drafted (ie not in the first round, and probably won’t even be QB2 in Tennesssee), and Chris Rodriguez has impressed many in Washington after a top preseason after a great career in Lexington. This year, things are expected to be (checks notes) pretty good, what with the transfer signings of QB Devin Leary from NC State, who’s seen by many as THE transfer of the 2023 portal, and RB Ray Davis at Vanderbilt, who was fantastic there. The Wildcats also bring back 14

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SEC Preview: Is Alabama really an underdog?

This is going to sound incredibly silly, but Alabama may well go into this season as an underdog. Not in many games, but in the National Championship discussion. For years, there isn’t an Alabama player that’s been especially memorable. The rock stars  – like Will Anderson Jr or Bryce Young are gone. Jahmyr Gibbs is gone. Henry To’oto’o is gone.  That’s a hell of a lot of talent. The reason for this is simple: Alabama was meant to be everything when Young and Gibbs were anchoring the offense and Anderson, Demarco Hellams, Brian Branch and To’oto’o were anchoring the defense. Instead they lost the 2021 National Championship Game and didn’t even get to the 2022 Play-Off, despite only losing to LSU

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SEC Preview: Arkansas, we gotta talk about the pass defense

Talk all you want about how great Arkansas will be with KJ Jefferson coming back for another year, but the fact is this: Unless they get better on pass defense, there are going to be a lot of questions asked about Sam Pittman’s reign. They were WORST in the country by some mile, giving up 294.7 yards per game (second-last East Carolina gave up 292.8) and 8 1/2 yards/attempt. WHO’S IN Helping the pass rush will be one of the best players on Missouri’s defense last year in Trajan Jeffcoat as well as John Morgan, who comes from Pitt. They also added CB Jaheim Singletary from Georgia. He was a former 5-star recruit in the 2022 class, but only appeared

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SEC Preview: Should we continue to get excited about Tennessee?

Tennessee had one hell of a year in 2023. There was two sides. There was the amazing win over Alabama, which will live long into the memory. I think my house is still reverberating from the noise at Neyland, and I live nowhere near the place. The other side was the laughable loss on the road to Georgia and the “What in the hell happened there?” monstrosity that was South Carolina on the road, where Spencer Rattler finally looked like a great quarterback and Tennessee’s defense was actually what we thought it was (ie bad all season long). There is no doubt about it: Weapons have gone from the team, but it’s OK to still believe in the Vols this

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Is LSU a genuine National Championship Contender?

LSU has been one of the sexier conversations in the offseason. People loved the fact that they beat Alabama and got to the SEC Championship Game. They are talking about Heismans, Jayden Daniels, and the fact that they had an excellent transfer portal (it helps when your NIL fund is the size of the GDP of a small Arab state), and a can’t-miss linebacker in Harold Perkins. But let’s be honest: LSU was somewhat of a mixed bag last year. There was the doofus loss (FSU), the one where they lost by three scores to a poor team everyone spent the whole season making fun of (Texas A&M), and the Atlanta Schellacking (Georgia). The Tigers beat who they were meant to

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SEC Preview: Is Vanderbilt really going to be fine?

For years on end, Vanderbilt has been the laughing stock of SEC Football. Look, we loved the coaches. James Franklin put the team on the map. Derek Mason brought the energy of a great coach, but wasn’t a great head coach (He’s now working for the SEC Network). And now Clark Lea’s here, who’s on a very long leash, and is willing to take things slowly. At least at Vanderbilt, they know nothing’s a quick fix. Lea went from 2-10 (0-8 SEC) in his first year to 5-7 last year, with a 2-6 record, which included wins over Florida and Kentucky. Anyway, we think that Vanderbilt is going to be just ‘fine’, this year. We haven’t a clue what means,

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SEC Preview: This year doesn’t matter for Mississippi State

This year doesn’t matter if you’re a Mississippi State. At least, it shouldn’t. If the Bulldogs got 4-8 this season and have an 0-for in the SEC, no-one should be worried. After all, Mike Leach is in pirate heaven, and we’re still trying to get over that. WHO’S GONE With the passing away of Leach, the transfers were expected, and it happened. 25 people left Starkville. Some of them – like Mississippi State’s best WR RaRa Thomas – left for Georgia (he was arrested for misdemeanor family battery charge and a felony false imprisonment charge on Monday, January 23, but managed to avoid the courts by striking a deal to have anger management classes). WHO’S IN The Bulldogs brought in former

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Guest Post (And non football-related): The falling apart of the Yankees

This is from the much-aggrieved View From North America, who’s writing this about the falling apart of his favorite baseball team. As a sympathy note, we let him post it here. Sorry it’s not about college football. But it might save him. Any Yankees fan worth their salt could have told you that this was going to happen sooner or later. There had been enough miracle seasons, where the Yankees had scraped their pinstriped behinds into the play-offs, and done just enough to scrape through a AL Central team and then lose in the ALCS. The team hadn’t been World Series standard for years, and everyone knew it. And although New York Yankees fans are burning rage at the moment

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