Nick Saban-SEC Championship — Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

allHog's Own SEC Media Poll with Kent Smith, Andy Hodges

Where do we see teams like Arkansas, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Texas A&M falling?

Author:
Kent Smith and Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Jul 17, 2023 9:36 AM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's that time of the year to project what we think will happen around the SEC. Nothing is different here. Our own Kent Smith and Andy Hodges put about 70 years combined of predicting together taking a wild guess at these things, so we did it on this year's SEC standings.

It's the last year of divisions and a four-team playoff, so we'll be doing division champions. Arkansas fans probably won't care for where we're predicting them, but remember it's still 100 degrees some days on a fairly regular basis and nobody knows. Plus, this is a very balanced league and just about anybody can beat anybody when they start playing the games.

SEC East

#7

KENT: As much as I would love to stick Missouri into this spot, because it's going to happen one day sooner than later, I am left with no choice but to place Vanderbilt in last. Much respect for Clark Lea, but I'm not sure I have ever seen a university go more out of its way to sabotage its football program short of shutting it down.

ANDY: This isn't really a question and one of these days Vanderbilt will jump up and win six or seven games, but it hasn't happened in awhile. Or often enough for me to waste a pick guessing if "this is the year."

#6

KENT: There is only one candidate for this slot. If Missouri were in the SEC West, it would be a distant last place, but as the people in charge were directionally challenged when the Tigers came into the league, Eli Drinkwitz may be gone in Columbia by November because it's hard to imagine a win on their schedule outside of Vandy after the second Saturday in September, and even that game is going to be closer than it should be. Things are going to be messy at Mizzou.

ANDY: Apparently Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz is the only one who can't admit how bad they really are. When he was hired, I figured the Gus Malzahn starter kit of a coach was going to be Missouri's Chad Morris (Razorback fans know exactly what I'm talking about), but nobody in Columbia can really admit it. Of course all of this means the Hogs can't put that in the automatic win column.

#5

KENT: Get your shots in on Florida while you can because the Gators aren't going to be middle of the pack for long. Billy Napier is shipping a lot of Grade A prime beef down in Gainesville that is going to make Florida a monster to deal with a year or two from now if he can figure out a way to make anyone in the Central Florida region like him. The Gators are going to produce at least one big upset, but there's a good chance the high of that win results in a flat performance the following week. Napier is good enough to get Florida up to the No. 4 spot, but barring a complete meltdown by Tennessee's Joe Milton, that's probably the ceiling.

ANDY: We're going to have our first difference of view here. Everybody else may have bought into the Kentucky football thing, but I don't think they are ready to be there consistently. I'm not sure they have the depth to consistently have years that will have Wildcats fans ready to put them consistently near the top of the East. Whether they are about to lapse into the territory of Missouri or not we'll find out because this is the last year we even get to do this whole division thing.

#4

KENT: Kentucky finds itself in a spot where it could easily jump ahead to No. 3, but it's also just as likely to fall to No. 5. Mark Stoops is a solid coach who has vastly overachieved at Kentucky. However, getting high levels of recruiting talent to Lexington on a consistent basis is a difficult task, which is why the Wildcats fall here. The coaching advantage will mean a game or two won that shouldn't happen, but it's still a talent driven league in the end.

ANDY: I'm not ready to pick South Carolina higher yet, but I'm keeping an eye on what they do. It's a good bet Dowell Loggains is enjoying being the offensive coordinator with a football IQ like Spencer Rattler has for the quarterback position. He's the type quarterback who picks up things quickly and can read defenses in an NFL style, which is what Loggains, the Hogs' former tight ends coach, likes after years of coaching the pro quarterbacks. If the Gamecocks prove me wrong, well, they won't be the first team in the SEC to do that to me.

#3

KENT: Tennessee fans have forgotten who their team truly is after spending time watching possibly the greatest quarterback in school history do the impossible and help the Volunteers forget the Jeremy Pruitt era. However, Hooker is no longer there. For some reason, there's a lot of hype around Joe Milton from the standpoint of jumping in for Hooker and keeping the production at the same level. To be fair, Milton threw for 250 yards and four touchdowns against Clemson in Tennessee's bowl game, but that game mattered way more to Tennessee than Clemson and there is nothing in Milton's history to convince me that he can carry a team against an SEC schedule for a sustained period of success. The stretch of South Carolina, Texas A&M and Alabama could bring this season to a screeching halt before Georgia even gets a chance to dash Tennessee's hopes.

ANDY: Joe Milton isn't Hendon Hooker, at least until he proves it through an SEC schedule. We saw what the Vols looked like without Hooker, and it will be curious to see if Josh Heupel can turn Milton around in a year, but he might surprise me and be able to do that. Of course, whether he can handle Georgia and the top teams in the league won't be known until November. Tennessee fans desperately want to be back at the top, but they might have to wait a year or two to get there. And this is the last year they get to hope for an East title.

#2

KENT: A lot of people aren't going to agree, but the South Carolina Gamecocks snag the No. 2 spot. Now, let's not get carried away. They're not going to go undefeated in all SEC games outside of Athens, Georgia. Spencer Rattler finally found his rhythm to close out the season, which included rolling over both Tennessee and Clemson. With another year in the system and a bit of Beamer magic, the Gamecocks are the only team I can place here and sleep well tonight.

ANDY: Maybe I'm over-rating Billy Napier, but coaches have said all the way back to the Bear Bryant days you can fill up a class with 5-star recruits and never have to go more than 100 miles away from Gainesville. On top of recruiting, he's always shown a knack for being able to coach them up once he gets them on campus. There's always other things going on with the Gators, but not being around you never know for sure. Call this one a hunch because I just find it hard for Florida to be down long at a time.

#1

KENT: Until someone else in the East proves they're something other than a basketball or baseball school, Georgia is the only possible choice. When it comes to being singularly focused, the Bulldogs are the poster child. They invest no time or effort into their other two major sports. If Georgia didn't field a basketball nor baseball team next year, none of us would notice, and, frankly, neither would their fans. Football is all that matters there, which is they for the billionth time it feels like since Steve Spurrier left for the NFL, Georgia is going to win the SEC East.

ANDY: Even though I'm picking Florida for the annual SEC Media Daze, that's more of a tradition pick than anything else. Like Kent, until somebody knocks off the Bulldogs, I'm keeping Georgia in the top spot simply because they have the players. Since this is the last year of divisions, it's a good bet Georgia will likely have a spot in the expanding playoffs and a likely match-up in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game ... at least until somebody knocks them off once in awhile. One loss isn't going to eliminate you from playoff consideration soon.

SEC West

#7

KENT: Flip a coin. Most of these teams are fairly equal. You could tell me that any team from No. 3-No. 7 need to be switched and I wouldn't have a problem with it. That being said, the most logical choice is Mississippi State. The Bulldogs have one of the best quarterbacks in the conference in Will Rogers, but a first year coach and a change to a system that hasn't had time to recruit players who fit it puts Mississippi State at a disadvantage in what will certainly be a wild year.

ANDY: It's always good after a traumatic coaching change to have a good quarterback coming back for yet another year and Will Rogers fills the bill. There are some questions with depth and Mississippi State is a far more wobbly pick at the bottom than in the East where nobody in the West is as solid in the bottom spot as Vandy. As Kent said, this division is fairly even and we'll just have to see how things play out.

#6

KENT: Sometimes too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Lane Kiffin went out and snatched up any good quarterback he could and threw them into a room hoping someone becomes exceptional. However, that's a lot of reps split as well as attention to molding a guy to the intricacies of the offense. Add in that Kiffin tends to get distracted in November by possible landing spots with any team that might bat an eye, which leads to losses in Oxford.

ANDY: Despite what a lot of Razorback fans think, I'm not a hater. But, promoting a team in preseason above what I think is possible simply isn't going to happen. It's been that way for over 50 years of watching the Hogs and this team simply has far more questions than answers. If every single one of those answers turns out to be a team of all stars, then they could finish anywhere in the rankings. The guess here is they'll need another year or two of big recruits to move the needle on these preseason things.

#5

KENT: Everyone is probably wondering where Auburn is in this equation. Everyone else already has them showing up on the list. However, I just have a hard time betting against Hugh Freeze. Despite never being a fan of the actual man, the coach is a completely different situation. Look at what he did right out the gate at Ole Miss when cheating wasn't legal. Now he can do everything he did before and not get in trouble for it. Just label whatever shady thing might be happening as NIL. The Tigers are going to be better than expected and slip away with enough upsets to get into a three-way tie with Ole Miss and Mississippi State with wins over both.

ANDY: We're actually going to agree on this spot, and it's not like Auburn can't move up really high. I'm just not ready to go predicting that. Nothing with the Tigers would surprise me, but I've covered Hugh Freeze, like him and respect the way he builds teams and manages to put together offenses that can put up points on anybody. He beat Alabama twice (in consecutive years, too) and that hasn't happened on a regular basis to Nick Saban. There is a track record of him building winners and he's got the resources at Auburn to do it faster than he did at Ole Miss. There will be the occasional surprising loss, but in the SEC that can happen at times because there aren't many match-ups where something goofy can't change things in a flash.

#4

KENT: If KJ Jefferson had proven receivers around him, the Razorbacks would move up a notch, but much like how spots 5-7 may very well end in a tie, No. 4 and No. 3 will likely end up that way also. Thus, the deciding factor here will be Bobby Petrino. Arkansas and its running game will plow over much of the competition, but in an early season showdown in Arlington, well before dysfunction sets in down in College Station once again, the Aggies will pull off another shocking upset of the Razorbacks. It will be a close game as always. Points will be aplenty. However, something goofy will happen and Texas A&M slips out the door into the warm air of DFW with the tie breaker.

ANDY: Maybe nothing more than this pick shows the fluid nature of things this year in the SEC, but LSU goes here mainly because I have a stronger hunch about the three teams going above them. The Tigers have the talent to finish much higher, but that oblong ball tends to take funny bounces. Whistles and injuries are impossible to predict, especially before fall camp starts. LSU is going to be one of those teams that consistently is the hardest predict because when everything falls into place, they can win a championship, but that's usually when nobody is predicting it. There is a program history of going all the way and still not winning a championship.

#3

KENT: Texas A&M is going to get off to a hot start. Petrino is going to have this offense humming. That is until Jimbo Fisher, claiming he knows exactly how to take down Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide, takes over the offense in a fit of jealousy following Petrino getting more credit that Fisher would like for the Arkansas win the week before. The rift lasts through the Tennessee and South Carolina games before administration steps in and forces Fisher to let Petrino call the plays again. Fisher throws a fit behind the scenes, gets himself fired despite one of his better records, leaves with a tidy sum of money and Petrino leads Texas A&M to its first national title in 2024 just in time to remind Texas which school is the real little brother now.

ANDY: Ole Miss is my pick to be surprisingly better than a lot of people are thinking, mainly because Lane Kiffin seems to put together offenses that can adapt to what his team can do. He has maybe the best running back in the league (or college football) and creative-minded coaches always seems to improve with that. My guess is they'll figure out enough defense to win games and aren't championship caliber, but they could win enough key games to finish higher than a lot of people are thinking.

#2

KENT: While it wouldn't seem unconventional any other year, LSU comes in at No. 2 despite what so many others seem to think. The Tigers barely beat Arkansas last season with the worst secondary in college football and possibly the most one dimensional quarterback to ever strap on an SEC helmet. The Hogs are Brian Kelly's kryptonite. Jefferson is healthy for this one and the defense is better, so down goes LSU. Alabama cleans up the mess left over in early November to wrap up the division and the Tigers are left hoping for one of those prime consolation bowls to come their way while talking about what life would be like if there was already a 12-team playoff.

ANDY: Texas A&M has been stockpiling talent all over the field, but especially in the defensive front. They go really deep with talent. Jimbo Fisher oversees the best three-deep roster of any team in the SEC. Last year's problems with the Aggies were more a product of inability to score enough points than anything else. My guess is Fisher, like any good coach, knows exactly what the problem was. They have analysts swarming everywhere like everybody else, and he's got a contract that's secure enough he feels comfortable following a tried and true method. If the head coach has a highly-respected coordinator, not enough wins is always an excuse to jettison somebody to hang onto your job another year or two. Not that Bobby Petrino is expected to fail to put points on the board. Both have been coaching long enough to know their roles and be comfortable with it. Besides, with age, former bosses tend to make really good top managers if they are looking for a role that comes with a whole lot less hassle.

#1

KENT: The last time an Alabama quarterback looked less than Nick Saban approved in emergency duty against Arkansas, Mac Jones came out the next season and won every quarterback award known to man, led the Tide to an undefeated national championship season and became a first round draft pick. Cue Jalen Milroe because he is suddenly going to come out as this super powered quarterback out of nowhere and continue the Saban formula. There's nothing anyone can do about it. There's only one SEC West title left to be won and the mystical powers that oversee football deem it has to be Alabama.

ANDY: A lot of people love to pick when the team at the top is going to slip into the middle of the pack, so folks picking Alabama to slide isn't that surprising. Quite frankly, until somebody shows they can knock the Crimson Tide off their lofty perch, I won't be the first to do it. Alabama may lose a game, but my guess is that will be the result of something goofy happening or just "one of those things." In this league it happens. Almost weekly.