SEC Media Days start next week in Atlanta. Big 12 Media Days just wrapped up on Thursday. ACC Media Days also begin next week. The Pac-12 will host its media day later this month, and so will the Big Ten.

So, it’s officially talkin’ season. Of course, here in the SDS Mailbag, it’s always talkin’ season!

Therefore, let’s dive into this week’s questions (including one about SEC Media Days), shall we?

@SChinni12:

The state of Florida has 3 Power 5 teams (Florida, Florida State and Miami). Which of those 3 teams do you think will have the most wins this football season?

Notice how this question refers only to the Power 5 schools? Please don’t get mad at me, UCF fans. I understand you have a great football program. But, this is referring to the ACC and SEC squads, that’s all. No disrespect.

OK, now that I have that out of the way, I’m going with Miami. I understand the Hurricanes have a new head coach in Mario Cristobal, but he’s done a great job getting the Hurricanes up and running in his first few months.

They have a star quarterback returning in Tyler Van Dyke, who has first-round NFL Draft potential. They have talent on offense and defense, including RB Henry Parrish Jr. and CB Tyrique Stevenson, who both transferred from SEC schools.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But Adam, Florida has a new coach and a returning quarterback with first-round NFL Draft potential and plenty of talent on both sides of the ball.”

Yes, that’s true. But, my tiebreaker is that Miami plays an ACC schedule. Miami travels to Texas A&M and Clemson this year, but those are the only 2 games it would be acceptable for the Hurricanes to lose this fall. Any other losses on that schedule would be disappointments.

Florida, meanwhile, has road trips to Texas A&M and Tennessee. The Gators also host LSU and Kentucky. Oh yeah, and there’s that game in Jacksonville against reigning champion Georgia and a home contest against Utah, a dark-horse Playoff candidate. That’s a much tougher schedule than Miami faces.

So, give me the Hurricanes to win 9-10 games, Florida to win 7-8 games and FSU to check in with 6-7 victories in 2022.

Jamie:

Who will have the most rushing yards in the SEC this fall?

This is a tough question, because you need to be able to find guys who won’t have to share the workload all that much. For example, I really love Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter at Auburn. I love Kendall Milton and Kenny McIntosh at Georgia, but they’re going to split work. Same for Zach Evans and Ulysses Bentley IV at Ole Miss. You also don’t want to pick a guy on a team with a running quarterback, as that’s a lot of rushing yards being taken away from the feature back.

Chris Rodriguez Jr. would be an interesting choice, but he has a potential suspension lingering over his head, so I can’t pick him.

Here are 3 guys I think can win the league’s rushing title – Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs, Tennessee’s Jabari Small and Texas A&M’s Devon Achane. All of those guys should be the workhorses for their respective teams.

But, I need to pick one, so I’m going to go with Achane. He has the breakaway speed to turn a 12-yard run into a 62-yard run. He also ran for 910 yards in 2021 despite splitting carries with Isaiah Spiller. He averaged an insane 7 yards per carry. If he’s even between 5-6 yards per carry this fall with an increased workload, he should win the league’s rushing title.

My dark-horse (and homer) candidate is Nathaniel Peat at Mizzou. We know Eli Drinkwitz loves to use a workhorse running back. Tyler Badie led the league in rushing yards last year. Peat, a Stanford transfer, could do it again this fall if all goes well in CoMo.

Michael:

Which player not going to SEC Media Days do you wish would make the trip to Atlanta next week?

I was pretty surprised that Mississippi State QB Will Rogers wasn’t among the list of notable quarterbacks heading to SEC Media Days. But, there’s an explanation for it, as Mike Leach rarely takes QBs to media days when he’s the head coach:

Still, it would have been nice to have the SEC’s leading passer (in terms of yards-per-game, attempts, completions and completion percentage) in Atlanta. He’s been a great player for a couple of years now and would have been a welcome addition to Mississippi State’s contingent.

Also, I know it would never happen, but I wish Brian Kelly would have brought one of LSU’s quarterbacks. Jayden Daniels is new to LSU, but he’s a veteran player. Myles Brennan has been at LSU forever. I know they’re in competition for the starting job (along with Garrett Nussmeier), but having one (or both) of them at SEC Media Days would have been great.

@Dobbe8:

Which SEC nonconference road game would you most want to make a road trip out of?

Well, I’m not sure how strictly we’re defining “road” trip, but I’d love to head out to Hawai’i with Vanderbilt in Week 0. Unfortunately, there’s no road to Hawai’i (unless you live in the “Bojack Horseman” world).

If it has to strictly be a road trip, I’d go with Alabama to Austin to take on Texas. Austin is a wonderful city, even if it will be insanely hot in Week 2. And, that has the benefit of being a much better game than Vanderbilt-Hawai’i has the potential to be.

Still, you can’t go wrong heading out to Hawai’i for a while, especially since it’s a Week 0 game and you wouldn’t be missing a full week of normal college football action.

Have a question for next week’s Mailbag? Tweet at us using #SDSMailbag or email me at ASpencer@SaturdayDownSouth.com.