What challenges are facing your favorite team in the SEC East heading into the season?

While they vary in scope, fall storylines will dictate how we look at August camp and develop an opinion on each squad entering the first month of the season. Some of the frontrunners have personnel and mental challenges while others are trying to tinker with lineups to ensure last year’s lingering struggles are over.

RELATED: Biggest fall storylines in the SEC West

Before the season kicks off in early September, each SEC East team will face some major questions and storylines during fall practice. We’ve identified the top issue for every team in the division prior to the season:

Mizzou: Will a true No. 1 receiver please stand up?

Often used as an excuse for Maty Mauk’s up-and-down play during spring practice, Mizzou’s mass exodus of options in the passing game could be this team’s fatal flaw in getting back to the SEC Championship Game this season. There’s reason for hope, though. The Tigers will play four games before any serious competition appears on the schedule — plenty of time for potential breakout pass-catchers like Nate Brown, Wesley Leftwich and J’Mon Moore to show offensive coordinator Josh Henson that there’s reason to be excited for big-play potential.

I anticipate the Tigers trying out several different combinations at the position during gall practice in prep for the opener  against Southeast Missouri on Sept. 5. Expect Russell Hansbrough’s workload to be quite burdensome in the early going until the Tigers the reliable wideouts from the guys who aren’t yet ready. Drops were a serious problem this spring and rattled Mauk’s confidence a bit. That needs to be ironed out prior to the matchup with South Carolina in October.

Georgia: Can the Bulldogs avoid succumbing to preseason pressure and beat South Carolina?

Most of you won’t agree with the importance of ‘The South Carolina Game’ on the practice field at Georgia in August, but rest assured the Bulldogs’ Week 3 opponent is circled several times in red inside the locker room. College Football Playoff hopes — and SEC Championship talk — will end before it starts for Mark Richt’s most talented team in years if the Bulldogs don’t take care of business at home on Sept. 19. Equipped with the best running back in the SEC and a healthy mix of run-stoppers and pass rushers within the front seven on defense, there’s no legitimate reason Georgia should fall during the season’s first month (considering the opposition) other than this team proving it’s not ready for the main stage.

The Bulldogs haven’t found an answer for South Carolina’s offense over the last five years (four losses) and it has ruined Georgia’s shot at controlling its own destiny in the division down the stretch. Most will tell you Georgia’s quarterback situation is the primary storyline entering the season with a third player recently added to the mix in Virginia transfer Greyson Lambert, but setting up an executable game plan to beat the Gamecocks should be the first priority whereas the starter under center is a space-filler on a rush-heavy unit.

South Carolina: Is Jon Hoke the stop-gap for the Gamecocks’ defensive issues?

Quarterback concerns are also pressing, but Steve Spurrier’s team won’t be a factor at all in the East without improvements made on the other side of the ball. With games against two up-tempo offenses, Nick Chubb and upset-minded UCF during the season’s first month, glaring issues will be magnified if South Carolina’s struggles with tackling and pressure up front aren’t fixed.

Hoke has attempted to simplify the Gamecocks’ coverage schemes and make things a little bit easier on an inconsistent secondary, but front seven play will ultimately dictate the strength of this season’s unit overall. Athletic end and JUCO transfer Marquavius Lewis is the most important newcomer and returning contributors David Johnson, Gerald Dixon and Darius English must provide more from snap-to-snap to erase last year’s stains and move in a new direction defensively.

Florida: Can the Gators protect their quarterback?

Potentially the SEC’s worst offensive line resides in Gainesville this season, but it’s not necessarily a talent issue facing Jim McElwain’s first-year offense. Florida returns only one starter off last year’s offensive line and didn’t play with a full deck thanks to injuries throughout the spring. The devastating blow came when veteran Roderick Johnson was forced to quit football after sustaining a serious neck injury. Fall practice will be spent developing a 6 to 8 player rotation up front reliable enough to protect Will Grier, who could be the Gators’ rookie redshirt freshman quarterback.

Florida feels summer arrival Martez Ivey is a future cornerstone tackle up front and he’ll get a chance to prove his value as a true freshman. The Gators gave up the third-fewest sacks in the SEC in 2014 (16) thanks to several NFL draftees in the trenches, but still struggled to move the football throughout the season. That’s not a good sign considering 12 of the expected 13 scholarship offensive linemen have zero collegiate starts between them.

Tennessee: Expectations are real. How will the Vols respond?

It’s nice to be relevant, a feeling the Vols haven’t had in nearly a decade. What they do with preseason buzz is up to them. Joshua Dobbs won’t have to be spectacular for Tennessee to win the Eastern Division, but he’ll need to be consistent. The same goes for Tennessee’s offensive line, a unit that doesn’t have anywhere to go but up after last season’s faulty campaign. The Vols’ real strength will be its front seven defensively, a group featuring Derek Barnett, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Kahlil McKenzie, a five-star tackle who will make a substantial impact as a true freshman. The first obstacle involves beating Oklahoma at home in Week 2, which would give Butch Jones only his second win ever over a ranked team. A loss to the Sooners evaporates much of the momentum Tennessee has carried over from last fall.

Kentucky: Patrick Towles or Drew Barker, who will it be?

Does first-year offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson go big or play it safe with Kentucky’s starting quarterback situation this season? Good news for the Wildcats is that the offense won’t change much either way. The incumbent Towles was solid for half the year last fall before the Wildcats’ slide summoned ‘what if’ questions at the position heading into spring. You get the vibe that head coach Mark Stoops knows Barker is the future of the program, but feels more comfortable going with the player who has experience in the SEC.

At least there’s competition under center, which often breeds success for both parties. Towles being pushed by a former four-star who has improved since arriving on campus in 2014 will only make him better as a player and gives the Wildcats substantial depth at the position. We’ll see Barker at some point this season, but I wouldn’t expect him to unseat Towles in August.

Vanderbilt: Is a viable offense possible in Nashville?

Andy Ludwig will spend fall practice in its entirety hoping to find some way to generate points this season for the Commodores. Vanderbilt’s new offensive coordinator has Ralph Webb in his back pocket at tailback, but he’s the only proven option on that side of the football with very little depth in the backfield. Wideout C.J. Duncan is expected to see carries this fall to try and add a wrinkle to a unit void of big-play potential. It’ll be interesting to see how Ludwig manufactures first downs in the early going. Finding tight end Steven Scheu near the sticks is a start.