Getting pressure with 4 has been pretty good in spite of the lack of sacks. Some of the issue stems from facing Mond and Shrader and the need for the DL to keep contain. Would certainly like to see the DL get home this weekend.

Jovon Robinson has the nagging injury, not Roc Thomas. Roc has fumblitis and may not see the field. Chad (not Chris) Slade is the former AU OL who graduated. And has been noted, even though Coleman is a returning starter, he's getting abused and is a holding call waiting to happen on every play. No mention Dupree for LSU. New starter Dontravious Russell on the DL for AU makes the front 4 of Russell, Adams, Lambert and Lawson a clear advantage when they are all in the game and healthy. I think the rushing D numbers for AU are a little misleading in that the second team D gave up a ton of yards against Lamar Jackson in the second half of the UL game and several defenders were held out or limited against JSU. In addition, Johnson's 5 ints have been key in AU's opponents running 81 and 89 plays, respectively. I'm not sure MSU will be able to run on anyone this year so it's hard to draw a lot of conclusions about LSU's run D based on one game. MSU's OL isn't strong and Ashton Shumpert has been underwhelming so far. Holloway is exciting but limited because of his size. I think the author could have dug a little deeper to put together something stronger than vague references and reliance on last year's stats and returning starters.

Nnnnnnooooooooooooo! That SiriusXM lineup was already terrible. Now it's downright dithpicable.

I love it! Why not A&M when they look a lot like an Auburn team that others have picked to win the West? The Aggies have more proven talent at WR (especially if Duke Williams misses any significant time) but less at RB, Kyle Allen has starting experience to build on from last year and the OL should be pretty good while Jeremy Johnson has, perhaps the most upside of any QB in the West but has yet to play a full game against an SEC opponent. Both Auburn and A&M struggled badly on defense last year, both have a big, disruptive DE/OLB who is getting the lion's share of publicity on D and both made big time DC hires. The good thing about this prediction is that we should know something pretty quickly given their opening game against a good ASU team.

Same reason ESPN can't stop talking about the NY Jets. ABC/ESPN is an entertainment company that relies on advertiser revenue for clicks and eyeballs. Teams/conferences with the greatest ability to bring consumers are going to get disproportionate coverage. ESPN is making huge money with the SEC Network, SEC games get featured in prime time not because of some love affair or agenda but because SEC fans watch a lot of football. This ain't PBS.

Duke is a difference maker not just with the plays he can make but in the way he makes opposing coaches adust to his presence. Auburn's championship hopes take a serious hit if he doesn't play.

SEC media members: "Oh, Duke's not playing? May I have my conference champion vote back, please?"

Overall, I think this lineup is getting better. - I agree on Nessler and Blackledge - Fowler and Herbstreit is a good pairing. Both are polished and do their homework - Mike Patrick and Ed Cunningham don't get enough love - Griese is improving and has potential to be a great color guy if he sticks with it - Palmer, Pollack, Huard and Howard need to go sell insurance - Verne should retire but, on balance, I like Danielson - I'm just thankful Tim Brando is nowhere near this list

I believe you are mistaken. Many believe Arkansas is a quality team this year. Nobody thought so last year as they were, I believe, predicted to finish last in the SEC West and did just that. They improved from abysmal to .500.

There's a strong - and understandable - desire from a lot of people to hedge their Auburn bets and I think they show up in these kind of lists because of that. Everyone knows the West is a crap shoot and they are still trying to figure out how they picked a team to win the division that lost most of its offensive output from last year and was abysmal on defense the second half of the season. In many ways, Auburn is getting the benefit if the doubt usually reserved for Alabama. People have seen enough of the newer starters, buy that Auburn has recruited well, respect the coaching staff, and can name enough impact players from last year to predict they will do well. But they caveat that pick by saying losing to Kentucky is possible.

You mean the Arkansas team that lost 17 conference games in a row before those two wins? One over a pretty bad (for them) LSU team and an Ole Miss team reeling from the loss of Treadwell? Not sure you want to hang your hat on beating a barely bowl eligible team that was 2-6 in the conference.

@DD2, you do recall it was only 4 yrs. ago you lost the SECCG by 32 pts, right?

Petrino/Grantham have Louisville headed in the right direction but nobody thinks they are better than ASU right now. Proven QB and good running game and good back seven on defense. They will compete with USC and UCLA in the tough Pac-12 South.

I think the comparison is fair in that, so far, none of the three have proven their ability to be more than serviceable at the position. But where Arky, I think, maxed out Allen's potential last year because of the way they built the offense to hide his deficiencies, LSU can't figure out how to do the same with the "scrubs" (with arguably a lot more talent around them). Allen may be better this year due to experience but I expect that improvement to be marginal simply because he has a low ceiling in terms of talent.

Roll Tide is just a saying? Does it not come directly from being the Alabama Crimson Tide? If tide does not reference a wave of some sort then what is it? It certainly isn't an elephant.

LSU is the team that could win anywhere from 7-11 games given the talent on D and at the non-QB skill positions on O as well as the OL. I really question Cam Cameron as an OC. Jennings and Harris are bad but so is Brandon Allen at Arky but Arky is the trendy darkhorse pick despite a significant talent gap. Anybody predicting the West with confidence is delusional.

According to the FPI, LSU and Georgia are the only teams predicted to win 9 games in the SEC and the only double digit game winners are OSU, Baylor and Boise St. A few like TCU and Oregon could be rounded up to 10. I'm a big believer in the value of data but the FPI seems like a tool that tends to regression to the mean, making it virtually unusable as a predictor of season-long team performance. In short, ESPN has - yet again - done something meaningless just to give it something to talk about.

Biletnikoff conundrum solved: http://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2015/7/17/8992233/duke-williams-and-the-biletnikoff-an-explanation?_ga=1.245640135.272196832.1360615980 Laziest watch list ever.

1. Yeah, I wouldn't have used this either. 2. This just proves you can make stats say anything you want. Malzahn's previous "pocket QBs" at Auburn were not close to Johnson in terms of talent. A couple were just downright awful. 3. The two new starters were starters at other power 5 conference schools and transferred to Auburn. One was a first team all B1G. 4. See number 2. 5. "Three offensive linemen with starting experience" v. "Three offensive linemen with All-SEC buzz". I think Shon Coleman is not All-SEC buzzworthy at this point but Kozan and Young are consensus preseason All-Conference selections. 6. Winning at LSU is never easy, the last time Auburn did it was 1999. But heading into the 2014 season, Les Miles was 40-2 at home in night games while he was 17-5 in day games. Getting them during the day while they are still, potentially, figuring out their QB issues is far better than October at night.

I think De'Runnya Wilson will also make this list eventually this season.