SEC Rundown

Here's an interesting preseason look at the SEC from Vegas Insider.

Notes

---Is hotshot frosh quarterback Mitch Mustain really going to be the starter from day one at Arkansas?  That sounds like suicide.  I know his high school coach is the offensive coordinator, but there are bound to be adjustment issues for the both of them.  I'd rather get the OC seasoned first and then let him work Mustain into the offense instead of screwing the kid up from the word go.

---The author lists some interesting upset possibilities (Fresno State over LSU, South Carolina over Florida again, Arkansas over LSU).  Hmm...

---Author Brian Edwards ranks the SEC coaches from 1-12 as Spurrier, Richt, Tuberville, Fulmer, Shula, Meyer, Nutt, Miles, Orgeron, Croom, Brooks, Johnson.

My list would go something like this:

1. Meyer
2. Spurrier
3. Richt
4. Tuberville
5. Fulmer
6. Nutt
7. Miles
8. Johnson
9. Orgeron
10. Shula
    
11. Croom
12. Brooks

I'm a little biased towards scheme on either side of the ball and ability to win outside the SEC.

There isn't a better coach within the conference than Georgia's Mark Richt, for example, but in bowl games he's taken talented teams and lost to West Virginia in his own backyard, barely beat a bad Purdue team and barely beat an imploding Florida State team.  There's room for improvement still.

Florida's Urban Meyer has had two Oasis in the desert coaching experiences and is on his way to making the Gators great again.  Ironically, his vaunted offense has been held back as the team gets used to his schemes and he works towards finding appropriate personnel to run it (frosh Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin are a great start, once they get the hang of things). 

South Carolina's Steve Spurrier's still got it, and has won national games before at Florida, but the bowl collapse against Missouri is worrisome.

Tennessee's Phil Fulmer was great once but he doesn't have his act together anymore.  We'll see if he falls by the wayside in the next 2-3 year or reinvents himself somehow.

Arkansas' Houston Nutt's an inventive guy and wins some games he shouldn't (Texas!), but also bungles some good opportunities.

I hold LSU's Les Miles in similar regard. 

Auburn's Tommy Tuberville is a guy who has improved over the years and is at the peak of his career.  He makes great coaching hires and recruits well and put together a pretty good team in 2004. 

Comments

[Marty]

I know I'm an Auburn homer, but I think Auburn's 2004 team was more than "pretty good." Four first round picks will attest to that.

[CFR]

Would you rather I have used very?

I wouldn't call them great but I wouldn't say they were merely good, either.

Don't you love the English language?

Jason Campbell should never have been a first rounder. Gotta love the NFL.

Brown's a great back, I have no qualms with that pick at all.

[Marty]

Cadillac is pretty good too.

Hard to tell at this point whether Campbell should have been a 1st rounder or not since he hasn't played a down yet.

I would call them a great team. Despite what you think of the SEC, it's not easy to go undefeated in a BCS conference, and they rolled through the SEC with relative ease. Would they have beaten USC if given the chance? Probably not, but we don't know for sure.

[LD]

I am as big a Mark Richt fan as they come, trust me, and this is no slight on him.

But believe it or not, Tommy Tuberville has outcoached him in just about every head to head matchup - in every aspect of the game: clock management, personnel, pre-game strategy and in-game strategy. It kills me to say it, but Tuberville is actually underrated, even where you have him. I think you have Meyer too high (maybe after this year he'll merit a top three spot, but not yet), but I like your list way better than Edwards'. I mean, Johnson's been pretty good at Vandy, and Brooks... not so much.

[Kanu]

CFR- If your analysis of the 2003 Sugar Bowl is that UGA "barely beat" FSU, then it is very obvious that you did not watch that game. Georgia dominated the game, got up 23-7 midway through the 3rd quarter, and then Richt went into his conservative shell - the final score of 26-13 was not indicative at all of the disparity between the two teams on the field. Richt took a knee inside the 20 to boot. AS disappointing as it was that UGA didn't blow them out 41-17, the final score of 26-13 after being up 23-7 surely defies your "barely" tag.

Everything else you wrote about Richt is spot on. Definite room for improvement as a coach in game situations, especially clock management and late game strategy.

[Andy T.]

You speak of Meyer "finding appropriate personnel" to run his offense. The only way he is going to become the Second Coming as many west coast followers claim, is if he finds a way to deplete the personnel of opposing SEC defenses.

[CFR]

Meyer isn't the second coming. He's simply another coach who isn't afraid to do things on offense to move the ball and score points. He's an entrepreneur with an impressive portfolio.

Spurrier seemed to find his way against SEC defenses back in the day. Meyer will too.

The problem with the SEC is that until recently, all the conference coaches and their assistants knew was a dogmatic, conservative, fearful brand of offensive ball. Turnovers were scary, passing the ball was scary, and what was safe was a power run game and moving all your best athletes to defense.

Several generations of coaches knew nothing but this style of ball, having played in it, been brought up in it, tutored in it and tutoring others about it.

That's changed, though, and there are other ways to get things done that require actual skill and knowledge that simply isn't available from inside the conference.

It's not about West Coast, it's about enterprise and creativity and risk/reward. Those coaches arent merely west coast guys, they're from everywhere. They're guys who are not suckered into a lethargic style of ball. They'd rather control their fates than sit through a bunch of 23-20 games where either team could just as easily have won or lost and there's no real reflection of superiority or inferiority, just a scoreboard that says someone won and someone lost.

That style of ball may not survive, hopefully it won't. You can find it in the NFL, but then, the NFL sucks.