Category: Vanderbilt

Mississippi State 2018 Preview: New coach, new offense?

If you’re a fan of offense, then Mississippi State got one of the hires of the season when they brought in Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead to replace Dan Mullen as its new head coach. When he was in Happy Valley, he made Saquon Barkley a top-five NFL draft pick, Trace McSorley one of the best quarterbacks in college football, and a juggernaut, lightning-quick offense that jumped from 42nd to 19th from 2016 to 2017, and ranked 12th against conference in touchdowns. Moorhead immediately comes across as a pretty affable guy – something that we’ll find interesting how this translates to the cowbells and stress that comes with a SEC job. It might not be his first job (before he got

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Tennessee Preview 2018: Will the Vols get off the mat?

2017 was an awful, awful year for the Tennessee Volunteers. Butch Jones was such an unpopular coach that signs saying “Fire Butch Jones” went viral. At games not involving Jones or Tennessee. When he was fired after the team lost to Kentucky, there was an audible sense of relief. You know, for two seconds until the Knoxville roadshow went on overdrive as they tried to find a successor (remember the Greg Schiano incident?) – with former Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt eventually coming through the mire to claim the top job. This year, there is every possibility that the Vols will be the basement-dwellers of their division. They aren’t a whole lot better than the terrible 4-8 team that stunk up the

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Florida incoming freshman player arrested (again)

Florida incoming freshman cornerback – and four-star recruit Justin Watkins has been arrested for the second time in three months. He has been suspended indefinitely by coach Dan Mullen. Watkins’ first arrest was trespassing on another high school’s grounds that he didn’t attend (which isn’t a big one), but a quadruple felony. This included two first-degree counts of kidnap (false imprisonment), a third-degree count of domestic battery by strangulation, according to records. The freshman was offered by Alabama, LSU, Florida State, Clemson and Texas before deciding to go to Gainseville. Looks as though he’s going somewhere else after this short stint.  

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LSU Preview: Can Ed Orgeron save his job?

Thanks to the firing of 50% of the SEC coaches, Ed Orgeron is on the hottest seat in the SEC. In fact, after a season when LSU was awful offensively, failed to beat Alabama, didn’t even figure in the SEC West AND was upset by Troy to boot, it’s a small miracle that he stayed in Baton Rouge for the 2018 season. Yes, the 9-4 record may have stood out with a 6-2 record in the SEC, but if you look deeply into the season, the Tigers were more unimpressive than impressive all season long – particularly on points-scoring side of the ball. Despite all of this, LSU had seven picks in the 2018 NFL Draft (yes, even Danny Etling was

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Missouri 2018 Preview: Will Drew Lock light up the offense?

Midway through the 2017 season, Missouri was the Titanic. The ship was leaky, the wide receivers were dropping catches like there was no tomorrow, and everything was bad. After the Tigers were slapped by Auburn, head coach Barry Odom became the laughing stock of the SEC – and college football – by giving a sermon. But after they rattled off six games in a row at the end of the season (before they lost to Texas in the Texas Bowl), there is a degree of confidence for Missouri. And that’s been heightened by the decision by quarterback Drew Lock to stay. The press doesn’t believe it. They believe that Missouri will finish 4th in the SEC East. The Mizzodcast – one

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Can Jimbo Fisher be a hit for Texas A&M in his first season?

  Texas A&M has a new sheriff in town. His new badge is an expensive one – $75 million (the badge is meant to last 10 years), but he arrived in the A&M-colored cowboy boots on the big plane. He did some good recruitin’, and Texas A&M should be primed to battle for the SEC West…..next year. This year, Jimbo Fisher – prized from Florida State where he won a National Championship – will inherit a team that lost four out of its last six games – including a 55-52 loss to mighty Wake Forest in its bowl game – and finished 4th in the SEC West with a mediocre 7-6 record, with a 4-4 SEC record. Recruiting wasn’t fantastic

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SEC Preview: Can South Carolina win the SEC East?

South Carolina has some buzz about the possibility of causing an upset or two in the SEC East, and finishing second in a division. This has been helped by the return of star Deebo Samuel, as well as 15 other returning starters on offense and nine more on defense. Last season the Gamecocks finished 9-4, with a 5-3 record in the SEC. This also included beating Michigan 26-19 in the Outback Bowl. OFFENSE As we mentioned, Deebo Samuel returns as a redshirt senior after breaking his leg in the loss against Kentucky in the early season. The Gamecocks were leading that game until Samuel’s injury. He had 15 receptions, 250 yards and 3 touchdowns against NC State and UK before that

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SEC Media Days: The important parts

We missed the fact that SEC Media Days weren’t in Birmingham, Alabama this year. As much as people love Atlanta (apart from the terrible traffic, an even worse airport and a city climate during summer that you wouldn’t wish on Gary Danielson), it just doesn’t feel like SEC territory. SEC teams – apart from Vanderbilt in Nashville – are in small college towns all over the Southeast. The big cities don’t seem to suit them – unless they are getting paid millions to play season openers, hosting a Championship Game, or winning National Championships. Of course, the SEC regulars were there. Bespeckled SEC homer Paul Finebaum, fresh from a re-up in his contract after his agent started rumors that he was

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SEC Media Day quotes: Texas A&M, LSU, Kentucky

It was the first day of SEC Media Days on Tuesday, and there were a couple of changes: Firstly, the crazy train rolled up to Atlanta rather than Hoover, Alabama, and second, there seem to be 401 new head coaches. Thankfully, they are all used to crazy people, so walking in the first shouldn’t have been too much of a problem. On the first day of FinebaumStock, Texas A&M’s head coach Jimbo Fisher, LSU’s Ed Orgeron and Kentucky’s Mark Stoops took the stage to face off against such questions as: “Do you feel good about your team this year?” and “What’s it like coming to the SEC?” and “How much pressure is there to beat Alabama win the SEC West?”. Anyway,

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Alabama boots former four-star linebacker

Alabama has booted sophomore linebacker VanDarius Cowan for a violating team rules. Cowan’s issues included getting arrested for a fight in Tuscaloosa where he punched a 26-year old man in the face, and he was also sidelined from some of Alabama’s Spring Practice for his poor academics – something that’s quite a feat at the 110th university nationally for academics. “VanDarius has been dismissed from the team and is no longer a part of our football program due to a violation of team rules,” Saban said in a statement. “Each of us has a responsibility to represent The University of Alabama in a first-class way, and failure to meet those standards can’t be tolerated. We wish VanDarius the very best

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