ESPN SEC football analyst Matt Stinchcomb took the time to talk some SEC football at 2017 SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama to help preview the year ahead.
It’s the middle of July down South. That means it’s about that time to start getting fired up for the upcoming 2017 SEC football season. The 2017 SEC Football Media Days are being held this week at the Wynfrey Hotel at Hoover, Alabama. All 14 SEC schools will take their turn to speak with the media.
On Monday morning, I had the pleasure of speaking with former Georgia Bulldogs standout and SEC football analyst for ESPN Matt Stinchcomb about some of the burning questions surrounding SEC football. We looked at the year ahead, trying to see if anybody can honestly dethrone the Alabama Crimson Tide for the 2017 SEC Championships.
Overall, it looks to be a great year for offensive talent across the league. Just about every SEC school has a dynamic running back talent or two. The quarterback position looks to be vastly improved from the year before. It’ll be interesting to see who rises to the top in the SEC to join the likes of presumably Alabama.
John Buhler, FanSided.com: Matt, you’re here with the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. What can you tell us about the good work you’re doing with Allstate and who are some of the nominees out of the SEC for this year’s team?
Matt Stinchcomb, ESPN SEC football analyst: Well, today during Media Days to kick things off, we thought what better way to do it than to share with everyone really who the nominees are. There’s 12 out of the conference this year out of 146 nominees we had earlier. We’ll see how many of these guys actually make the 22-person roster.
Only 11 of them will come from the FBS level. The other 11 will come from the FCS ranks, all the way down to the NAIA. The whole idea is to make sure that these guys who are doing tremendous work in their respective communities, on their campuses, sometimes even in other countries get the recognition they deserve, to encourage others to pursue this recognition.
The 12 guys, some of them are household names, many of them are contributing to their teams on the field, but all of them are contributing in some form of fashion to their respective programs. Minkah Fitzpatrick of Alabama, Frank Ragnow — largely thought to be the best center in the game — out of Arkansas. Aaron Davis, a defensive back who was a former walk-on, earned a scholarship and now starts for the University of Georgia. They’re the East Division favorite.
Everyone of these guys recognizes as important as football is in their lives, it’s not everything. There are other ways that they can contribute. That’s what this team is all about. It’s giving that type of recognition for the work they’re doing.
FS: To me, it seems like Alabama and everybody else. If the Crimson Tide don’t win the SEC Championship, who do you see potentially getting in their way?
Stinchcomb: If Alabama doesn’t win it, I think there’s two, maybe three, other teams you can consider. If they don’t actually make it to the championship game due to not winning their division championship, I think that might come at the hands of Auburn. I think if Auburn makes it to the championship, then there’s obviously a very good chance they end up escaping the SEC as its ultimate champion.
The other ones being the candidates out of the East Division: Georgia or Florida. I think most folks coming into the season feel as if Georgia has the strongest chance to come out of that East Division as its champion. But if it’s not Alabama, there is a very good chance that Auburn is the second best team in this conference.
FS: One thing that stood out to me when looking at the SEC rosters is the talent across the board at the running back position. Do any of these running backs stand out to you? Who do you think is poised for a massive 2017?
Stinchcomb: The two backs out of Georgia should have a better season than they did a year ago. Both are former all-conference performers, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. You know a guy not many people talk about that could have a better year is [Missouri’s] Damarea Crockett. He’s great. Benny Snell in his true freshman campaign did really, really well up in Kentucky in what became a more run-oriented offense.
Rico Dowdle at South Carolina was a guy they weren’t necessarily counting on that really kind of came on over the course of that season. So there’s talent top to bottom, there’s no arguing that. Of course, you can always run down the roster of the folks in Tuscaloosa as well. Damien Harris, obviously Bo Scarbrough, Josh Jacobs — all very, very talented in their backfield.
And maybe the best singular talent in the entire conference is Derrius Guice at LSU, with the way he was able to put together a 1,300+ yard performance in relief of Leonard Fournette. So there’s tons of talent at the running position as usual in the Southeastern Conference.
FS: After a few years of lackluster quarterback play in the SEC, it seems the position has gotten back its bearings. Who is the best of the bunch and who could be poised for a breakout season?
Stinchcomb: Well, you know there’s a lot of guys returning. Nick Fitzgerald is getting a lot of chatter out of Mississippi State. Obviously, his ability to run and the comparisons that have been drawn, even the comments that we’ve heard out of Starkville that as good as Dak Prescott was as a runner, he was more opportunistic than anything else. Nick Fitzgerald is an even better runner at the quarterback position than Dak Prescott and you can see that this past season. Ultimately, he’ll want to and need to evolve in the passing game, but that’s true of everyone returning this year.
Look at some of the other contenders. The Stephen Johnsons of the world; Drew Lock at Missouri; Jacob Eason needs to step up at Georgia. Shea Patterson is a guy that’s very intriguing. He’s kind of Johnny Manziel-like in his skill set. But the Offensive Player of the Year was a true freshman quarterback out of Alabama in Jalen Hurts. Is he going to be able to build and take another step forward in what has already been a pretty precocious career at the University of Alabama?
And then of course, Jarrett Stidham is the wild card. He’s coming in as a transfer, having most recently played at Baylor and have heard nothing but rave reviews about how incredibly accurate he is as a passer and as athletic of a runner when he has to be. That’s a potent combination in that Auburn offense, giving the talent that they have returning at that running back position and on the offensive line.
FS: What are some of the games involving SEC teams you’re looking forward to watching the most?
Stinchcomb: If we’re talking about and including non-conference matchups, there’s a lot of great ones. To kick the door down, the matchup with Michigan and Florida early on in the season. You’ve got what could be a game we’ll see again in the College Football Playoff with Alabama taking on Florida State. That’s a big one I think we’ll have circled. It will be incredibly interesting to see how that one shakes out. Those are at least non-conference opponents ones that I think folks will be keenly attentive to the outcomes.
Georgia Tech and Tennessee early on in the year. What will it look like this year? Tennessee trying to replace their quarterback in Joshua Dobbs and what will it look like for them? Down the road, South Carolina faces a very talented NC State football team, certainly on the defensive side of the ball. A lot of these early Week 1 games could be strong litmus tests for how good these programs will be down the stretch.
You know, Texas A&M is on the hot seat. They’ve got UCLA Week 1, a redux of their matchup last year. There’s a lot of games where it will be interesting to see what the outcomes are and are they indicative of what the season will look like; not that dissimilar from LSU/Wisconsin a year ago. We saw that game the way it unfolded and ultimately led to Les Miles’ mid-season firing. I don’t think anything that drastic happens, but Week 1 is a great week to circle for a lot of these programs.
FS: What team do you feel is a dark horse contender in the SEC? Is there any team you feel is poised to have a tough year?
Stinchcomb: A lot of people are really high on LSU. I think this could potentially turn out to be a pretty tough year. They obviously have to go back to Florida since they insisted on playing the game in Baton Rouge this past year with the hurricane cancellation. That could be a very difficult road for them. Obviously, the West Division is always challenging, but the fact that you’re hemorrhaging talent year after year.
They certainly recruit well there, but Danny Etling back at quarterback, Matt Canada new offensive coordinator, obviously talented at running back. Wide receivers — you know your top returning guy is probably D.J. Chark. He’s going to get a ton of action in multiple different ways, but there’s a chance that LSU has some difficulty this year.
And they went out of conference to pick up a BYU game. Are they a national title contender? I don’t think so, but it’s an unfamiliar opponent on a neutral site. So LSU is one of those teams.
I think that South Carolina could potentially surprise some folks, as well as Kentucky. Part of that is just a function of the East Division. There’s some opportunity to surprise some teams in that division because I think they aren’t as strong top-to-bottom.
FS: Ole Miss won’t be eligible for a bowl game. How do you think that will affect their season, positively or negatively?
Stinchcomb: The positive spin would be, “Look, guys, we get 12 games and 12 games only. Make ’em count. This is what has to be our bowl game: each week. Week in and week out, knowing that we’re not going to be able to push it in the postseason.” Other than that, though, I think it will be really challenging.
Frankly, I don’t know how outside of those kind of observations they’ll find ways to motivate you guys. You get 12 opportunities, you bust your tail for the balance of the year. 353 days to get to those 12 opportunities and we know that that’s where we’re capped. So make the most of it because you’re not going to get this season back.
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It’s not as if Ole Miss is going to be able to circle the airport eligibility-wise of the guys that play in another season after this. Unfortunately, they are going to be paying for some of them anyway the sins of others.