There are no fewer than eight new faces at defensive coordinator in the SEC this season.

Well, that’s not entirely accurate. John Chavis and Geoff Collins just changed schools, so they’re not technically new. And neither is Will Muschamp, back for a second tenure at Auburn, or Manny Diaz, who’s doing another stint at Mississippi State.

So let’s just say there were eight new hires … but then what do we make of Vanderbilt’s situation? Did head coach Derek Mason hire himself?

Semantics aside, there was an awful lot of turnover this offseason for the league’s defensive coordinators. Including Mason assuming double duty in Nashville, eight teams have made a change at the position since this time last year.

Let’s take a look around the conference and get (re)acquainted with the SEC’s deans of defense.

The new guys

Ironically, this might be the most experienced and recognizable group. Each of the following are in their first year with their current school (on this go-around, anyway), but all have held high-profile positions in the past.

Will Muschamp

School: Auburn

Notable: Other than a one-year stint with the Miami Dolphins in the NFL, Muschamp has been one of college football’s most regarded defensive minds since rising to prominence at LSU in the early 2000s. After four years as the head coach at Florida, he’s back at Auburn, where he was the defensive coordinator in 2006 and 2007. Florida was fourth in the conference last year in total defense, and Muschamp is being counted on to bolster an Auburn unit that gave up nearly 400 yards per game in 2014.

John Chavis

School: Texas A&M

Notable: Chavis has been in charge of SEC defenses for 20 years, and is now on his third team. He’s had success at every stop; though some at LSU had soured on him by the end of last season, the Tigers finished the year tops in the conference in overall defense. He’ll be the SEC’s second highest-paid defensive assistant, earning $1.5 million per year to Muschamp’s $1.6 million. After the Aggies gave up a league-worst 450 yards per game last season, it’s understandable why they’d be willing to fork over such a sum.

Manny Diaz

School: Mississippi State

Notable: Diaz made his name on the national stage as Mississippi State’s defensive coordinator in 2010. After an up-and-down tenure at Texas and a resurgent season at Louisiana Tech, he’s back in Starkville to replace Geoff Collins (more on that soon). Diaz is known for a high-risk, high-reward style of defensive aggression.

Barry Odom

School: Missouri

Notable: Odom is back with the Tigers after holding a variety of assistant roles at Missouri from 2003-2011. Since then, he’s been heading the defense for Memphis, in charge of a turnaround that took those Tigers from 117th in the country in 2011 to 28th in total defense last season.

Kevin Steele

School: LSU

Notable: Some LSU fans were less than excited about Steele’s hiring — it’s hard to forget what happened to Steele’s Clemson defense in the 2012 Orange Bowl. But Steele’s got loads of experience; he began his career as a position coach at Tennessee in the early 1980s and has been a head coach, an NFL assistant and has worked two stints under Nick Saban at Alabama. Whether or not he can leverage all that experience into a continuation of LSU’s excellence on defense will be one of the more compelling story lines in the SEC this season.

Geoff Collins

School: Florida

Notable: Collins has clawed his way up the ranks after starting out as a high school coach in North Carolina 20 years ago. Most recently he was seen leading Mississippi State’s defense, first as co-defensive coordinator in 2011-12 and then with the solo gig for the last two seasons. Last year’s Bulldogs squad gave up a high rate of big plays through the air, but were the best in the conference inside the red zone.

Derek Mason

School: Vanderbilt

Notable: Mason earned his first head coaching job thanks to some excellent defenses at Stanford. He likes his players big, tough and physical, and earned a reputation for developing defensive linemen. The biggest question with Mason is whether he can be as effective as a defensive coordinator while he’s a head coach at the same time.

The middle men

Robb Smith

School: Arkansas

Tenure: Second season

Last year: Second in the conference in total defense (323.4 yards per game)

Notable: In his first year with the Hogs, Smith led one of the most unexpected turnarounds in the conference, improving Arkansas’ total defense by 90 yards and more than 12 points per game — highlighted by back-to-back late-season shutouts of LSU and Ole Miss. He’ll have to find replacements for some crucial pieces to last year’s front seven, but Smith looks like a rising star after one season.

Jeremy Pruitt

School: Georgia

Tenure: Second season

Last year: Sixth in the conference in total defense (337.2 yards per game)

Notable: Pruitt came in from Florida State last year and had an immediate positive impact on the Bulldogs’ defense. With one of the country’s most potent group of linebackers, Georgia could climb further this season.

Dave Wommack & Jason Jones

School: Ole Miss

Tenure: Wommack is in his fourth season; Jones is in his third

Last year: Fourth in the conference in total defense (329.0 yards per game)

Notable: The duo in charge of the Rebels defense are the oldest and youngest defensive coordinators in the conference, respectively, and their partnership appears to be working. The Rebels defense ranked last in the league in 2011, but has improved each year since.

John Jancek

School: Tennessee

Tenure: Third season

Last year: Eighth in the conference in total defense (364.6 yards per game)

Notable: Jancek came to Tennessee from Cincinnati with head coach Butch Jones, but he cut his SEC teeth as Georgia’s linebackers coach (2005-08) and co-defensive coordinator (2009).

D.J. Eliot

School: Kentucky

Tenure: Third season

Last year: 11th in the conference in total defense (406.9 yards per game)

Notable: Now entering his third season with the Wildcats, Eliot remains the lowest paid defensive coordinator in the conference. To change that, he’ll need to improve Kentucky’s run defense, which was the Wildcats’ primary weakness in 2014. Kentucky ranked 12th in the league last year in rushing yards allowed per game (191.2) and rushing yards per carry (4.5).

The old guard

Kirby Smart

School: Alabama

Tenure: Eighth season

Last year: Third in conference in total defense (328.4 yards per game)

Notable: The longest-tenured defensive coordinator in the conference, Smart is perennially a hot name in coaching searches. He came to Alabama in 2007, took over the defense the following year, and has helmed one of the SEC’s most talented and productive defenses ever since.

Lorenzo Ward, South Carolina

School: South Carolina

Tenure: Seventh season

Last year: 13th in conference in total defense (432.7 yards per game)

Notable: Ward is the only other defensive coordinator in the league who has held his spot for more than four seasons, but the seat might be getting a little warm in Columbia. After the Gamecocks gave up more than 30 points per game in 2014, Steve Spurrier brought in old friend Jon Hoke to co-manage the defense.