SEC preseason power rankings: The top half
- Wyeth Wilson
- Apr 19, 2015
- 6 min read
For the second season in a row, a team from the SEC did not win the national championship.
But despite not winning it all, the SEC still reigns supreme in the college football world. Here's an early look at how teams one through seven stack up for the 2015 season:
1a. Auburn
This might be surprising to see the Tigers at number one, but the reasoning is pretty simple.
It’s easy to forget that Auburn is only one season removed from a BCS National Championship Game appearance after a disappointing 2014 season.
The Tigers finished 8-5 (4-4 SEC) in a season where they were ranked as high as number two in the country (Week 7).
The main problem for the Tigers last season was their defense, as they allowed 32.8 points per game in SEC play. Gus Malzahn went for an immediate fix and made a great hire by going out and getting former Florida head coach and defensive specialist Will Muschamp.
Muschamp will make an immediate impact on Auburn’s defense and Malzahn’s high-powered offense will do the rest to make Auburn a favorite in the SEC West, and a national championship contender.
Once again in 2015, the path to Atlanta for the SEC West will go through the Iron Bowl.
The winner of the Iron Bowl in late November will most likely advance to the SEC Championship game and then onto bigger things from there.
1b. Alabama
Alabama is ranked as 1b because the Tide and the Tigers are pretty much interchangeable.
Both teams will be ranked highly near the seasons end and the Iron Bowl on Nov. 28 will have a large impact on who wins the SEC West.
Alabama is coming off a 12-2 (7-1 SEC) season where they were upset in the College Football Playoff by eventual national champion Ohio State.
The 2014 Alabama team was different than Alabama teams from years past because of the high-powered passing game the Tide possessed last season, which can be attributed to offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin.
Though some have criticized Kiffin’s lack of calling running plays, the Tide’s offense did improve in 2014 as compared to 2013.
Usually Alabama just reloads every season with talent after losing star players, but this season that may not be the case.
Replacing players like Blake Sims, Amari Cooper, and T.J. Yeldon (three of the top four offensive producers of yardage in 2014) is not something that just happens overnight, even with another number one recruiting class.
And its not just those three players leaving Tuscaloosa. Alabama returns just 11 starters overall, ranked 100th in the country.
The Tide will be once again be in playoff contention in 2015, but don’t be surprised if they drop an extra game or two this season.
3. Georgia
Georgia gets the number three ranking here, but teams three through ten on this list could be rearranged in many different ways.
After a 10-3 (6-2 SEC) season, the Bulldogs will get lots of preseason hype leading into the 2015 season. At the times during the 2014 season, Georgia looked like the best team in the country.
Blowout wins over Clemson, Missouri, Auburn, and Louisville made the Bulldogs look like a playoff caliber team, but then there were games like the loss to South Carolina and the disaster against Florida.
The losses of Todd Gurley, Chris Conley, and Hutson Mason will hurt, but the Bulldogs have players ready to step up, including 2014 SEC Freshman of the Year Nick Chubb.
If Georgia does make a run at the College Football Playoff in 2015, an easy schedule will not be the reason.
UGA draws Auburn (on the road) and Alabama from the SEC West, and has road games at Tennessee and the annual rivalry game at Georgia Tech.
With offensive coordinator Mike Bobo leaving for Colorado State, the offense will be a bit of a question mark heading into the season, but if the Bulldogs can figure that out, they will be a team to watch this season.
4. Arkansas
After just a 7-6 (2-6 SEC) 2014 season, it may be unexpected to see the Razorbacks at number four.
But really, the Razorbacks were close to winning many more games in 2014 and improved significantly over the course of the season.
Four of Arkansas’s six SEC losses (vs. Texas A&M, vs. Alabama, at Mississippi State, and at Missouri) were decided by an average of just 5.5 points. The Razorbacks also had big shutout wins over two ranked teams, LSU and Ole Miss (17-0 and 30-0 respectively).
Besides being in the toughest division in college football, the SEC West, there really aren’t many reasons why Arkansas can’t be a double-digit win team.
Last season, the Razorbacks had the tenth ranked defense in the country in points allowed per game (19.2), and had a high-powered rushing attack that gave nearly every one of their opponents trouble.
Combine an experienced quarterback returning (senior Brandon Allen), two NFL level running backs (Alex Collins and Jonathan Williams), and one of the best defenses in college football, and you get an Arkansas Razorback team that could be one of the biggest surprises in college football of the 2015 season.
5. Tennessee
Once again, it’s hard to put a team that finished 7-6 (3-5 SEC) this high in the rankings, but watching Tennessee play after the addition of Josh Dobbs, it’s difficult to not be optimistic about the Vols.
After Dobbs took over for the injured Justin Worley in late October, the Vols’ points per game output increased from 24.4 to 34.2 and Tennessee went 4-1 in games where Dobbs started.
The Tennessee offense, which will feature Dobbs, combined with running back tandem Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara and receivers like Marquez North and Pig Howard, is not going to be a comforting sight for opposing defenses in 2015.
If the offensive line can progress from last season (which according to head coach Butch Jones they did in spring practice), the Vols will have one of the top offenses in the SEC.
The defense doesn’t look bad either, as UT only loses three starters and stocked up on the defensive line in the 2015 recruiting class to complement 2014 freshman All-SEC honoree Derek Barnett.
Overall, Tennessee returns 18 starters from last season, sixth in the country.
After another top 5 recruiting class from Butch Jones, Tennessee is looking more and more like a top tier SEC team. Tennessee will still be young in 2015, but will have enough experience and talent to compete for the SEC East title.
6. Ole Miss
After winning its first seven games, the Ole Miss Rebels were flying high.
They had already knocked off ranked teams Alabama and Texas A&M and were ranked number three themselves. Then it went downhill for the Rebels.
They dropped four of their final six games by an average of 19 points, including getting destroyed by TCU in the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl, 42-3. The Rebels finished 9-4 (5-3 SEC).
Despite not showing up against TCU, Ole Miss’s defense was the reason for their success in 2014 and potential success in 2015.
The Rebels lose just four starters from a defense that allowed only 16 points per game in 2014.
The defense will help Ole Miss in 2015, but an offense that was nothing spectacular last season will have to step up.
Former Clemson quarterback Chad Kelly, who transferred to Ole Miss in December, could be the answer. The junior Kelly will compete with redshirt sophomores Ryan Buchanan and DeVante Kincade for the job in the offseason.
The schedule won’t make it easy for Ole Miss to win the SEC West this season with road games at Alabama, Auburn, and Mississippi State, but the Rebels are still a team to watch in a division that pretty much any of the seven teams could win.
7. LSU
LSU is a difficult team to predict. The Tigers could easily be in the top five of these rankings, but could also be as low as number nine.
LSU is coming off of an 8-5 (4-4 SEC) season where at times they looked like a top ten team, and at other times looked like the worst team in the SEC West.
The Tigers had good wins over Wisconsin and Ole Miss, but did not play well in losses to Auburn, Arkansas, and in the Music City Bowl against Notre Dame.
LSU is 29th in the nation in returning starters with 15, which includes guys like Leonard Fournette, Malachi Dupre, and Travin Dural. Also returning are quarterbacks Anthony Jennings and Brandon Harris.
The quarterback battle in Baton Rouge will be one to watch in the offseason leading up to 2015.
Jennings started all but one game (Auburn) last season, but was not all that impressive over the course of the season, throwing for 1,611 yards and 11 touchdowns with a completion percentage of 48.9 percent.
Harris, a dual-threat quarterback, saw action in eight games in 2014, sometimes just for running purposes.
Harris has a good shot to win the job, and if he can progress well, then LSU will have a better shot at competing for the SEC West.
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