Where do you all think the SEC teams will finish in each division? Where will UT finish? Here are my lousy sure-to-be-wrong predictions!
SEC East
3. South Carolina. South Carolinas offense looks surprisingly good right now. Jake Bentley has emerged as a legit QB and SCe has a stable of top-notch Wide Receivers. Steve Spurrier may have resigned abruptly after a disappointing season in 2015, but he did leave a lot of good in place for Muschamp. Muschamp is also rather conveniently known as a guy that can mold top-notch defenses. Overall, I think its a recipe for success. South Carolina is definitely in the conversation for most underrated SEC team this preseason. Id consider SCe a good dark horse candidate to win the SEC East; underestimate them at your own peril.
Well, you weren't too off-target in your prediction, but how you formed it was quite a bit. For starters - "Steve Spurrier may have resigned abruptly after a disappointing season in 2015, but he did leave a lot of good in place for Muschamp":
Uhh, no. No, he didn't. Spurrier seemed to be intent on leaving the program in the same shape it was in when first took it over - with a distinct void in talent. He started the disassembling well before he chose to quit mid-season: IMO after USC won their first 11-win season, that was when Spurrier started kicking back and looking towards retirement, and riding the gravy train to its completion, or only as far as everyone stayed on the high the 11 win seasons gave them, and then jump the tracks at the first scent of community concern over what the hell he was doing.
He had quality talent on the roster that still had seasons after that 2011 season, and got two more 11-win seasons out of them, but that was that. In 2014 - the season Post-Clowney - the first glimpse of just how unplugged Spurrier's staff had become, was when then-DC Lorenzo Ward proclaimed in the off-season that USC's defense would be as much if not more a 3-4 scheme than the base 4-3 it had been for years, due to the fact that the roster had a plethora of LBs, but was suddenly somehow DL-poor. He would then proceed to sign up for seminars on how to coach a 3-4 defense, since he had never really done it before. Ward was South Carolina's top recruiter for the defense....
Muschamp took over a Gamecock program that went 3-9 the previous season: had the 12th-ranked SEC Scoring Offense and 11th Total Offense, and was dead last in the SEC in both Scoring Defense and Total Defense. That was what Spurrier left Muschamp.
He started rebuilding the program by playing the guys he and his staff brought into the program. The skill players on offense were all underclassmen his staff mostly brought in: Dowdle, Edwards, Bentley, the Smiths. Samuels was a Spurrier product. Hurst broke out as a TE under Muschamp.
On defense was more of the same. Skai Moore, Allen-Williams, and Fenton were holdovers from the previous regime. But others such as Wonnum, King, Brunson, Thomas are all Muschamp products.
Muschamp has improved the defense into a top 5-6 SEC defense, and they are in solid position to improve even more next season. The offense has the bigger question regarding USC finding a competent OC that will fully utilize the (now) experienced talent at his disposal. He needs to be able to develop the QBs (Roper failed at this), and the OL needs also to continue to solidify, but there's definite talent there. Because of all the youth being played, all WRs and RBs again return for the 3rd straight season, to go along with Bentley.
The OL lose two OL plus a veteran reserve, but those weren't the most consistent, and they already have possible replacements that have played due to injuries over the past 2 seasons. The depth behind the projected starters will have very little game experience however...