At last, the coast is clear to make grand proclamations about the upcoming SEC football season. The transfer portal has closed, at least for departures, and there are no big fish on the market, at least big enough to be called season-changing. So as we unwind this offseason and take a fresh look around, there are two grand proclamations to be made:<\/p>\n
1. The SEC\u2019s two best teams are clearly Texas and Georgia, and in that order.<\/p>\n
2. After that, it\u2019s wide open.<\/p>\n
Too boring to simply proclaim that the two best teams are the two that made the conference championship game and were the last two SEC teams in the College Football Playoff? Well, sorry. It\u2019s just the obvious conclusion, especially after a spring that saw both programs solidify their spots, especially through the portal.<\/p>\n
Too easy an out, when predicting third place and onward, that a glut of candidates exists and none is a clear favorite? Sorry again, and the caveat is hereby issued that inevitably some team will emerge, perhaps even to challenge or leapfrog Texas and Georgia. Perhaps multiple teams.<\/p>\n
But picking which team or teams those will be requires a level of confidence that the facts on the ground don\u2019t match. There are plenty of candidates. There are many flaws among them. There will be carnage in an SEC schedule that saw plenty of it last year, and this year\u2019s slate is essentially the same as 2024\u2019s, just with the home sites flipped.<\/p>\n
That could include Texas and Georgia, which meet on Nov. 15 in Athens. They met in October last year and still managed to see each other again in Atlanta. That they could do so again was buttressed by their offseasons.<\/p>\n
Texas<\/p>\n
In perhaps the smoothest quarterback transition ever, Arch Manning steps in after two years of occasional starts for Quinn Ewers, who played well for Texas but wasn\u2019t so irreplaceable that the NFL deigned to pick him in the first six rounds of last week\u2019s draft. The Longhorns then armed Manning this spring with help from the Bay Area: receiver Emmet Mosley V (Stanford) and tight end Cal Endries (Cal). This was with Ryan Wingo and DeAndre Moore, both of whom finished top-five on last year\u2019s team in receiving yards, also back.<\/p>\n
On defense, Texas signed five defensive linemen between the two portal periods and could have one of the best front sevens in college football. Between that, the projected passing game and the program\u2019s status as the only team to make the last two CFPs \u2014 oh, and a manageable schedule \u2014 it\u2019s easy to pick the Longhorns as national preseason No. 1.<\/p>\n
Georgia<\/p>\n
Kirby Smart has never been a heavy portal guy, preferring to use it strategically. This year\u2019s portal haul is along those lines, but if Georgia ends up returning to the national championship game for the third time in five years, transfers may be a key reason.<\/p>\n
The post-winter window was successful enough. Georgia needed receivers and got them: Noah Thomas (Texas A&M) for the outside and Zachariah Branch (USC) for the slot, plus Branch\u2019s brother Zion and two others for depth at safety.<\/p>\n
But the post-spring window may have been just as big. Elo Modozie (Army) could start right away, and tailback Josh McCray (Illinois) gives the Bulldogs an experienced tailback, which was badly needed after Trevor Etienne went pro.<\/p>\n
These weren\u2019t eye-popping, multi-million-dollar deals, but they shored up weak spots. And just as importantly, Georgia didn\u2019t lose any key players in the post-spring window and didn\u2019t suffer any long-term injuries in spring practice. Georgia\u2019s roster is now fortified for another national championship run, with things seeming to depend on two spots: starting quarterback Gunner Stockton and a young offensive line. The theme of spring practice was that the team feels good about Stockton.<\/p>\n
Everybody elseThe candidates to take a leap forward<\/p>\n
Several name-brand programs have been down for a year or more but are primed to make a move, and one or two of them will. But which ones?<\/p>\n
Oklahoma should gain buzz as the season draws closer. This program projected extreme urgency this offseason, bringing in ex-Senior Bowl executive Jim Nagy as general manager, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle from Washington State and two big offensive additions in each portal window: quarterback John Mateer (Washington State) in the winter and running back Jaydn Ott (California) in the spring. The offensive line, the weak point last year, was fortified by Stanford\u2019s Jake Maikkula and Western Carolina\u2019s Derek Simmons. The receivers could get better just by being healthy. The defense could be good just because Brent Venables is still in charge.<\/p>\n
Auburn is intriguing. Hugh Freeze has spent his first two years upgrading the roster, with a new quarterback (Jackson Arnold from Oklahoma) and receivers Eric Singleton (Georgia Tech) and Horatio Fields (Wake Forest) arriving from the portal this offseason, among other key pieces.<\/p>\n
Florida finished strong last year and has a potential game-changing quarterback, as long as DJ Lagway\u2019s shoulder is healthy.<\/p>\n
LSU has plenty of offensive firepower for quarterback Garrett Nussmeier going into his second year as the starter. The question, as it\u2019s been for a couple of years, is the defense.<\/p>\n
These are four programs \u2014 Oklahoma, Auburn, Florida, LSU \u2014 that based on name brand would not surprise anyone by making a leap. The question is how reasonably high they can leap, especially Oklahoma from 6-7 and Auburn from 5-7.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s CFP near-misses<\/p>\n
Note: This is not, repeat not, to put these teams behind the above teams in any preseason expectations. These are simply the SEC teams that were ranked in the final CFP rankings but didn\u2019t make the field, plus Texas A&M, which was in the SEC championship race until the final weekend.<\/p>\n
Alabama is still Alabama, with plenty of talent on hand and a coach who has won everywhere he\u2019s been. But Kalen DeBoer has a new quarterback (Ty Simpson), and the way the Tide finished last season didn\u2019t leave a great impression.<\/p>\n
South Carolina is coming off a breakthrough season, and with quarterback LaNorris Sellers (and edge Dylan Stewart) many things are possible. But the Gamecocks did lose some key pieces.<\/p>\n
Ole Miss has to replace quarterback Jaxson Dart and other standouts, but QB Austin Simmons looked good in limited duty last year, and Lane Kiffin has remained active in the portal.<\/p>\n
Eli Drinkwitz has gone 10-3 and 11-2 the past two years and has earned some leeway at Missouri. He may need it this year after losing quarterback Brady Cook, receiver Luther Burden and other key starters. Then again, Mizzou has remained active in the portal and has recruited pretty well, so there may be no step back.<\/p>\n
Texas A&M was better in the first year of the Mike Elko era and looks solid on both sides of the ball. The question is how far quarterback Marcel Reed can take the Aggies.<\/p>\n
Tennessee: In its own category<\/p>\n
It may be that Nico Iamaleava\u2019s spring departure for UCLA is a galvanizing moment for the program. Perhaps the locker room is now rallied around Josh Heupel and his staff, spurring something positive that\u2019s hard to quantify.\u00a0 But either way, trading Iamaleava for Joey Aguilar does appear to be a step down, especially considering Aguilar has to learn a new system in a few months. Prior to Iamaleava\u2019s exit, Tennessee wasn\u2019t going to start the season as a top-10 team. The defense has the pieces to be good again, and Heupel\u2019s offense, fortified by Duke transfer tailback Star Thomas, could still do well. But another CFP appearance appears too much to ask.<\/p>\n
And finally, the you-never-know set<\/p>\n