Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

It’s hard to believe that it’s time for my first college football column, but I couldn’t be more thrilled about. College football is right around the corner and preparation for it is starting to pick up huge steam.

SEC media days was last week, and now the question everyone wants to know is  who is going to be the conference champion. Wow the SEC is typically CFB’s deepest conference, I only see three possible teams winning this year and those are Alabama, Georgia and Auburn. The reasons why other usual contenders won’t contend this year is quite simple, it all comes down to quarterback play. Florida has represented the average east the last two seasons but they’ve skidded in each year on luck and what was left from Will Muschamp’s defense. If Will Grier had not gotten suspended and ultimately transferred, this could’ve been a different story, but until Florida gets solid QB play they won’t win the championship. The same can be said for LSU. It’s a new era in the bayou as Ed Orgeron officially takes over. I personally believe that Orgeron is the man for the job, because he fits LSU so well. However, while Orgeron has made several great moves so far as head coach until get gets a solid quarterback they won’t contend. Danny Etling is good enough to not lose you big games but he doesn’t have the game breaking talent to win a championship.

The East is Georgia’s for the taking. Jacob Eason will be entering his second season as the starter and he will have two all star running backs to hand off too in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. Kirby Smart’s defense will be as good as always.

Ultimately though, I believe the SEC will come down to whoever wins the iron bowl. It’s hard to argue against Alabama winning their fourth straight SEC title. Defensively, the Tide lost several stars, but as we’ve seen time and time again, all an Alabama defense ever does is reload. Offensively, Alabama returns the reigning SEC offensive player of the year in QB Jalen Hurts. Hurts was exposed in the playoffs last year for his lack of passing ability, but what would you expect out of a true freshman QB? Hurts is only going to get better, and having an all star talent around him like running back Bo Scarborough and Calvin Ridley is only going to help.

Auburn certainly looked the part of championship contender last season until injuries derailed all the momentum late in the year, and that was with Sean White at quarterback. Auburn now has Jarrett Stidham as their QB. It’s hard to not worry about the hype he’s getting after the Jeremy Johnson debacle. However, I think most will agree that he is going to live up to the hype. That helps out because history has shown that when a Gus Malzahn offense has a top notch quarterback, it’s hard to stop. What was a super young Auburn team last year will now be a year more experienced. Kamryn Pettway returns after rushing for over 1,000 yards last year in just nine games, as does a squad of sophomore receivers who saw time last year as freshman. Let’s not forget the defense. What was once Malzahn’s Achilles heel, turned into strength last year as Auburn’s defense was one of the top in the SEC. It’s shaping up to be a special Iron Bowl.