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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
SEC Spring Ball: Five burning questions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since Auburn and Mississippi State have already started practice, it’s not too early to talk spring football in the SEC. In fact, here are the five burning questions I have about the SEC as spring ball begins:
1. Can Georgia handle the hype? The Bulldogs will be in everybody’s top five in preseason and will be No. 1 on a lot of ballots come this summer. It’s been a long time since Georgia has been the SEC favorite and a preseason contender for the national championship. I wouldn’t expect to see players like QB Matthew Stafford and RB Knowshown Moreno getting a lot of work in spring practice. Everybody knows that they can do. Bottom line: Life is different when the the whole world is telling you how good your are. I’m anxious to see how Georgia handles it in the spring and summer.
2. Can Alabama find some receivers? The Crimson Tide returns nine starters on offense but receivers DJ Hall and Keith Brown are gone as new coordinator Jim McElwain installs a new offense. The replacements may have to come from the talented freshman class. One of those freshmen, Chris Jackson of McDonough (Henry County), graduated from high school early and is already enrolled at Alabama. Julio Jones, the nation’s best high school receiver, will arrive in August.
3. Will Steve Spurrier finally find his quarterback in Stephen Garcia? The head ball coach hung in there with Blake Mitchell, Chris Smelly and Tommy Beecher last season but he is still looking for somebody who can run his offense the way HE wants it run. This spring he’ll find out if Garcia is the guy. Garcia, a Florida kid who enrolled at South Carolina in January of 2007, might have played last season as a true freshman but he was arrested twice in a 16-day period in February and March. Spurrier has said publicly that one more strike and Garcia is out. Still, he’s the most talented quarterback the Gamecocks have.
4. What will Tennessee’s offense look like? Dave Clawson, the former head coach at Richmond, is the new offensive coordinator and it looks like junior Jonathon Crompton will replace Erik Ainge at quarterback. Clawson’s offenses put up some pretty impressive numbers at Richmond but consider this: With four out of five starters returning on the offensive line and with RB Arian Foster coming back to take a shot at the Tennessee career rushing record, don’t expect anything fancy. Foster, who had his knee scoped in January, may not do a whole lot in spring. He needs 654 yards to break the Tennessee record of 3,087 yards set by Travis Henry.
5. Who will be the Auburn quarterback? You’d have to say that Kodi Burns has a leg up on the job of running the spread offense of new coordinator Tony Franklin. Burns scored the winning touchdown in overtime in the win over Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. But keep an eye on junior college transfer Chris Todd. Todd started his career at Texas Tech and then transferred to a junior college when he lost the quarterback job to Graham Harrell. Todd is a better passer than Burns and has known Franklin and the principles of this offense since he was in high school. When spring practice started last Sunday Franklin said the quarterback race was wide open.
So what did I leave out? What’s your burning question going into spring practice?
Tomorrow we’ll look at the ACC.
SEC STARTING DATES FOR SPRING PRACTICE
Alabama (March 13)
Arkansas (April 3)
Auburn (started last Sunday)
Florida (March 19)
Georgia (March 3)
Kentucky (March 26)
LSU (Feb. 29)
Ole Miss (March 17)
Miss. State (started Monday)
South Carolina (March 19)
Tennessee (March 11)
Vanderbilt (March 11)
