At long last, the winter is over. I’m not talking about a winter of snow and shivering temperatures. I’m talking about the winter that spans between the final college football game of the last season until the first game of the next season regardless of the weather outside.
College football is back and in the Southeastern Conference it starts on Thursday night when South Carolina plays host to North Carolina, and Ole Miss plays at Vanderbilt in a rare early-season conference game.
There are so many subplots to this SEC football season. Can Alabama win a third consecutive national championship? Can the SEC furnish the national champion for an eighth straight year?
Will the SEC’s string of four Heisman Trophy winners in the past six years be extended? Will Jadeveon Clowney make a strong run at becoming the first defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy since Michigan’s Charles Woodson claimed the distinct honor in 1997?
Who will be the SEC’s best quarterback—Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, Alabama’s AJ McCarron or Georgia’s Aaron Murray? How will the four new coaches fare in their first year in the conference? Will any SEC football coach be fired before the end of the season?
Regardless, it is time to make a few predictions. Let’s start with the aforementioned storylines.
First, the chances of Alabama winning a third consecutive national title are slim. It’s not that Alabama isn’t going to be good enough. The Crimson Tide will be really good. The problem is that there are several really good teams in the SEC. So, no, the Tide will not win a third straight crystal ball.
The chances are that the SEC national championship streak will end as well. Again, not that Alabama, Georgia, Florida, LSU or Texas A&M won’t be good enough, but all good things must come to an end and this will be the year that someone else wins it all. And remember, the rest of the nation will be pulling hard for anybody other than an SEC team to be the last team standing.
I hate to be a downer, but there will not be another Heisman winner to come out of the SEC this season although a couple of players will be good enough to capture the award, namely Aaron Murray, T. J. Yeldon, AJ McCarron or Clowney. Again, the anti-SEC sentiment could come into play here although the pro-Clowney (or rather the pro-defensive player) sentiment will make the South Carolina defensive end the highest SEC finisher.
As far as the quarterbacks go, Murray will have the stats and will get the nod unless McCarron manages to lead Alabama into the national title game again. Even if Alabama doesn’t win the national championship game, if McCarron makes his third straight appearance it would be hard not to crown him the best quarterback in the conference. So where does this leave Manziel? Even if his autograph parties don’t sidetrack him, he’s due a letdown.
As for the new coaches in the league, all four will have good years. Malzahn’s Auburn Tigers should surprise this year. Mark Stoops will show improvement with the Kentucky Wildcats. Butch Jones will improve Tennessee, but the Vols will not quite be up to challenger status just yet. Bret Bielema will turn Arkansas around in a hurry, but being in the SEC West will hold the Razorbacks back from contending just yet. So for a report card, all four of the new coaches will get passing grades.
No SEC coach will be fired before the season is over, but if Missouri struggles in its second year in the SEC, Gary Pinkel could be a candidate for an early pink slip.
The Crystal Ball returns this week after a strong 2012 season. Picking SEC games gets harder every year as the conference gets stronger and more balanced. Here’s how the first week will go according to the Crystal Ball, 2013:
On Thursday night South Carolina will get off on the right foot by beating North Carolina. South Carolina has all the makings of a championship team this season, starting with Jadeveon Clowney and experienced quarterbacks Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson. And of course, there is the Steve Spurrier factor: South Carolina 24, North Carolina 14.
Ole Miss will end Vanderbilt’s seven-game winning streak with a Rebel victory behind the passing combination of Bo Wallace to Donte Moncrief, a duo we expected to do great things the entire season. Ole Miss 27, Vanderbilt 24.
Saturday predictions will come later in the week.