Author: Alex Haddon

The SEC Football Blog loves everything about SEC football. If it's news - and it's interesting - we'll be publishing it, and remarking on it.

SEC Prediction: Will Arkansas ‘Hog’ The SEC West?

Between Bobby Petrino and Houston Nutt, the Arkansas Razorbacks have put together winning seasons for seven years out of the last 10, including a pretty wonderful 11-2 run in 2011. This year, many people are expecting nothing to change except the fact that Bobby Petrino’s out (penalized for his philandering ways), and beloved John L. Smith’s in with a 10-month contract. If Arkansas is half as a good as Smith is as a soundbite, they might make a run for the title! In fact, the AP and USA Today like the Hogs so much that they have a Top 10 ranking to start the 2012 season. But can they be better than that, or will the John L. Smith roadshow fall by

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SEC Prediction: Is Tennessee A Dark Horse for the SEC East this year?

If you haven’t heard, Derek Dooley’s out of his job as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. When? About December, 2012. We jest, but you get the point: Mr Dooley’s under huge pressure to get the 2012 right at Neyland Stadium after two years of debacle, and our thought is this: Shouldn’t we be thinking of the Vols as a dark horse for the division, rather than an also ran? LAST SEASON As awful as people who like you to think Tennessee was last year, we’d like to put this out there: The Vols were also hellish unlucky with injuries. They lost their best wide receiver Justin Hunter in their third  game of the season against Florida. Their QB, Tyler

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SEC Preseason Preview: Can Dan Mullen continue to take Mississippi State out of the doldrums?

When people think of the words: “Mississippi State”, they think of the word “Cowbell” rather than “Good football team”. This is rather harsh, bearing in mind the turnaround that Dan Mullen has put into Starkville in his last three years. The fanbase now EXPECTS to go bowling, because they’ve been to one for the last two years (which, for a team that had only been to one over the course of 2002-2009, it’s a miracle!), and high times are now behind the former University of Florida’s former offensive co-ordinator. They are going to tempt recruits with a $75m stadium expansion, which should see the sound of cowbells ring even louder across the State of Mississippi. LAST YEAR Was last year

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SEC Schedule: Top 10 In-Conference Games You MUST watch this season

Every year the SEC dominates other schools in bowl games (unless you’re Michigan State, but less said about that the better) quite simply because they have the most difficult conference. EVERY game is a bowl game,  a potential National Championship Game, or a big-time match-up. If you don’t believe us, ask CBS why – every year without fail – they always screen Florida vs Tennessee, even though both sides weren’t going to compete last year, and could possibly be put down as ‘afterthoughts’ for the last couple, at least. Anyway, here’s our Top 10 games (IN-CONFERENCE) on the SEC schedule. And there should be no surprises who’s going to be No.1…. 1) Alabama vs LSU (Nov 3) Night game. LSU

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So now Tyrann Mathieu CAN’T play for LSU again…

Tyrann Mathieu won’t ever be playing for the LSU Tigers again, according to school compliance director Bo Bahnsen. He said: “He’s permanently ineligible to play football at LSU. That’s definite. That’s what was said Friday.” Also Les Miles seemed in slightly more forgiving mode in a press conference on Tuesday, when he said: “I certainly am rooting for Ty and whatever his future is, but I’m not focused on him. I’ve got games to play.” He added: “I’ve got 104 guys that I have to be ready for. I know this is a very key time in (Mathieu’s) life, and I hope the decisions he makes are in his best interest for the long term. We’ll help any way we can.” He

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SEC Preseason Preview: Can Missouri Roar In The East?

Here’s a quick tip for you: Missouri will scare the heck out of the SEC East – especially when they play teams at night in Farot Field. Remember: This is a team that’s beaten No.1s in the past on home turf (Ohio State and Oklahoma in a monster night games in front of a rabid, unforgiving crowd) and really, really wants the chance to do more damage in the future. I spoke to a buddy at Georgia about his team’s chances and he said: “We’re scared. Missouri aren’t going to take any prisoners and our guys certainly picked a time to get thrown off the team and eat hash brownies”. I think we could echo that. But anyway, this is

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Tyrann Mathieu: What happens now?

Tyrann Mathieu was a gamechanger for the LSU Tigers. Ask Oregon. Ask Kentucky. Ask Arkansas. Ask West Virginia. Ask Georgia. And ask any team who purposefully threw away, kicked away, and punted away from LSU’s No. 7 in 2011, just to make sure that they didn’t get punished. Well, they aren’t going to have that problem in 2011, because Tyrann Mathieu managed to get himself thrown off LSU’s football team – at least for the 2012 season and possibly longer. And the sad news was that it was for testing positive for drugs – the same things that had dropped him into Les Miles’ bad books in 2011 for a couple of games. Now, Mathieu wants to ‘sit out’ the

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Why the SEC needs Bobby Petrino back

The SEC Football Blog was reading a Twitter conversation between ESPN’s SEC writer Edward Aschoff and SEC football writer for College Football News Russ Mitchell where they were discussing the firing of Bobby Petrino, Arkansas‘ former coach who was fired after some off-season shenanigans involving one of his assistants. Without wanting to go into a deep discussion about their Twitter conversation – here’s the Twitter page of Aschoff and here’s the Twitter page of Mitchell – Aschoff thinks that Petrino should have been fired, and Mitchell thinks that Petrino shouldn’t have. Anyway, here’s our opinion: The SEC really, really needs Bobby Petrino back – be it as an offensive co-ordinator, a quarterbacks coach, or even a head coach. Here’s why: Bobby

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Three SEC teams in ESPN’s Top 10 running games

ESPN has picked three SEC teams in their Top 10 running games in the country for 2012. Alabama (#2), LSU (#5) and South Carolina (#9) were the teams – which is hardly surprising that Alabama boast Eddie Lacy, LSU has Spencer Ware and Michael Ford, and South Carolina has perhaps the best of the lot – if he remains healthy – in Marcus Lattimore. The biggest factor, according to the website, is the fact that Alabama and LSU both return four starting offensive linesmen, while South Carolina brings back just two. The order is: 1) Southern California 2) Alabama 3) Oregon 4) Texas 5) LSU  6) Wisconsin 7) Georgia Tech 8) Stanford 9) South Carolina 10) Nebraska

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SEC Preseason Preview: Can Texas A&M succeed out west?

On July 1st, Texas A&M was officially recognised as a SEC school. To go with the big-time money that the Aggies will receive from being a SEC school – along with the celebration-by-association of six straight National Championships- Texas A&M fans now believe that they can attract top talent from Texas to College Station. But can they be a force in the SEC West, the SEC, and on the National Grid? What happened in 2011? Despite having 18 returning starters and an expectation that they would challenge Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas for a Big XII Championship, Texas A&M entered the land of Chokeaholics Anonymous. The Aggies led 11 games by double digits – YES, ELEVEN – but they were

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