The results of the SEC Media Days polls are out with a predicted order of finish and preseason All-Conference teams . The preseason All-Conference list is pretty meaningless. Yours truly didn’t spend a ton of time on his ballot and no one ever really remembers which players had expectations of 1st or 2nd team accolades anyways. It’s the postseason list that matters.
But the order of finish is more interesting because it tells you at a 1,000 foot level about the relative national expectations are for each program. The media picked the Texas Longhorns to finish 2nd in the league behind Georgia with Alabama, Ole Miss, and LSU rounding out the rest of the top five. Texas’ rivals Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Arkansas were picked to finish 8th, 9th, and 14th respectively.
I think those expectations largely make sense, but here’s what I suspect the media is overlooking based about the 2024 SEC season based on these poll results.
The explosive Volunteers
I picked Tennessee to finish second in the league, my colleagues have them in 7th place, who’s right?
We’ll find out, obviously, but I can at least tell you what I see in the other UT that everyone else may be overlooking.
Let’s start with the two positions I believe to be the most impactful in college football, wide receiver and defensive tackle. Last year, Tennessee lost Bru McCoy to injury and the passing game often boiled down to getting speedy Squirrel White flexed out far in the slot where he could run by weaker defenders that weren’t cornerbacks.
This year, the passing game firepower of the Vol offense is going up considerably. Zalance Heard steps in at left tackle with his 5-star athleticism, Nico Iamaleava brings a much more accurate arm than “bazooka Joe” Milton , and White is now flanked by a healthy McCoy and Tulane transfer Chris Brazzell II (44 catches for 711 yards and five touchdowns in 2023 as a redshirt freshman). This is going to be a much more difficult offense to defend next season.
At defensive tackle, the Vols return Omari Thomas at nose who will likely go in the later rounds in 2025, Omarr Norman-Lott who joined from Arizona State a year ago and produced 5.5 sacks, and Bryson Eason who some think is their best pro prospect but has been learning to play inside after starting at end. They obviously have star Edge James Pearce as well, who’s expected to be 3’n’out to the Draft after his upcoming junior year.
This should be Josh Heupel’s best team yet and their schedule is manageable (Alabama at home and Georgia on the road are the standouts). I think teams will struggle to corral their deep passing game while finding the Vol defense to be very capable. They travel to Norman early in the year and that game will be VERY indicative for both programs about how the season will go.
The Alabama pass defense
Based on the Alabama spring game, I have little doubt Kalen DeBoer will quickly have the Crimson Tide offense operating at a high level of play. In fact, I suspect Nick Saban was holding Jalen Milroe back due to the GOAT’s emphasis on turnover avoidance and struggles to replace Steve Sarkisian at offensive coordinator. DeBoer is going to bring a different kind of ball to Tuscaloosa.
However, Saban’s old defense is likely to be a massive casualty of the transition.
Beyond the challenges of replacing Saban and his staff with South Alabama’s head coach (Kane Wommack) on defense, the losses to Alabama’s pass defense personnel this offseason were considerable.
Amongst the departed…
That’s tough. Not only are they replacing four out of five starters in the nickel package, but they’re also replacing a number of the rising back-ups and the young centerpiece (Downs) who was likely to be the star of the 2024 unit. The fact the transfers listed above mostly went to SEC (or SEC-adjacent) programs testifies to their quality. These weren’t former blue chips flushing out of big time football after underperforming, they were talented players who left because the GOAT retired. So not only are the Tide rebuilding after losing two NFL cornerbacks but they’re rebuilding without the heir apparent at either position, or strong safety. Don’t sleep on their losses in the pass-rush either.
If/when Alabama struggles in 2024 it’s going to be due to their inability to reload in pass defense without Saban and his recruits.
The impact of helmet comms for veteran quarterbacks
I wrote this up earlier in the week , but the addition of helmet communications are going to be a big deal for teams with the means to exploit the new rules.
If you have a veteran quarterback with a strong command of your offensive system, the ability of the head coach to communicate with him on the field (up until 15 seconds remain on the clock) is going to be very valuable. It’ll help green quarterbacks too when coaches can give them reminders like, “they’re showing two-high but moving into Cover 3” or “make sure you don’t take a sack here,” and potentially avoid game changing mistakes.
However, the ability to give a veteran quarterback options for controlling the game or attacking a defense with high level communication is going to be pretty intense. The adjustments and remarked upon missed opportunities that used to come up in sideline adjustments can now occur, to a limited extent, during a drive. The ability to check into the right play will be much easier when coaches can quickly signal in the information to the quarterback. We may see a return to the huddle as a means to take advantage of these communications so quarterbacks can receive and relay a menu of plays in the huddle and check to the right one themselves at the line.
This is also going to benefit the teams with particularly good offensive coordinators. A smart offensive coach who’s good at adjusting on the fly to a defensive gameplan paired with a quarterback he’s had the chance to impart knowledge to is going to derive mega advantages in this format.
The SEC has become more and more offensively oriented and now with Saban departing and replaced by an offensive guru like DeBoer, it’s really materializing. Watch for that this season and if any team has great answers on defense for the challenges, they could be well poised to stand out. Otherwise, expect some of these quarterbacks to dominate.
The post What is the media missing about the upcoming SEC season? appeared first on On3 .
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