Kentucky 2018 Preview: Will the Wildcats stay middling?

Mark Stoops is under pressure, but a different kind of pressure. Kentucky Football hasn’t had a coach with a winning percentage since Blanton Collier’s seven-year period between 1954 and 1961, but Stoops has led the program to back-to-back winning seasons – the first time that has happened since Rich Brooks had four straight (2006-2009). Now, with the coaching situation in Lexington more settled than most of his competition in the conference, Stoops is expected to step up a little. During SEC Media Days questions were asked about beating Florida – a team that it hasn’t beaten in 31 years, as well as the potential of pressing on from back-to-back 7-6 years. OUTLOOK There’s a lot of love for RB Benny

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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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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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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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Saban and Smart go head-to-head on transfers

Nick Saban and Kirby Smart have gone head-to-head on transfers at the SEC Spring Meetings this week. The Alabama head coach has long been derided for denying players the right to go where they want – particularly inside the SEC. This year he’s getting the heat for not allowing graduate student (and back-up center) Brandon Kennedy the right to transfer to Auburn or Tennessee. This comes a couple of years after the Maurice Smith debacle, where the SEC eventually had to intervene and let the player transfer to Georgia. Smart wants to do quite the opposite – and let players transfer to whatever school they wish. Typically, Saban shrugged his shoulders during a press conference and said that it is not

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Top 10 SEC Games of 2017

It’s a strange few weeks in college football. It’s not the summer yet so we haven’t seen SEC players get arrested for robbery, possession of weed, public intoxication, and fights. Spring practice has ended so there are plenty of questions. Players who aren’t going to start are looking to graduate to other programs. We think it’s a childish approach, but then again, that’s just us. So we decided on a retrospective. Here are your top SEC games of the 2017 season. Georgia 54, Oklahoma 48: Down 31-17 at the half of the National Championship Semi-Final, Georgia takes the game to double-overtime before Sony Michel takes it to the house for a 27-yard touchdown. Talk about redemption for Michel: It was his

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SEC teams and their No.1 overall NFL draft picks

A lot of players who come out of the SEC make good NFL players. Some even make Hall of Fame players. But it’s strange to think that the biggest college football powerhouse in the SEC – Alabama – hasn’t had a No.1 overall draft pick since 1948. So it got us thinking: When was the last time every SEC school had a first overall pick? For some it was very recently (Myles Garrett, Texas A&M 2017), and for some (ie Arkansas, Florida, Missouri), they are still waiting. There are a couple of SEC times who haven’t had one in their history. Then there are some schools who seem to churn them out. So here we go: Alabama: 1948 (Harry Gilmer)

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10 SEC players we can’t wait to see in the NFL

The SEC has been a goldmine for the NFL. Players from all over the South (and Missouri) descend to the Professional-land, and every year, the leagues are stacked. Some are megastars (Odell Beckham Jr, Mark Ingram), some are bit players, but all of them played for the most passionate conference in college football. To off-quote New York: If you can make there, you can make it anywhere. Anyway, the SEC Football Blog has identified 10 players that we can’t wait to tear up the professional leagues – mainly because they are so damned exciting. Oh, and Alabama and Georgia fans: We weren’t going to put all of your players onto this list, so apologies if some of your competitors make

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Tennessee fires AD John Currie, replaces him with Fulmer

If there is a celebration to be had in Knoxville at the moment, then surely today is an early tonic: Tennessee has just fired John Currie, its athletic director. They have now replaced him with Phil Fulmer, who was run out of Knoxvville as head coach in 2008, despite winning the Vols a National Championship. Although Currie was regularly attacked for the Greg Schiano incident, where he reportedly offered the Ohio State DC the job, and then had VolNation throw it back in face with such force that he had to rescind it again, he really should have left his post some time beforehand. Under his eight-month guidance, Tennessee football was a shambles. The Vols didn’t win a SEC game and finished the

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