SJS College Football Extravaganza
Preseason 2000

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SEC Forecast

	2000 SJS Forecast				1999 Summary
		Overall	Conf.	Rank		Overall	Conf.
Eastern Division
Florida Gators	1	11-1	8-0	3	1	9-3	7-2
Tennessee Volunteers	2	8-3	6-2	18	2	9-2	6-2
Georgia Bulldogs	3	9-2	6-2	12	3	7-4	5-3
Vanderbilt Commodores	4	7-4	4-4	31	5	5-6	2-6
Kentucky Wildcats	5	3-8	1-7	59	4	6-5	4-4
South Carolina Gamecocks	6	3-8	1-7	70	6	0-11	0-8
Western Division
Alabama Crimson Tide	1	10-2	7-2	5	1	10-2	8-1
Louisiana State Tigers	2	7-4	4-4	30	6	3-8	1-7
Arkansas Razorbacks	3	6-5	3-5	40	3	7-4	4-4
Auburn Tigers	5	6-5	3-5	38	5	5-6	2-6
Mississippi Rebels	4	6-5	3-5	36	4	7-4	4-4
Mississippi State Bulldogs	6	4-7	2-6	52	2	9-2	6-2

SEC Skinny   SEC Breakdown     Conference Champion: Florida Biggest upset: Vanderbilt over Tennessee Offensive Player of the Year:      Freddie Millons, Alabama Defensive Player of the Year:      Alex Brown, Florida Best Coach: Steve Spurrier, UF Best Game: Florida vs. Georgia   Here's a line from last year's preview: Most pubs like Alabama to win the West, but they are still a year away in this observer's opinion. Well, I was half right. Alabama will win the SEC West in 2000, but I missed the fact that they would also win it in 1999. Still, the Tide are loaded again. To be sure, they lose Shaun Alexander, but Freddie Millons is back and he's the best player in the conference. DuBose and Alabama fans are more excited than I am about quarterbacks Tyler Watts and Andrew Zow, but they'll get the job done and in more exciting fashion than the 1992 team that won the national championship. Any SEC game could bring a loss, but I think only the game at Tennessee will trip up the Tide. The rest of the division is a drop off. Many preseason pubs like Ole Miss to finish second, which would be the opposite of my "year away" comments about Alabama: I had the Rebs winning the West last season. The same pieces are still there: Romaro Miller and Deuce McAllister, but there isn't much improvement from last year's team that struggled with Memphis and Tulane and lost to Vanderbilt. The Rebs are good enough to finish second and bad enough to finish last, a comment that can be made about the other 4 teams in the West. I have LSU taking second on the belief that Nick Saban can get immediate results just by being different. Plus, the defense should improve from the awful Lou Tepper defenses of the DiNardo administration. Josh Booty will improve, or will get out of the way in favor of Craig Nall. The offensive line, decimated by injuries in 1999, should be better thanks to that injury-plagued year: the Tigers will have experience on the bench. Arkansas's Houston Nutt was optimistic coming out of Spring ball: the Razorbacks were being underrated by the press, and would surprise people in 2000. After Alabama, the West is certainly there for the taking. The Hogs must replace Clint Stoerner, record-setting quarterback, but still have Cedric Cobbs, who may be the second best running back in the SEC (behind Travis Henry of Tennessee). That's good, because the Hogs also have perhaps the best offensive line in the conference, so the big strong Cobbs may carry the team this coming year. But Arkansas will have trouble matching up against passing teams thanks to an inexperienced secondary. Will this be the season that Auburn re-emerges? Possibly. The offense should be better will good skill position players: Ben Leard at quarterback, Rudi Johnson at running back, and Ronny Daniels at receiver. Defense is where the problem lies, with not much experience along the front four and poor performance overall in recent years. Still, the Tigers have a chance to play themselves to a good record and offering us the second-best Auburn-Alabama game of the last ten years. My pick for bottom-feeder is Mississippi State. Some have the Bulldogs picked as high as third in the West, but the offense is anemic and the defense, while solid, isn't very deep and loses 8 starters from the fine 1999 unit. If that's not enough, the schedule is trouble with games at Brigham Young and at Memphis (sure it's just Memphis, but at Memphis? Who scheduled that?). The Dogs don't play a home game until their fourth contest, and that's against Florida. Ouch. In the East, its a three-horse race again. Georgia and Tennessee are the horses that don't have it this year. Both teams will be talented; the Dawgs may have the conference's best quarterback (Quincy Carter) and the Vols the best running back (Travis Henry), but both teams also have a lot of question marks. Georgia's defense was last in the conference in 1999, taking some of the luster off of the fact that many starters return. It isn't so much the athleticism on defense as the disarray, either from bad coaching or bad schemes. Gary Gibbs is the newest defensive coordinator (the 3rd in three years); things may improve. The Dawgs are also loaded on offensive starters returning, but Jasper Sanks must become a more reliable running back if Georgia is to compete for the east. Tennessee visits but the Florida game, as always, is in Jacksonville. The Vols must settle on a quarterback and must work in a lot of new faces. And they better do it quickly, with openers against Southern Miss and Florida. Although the Vols have proved resilient in tough openers, I forsee an 0-2 start before ripping off wins against the likes of Alabama and Georgia. But watch out for the Vanderbilt game... So look for another 8-0 conference run from Florida. They get the Vols before the Vols are ready, they get Georgia across the state line, they replace Alabama with Mississippi State, and they get Auburn and LSU at home. And if that's not enough, they'll be working in a few of those recruits from the #1 class in the nation. As for Vanderbilt, I see them improving on last year's 5-6 mark, which included a near-upset of Florida and Kentucky (and an upset of Ole Miss). The Commodores have capable running backs in Jared McGrath and Rodney Williams, and look for Tim Olmstead to take over at QB from Greg Zolman. The defense, always strong, will be better in 2000. As for Kentucky and South Carolina, they should rage a spirited contest for last place. The Wildcats will struggle now that Dusty Bonner has transfered, and the defense will be just awful. But South Carolina, back with a good defense, will still be awful on offense. Not so awful to go winless again, thank goodness, but awful just the same.