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100 days until SEC football Saturdays, here are 100 things I can’t wait to see in 2025 (25-1)
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Finally, we’ve reached the end.
OK, that was a bit of a tease. After all, we’re not at the end of the offseason. We still have nearly 100 days to go until the first full Saturday of SEC football. We’re at least down to double-digit days. That’s a win.
Also a win? We’re at the end of my countdown of the 100 SEC things that I can’t wait to see this season.
Each day this weekend, I ranked 25 of the SEC football things that I’m most excited to see in 2025. Here’s what that looked like:
- Thursday: 100-76
- Friday: 75-51
- Saturday: 50-26
- Sunday: 25-1
I promise that my list is different than yours. In other words, prepare to disagree with my levels of excitement.
Let’s conclude the countdown:
25. Whatever comes of this entire Tennessee offense
I really don’t know what to expect from a group that has a quarterback battle in a post-Nico Iamaleava world. I don’t expect a high-flying offense because that’s not what Tennessee had the last 2 years. I’d expect a ground-heavy group, but who’ll emerge in a post-Dylan Sampson world? And who becomes Tennessee’s best receiver after losing Squirrel White, Dont’e Thorton and Bru McCoy? This will be Josh Heupel‘s toughest offensive task yet.
24. The last year of the 8-game conference schedule … ?
My guess is that ESPN will increase that contract in 2026 and allow the SEC to move forward with the 9-game conference schedule … if the conference gets 4 auto-bids for an expanded Playoff format. All of those things feel like they’re connected.
23. The slippery Tre Wisner
I’ve got a question. How many SEC skill players return after they put up 1,000-yard seasons in an SEC uniform last year? One. It’s Wisner, AKA the guy who entered 2024 as the 3rd-string back but emerged amid CJ Baxter’s season-ending injury and Jaydon Blue’s fumbling issues. Wisner will share the backfield with Baxter, but as he showed in the latter half of the season, he’s got an ideal skill set to take advantage of that Steve Sarkisian offense.
22. Debates about the significance of the SEC Championship Game
I’m old enough to remember when Lane Kiffin debated that out of fear that the conference could have a team get left out of the field because it played in the conference title game. Then, Kiffin’s squad lost to Florida and didn’t have to worry about that. We also watched SMU face that issue and still get into the 12-team field. But perhaps with straight seeding in place, some will wonder if the SEC Championship Game has lost its significance, which seems a bit silly when you remember that the top-4 seeds get a bye.
21. The Ole Miss powder blues
Best uniforms in the sport. Need I say more?
20. Playoff rankings shows that have straight seeding
I felt sorry for Rece Davis and that ESPN production crew for having the weekly task of explaining why the top-4 seeds were not necessarily the top-4 teams in the rankings. There’ll still be a little bit of confusion with that because if 1 of the 5 projected highest-ranked conference champs isn’t a top-12 seed, they’ll inevitably slot them into the field to show the potential matchup. But at the very least, the change to straight seeding won’t be quite as messy as it was in Year 1 of the 12-team era.
19. I’m just glad that Uga finally gets an elite home slate
Good for Uga. That bulldog has had all the reason to go to sleep early in these lopsided Georgia home games. In 2025, Georgia will get both Alabama and Texas at home. Throw in a redemption game against Lane Kiffin and Uga will have 3 matchups that’ll be worth staying awake for. Cheers to that, and cheers to every Georgia fan that has complained about the lack of elite home games in the 2020s … when the Dawgs have not lost a home game.
18. The best announcing trio in the game
That is, Tom Hart, Jordan Rodgers and Cole Cubelic. Nobody has more fun than they do. SEC Saturday Night is appointment viewing even if it’s a dud game. Shoot, it’s appointment viewing especially if it’s a dud game.
17. The strongest shade of red that Brian Kelly’s face has ever been
A season with these types of expectations will absolutely bring out that type of reddish hue. The only question is if we’ll see it in the season opener against Clemson in the 1st half or the 2nd half.
16. Arch Manning vs. DJ Lagway
Maybe it’s not fair to put this ahead of other headliner games, but I don’t care. Manning vs. Lagway in The Swamp will be phenomenal. Both quarterbacks will already have NFL eyes galore even though they’ve combined for less than a season’s worth of starts. It doesn’t matter. They can make every throw on the field, they have size, they have athleticism and they have mammoth expectations to become Heisman Trophy candidates in their first seasons as full-time starters. The side-by-side of those 2 will have a lasting impact.
15. The panic if 1 of these 4 teams misses the Playoff
Which teams, you ask? Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Texas. In all likelihood, I won’t hit that 4-leg parlay and at least 1 of those teams will miss the Playoff. But who will it be, and why? And if that team misses, what are the conversations about the head coach? In the 12-team era, missing that field at places like that has never felt greater. Those 4 preseason top-10 teams — all of whom are in different stages of urgency — would have a long offseason if a Playoff berth isn’t in the cards.
14. A doubted Lane Kiffin
A doubted Kiffin is the best Kiffin. It gave us the 2014-16 Alabama offenses, which delivered 3 SEC Offensive Player of the Year winners at 3 different positions. Last year was not a doubted Kiffin; it was a Kiffin who coached a team with its highest preseason AP ranking since the Richard Nixon administration. This year, with a ton of turnover on both sides of the ball and a team that ranks outside the top 100 in percentage of returning production, a doubted Kiffin could be in his element in a friskier role.
13. The anti-SEC crowd becoming loudest before the final Playoff ranking
It almost feels like the final week before an election. You take a deep breath and remind yourself that the political ads that come up on every channel/YouTube video are about to end. It doesn’t take away from how annoying that they can be. While there are SEC teams who aren’t worthy of making the Playoff — I didn’t want to advocate for any of the 9-3 teams — what you can look forward to is the specific group of media members who’ll make sure to hammer the point home that 3-loss SEC teams don’t belong. At least not in their totally unbiased opinions.
12. Any time Nick Saban starts talking on College GameDay
Hey, the guy won an Emmy for a reason. He’s darn good at this. Already. There wasn’t any doubt about that, but Year 1 of the Saban era on the College GameDay desk was everything I hoped it would be. Not only did Saban bring his 1-of-1 knowledge to the desk, but his charisma from the recruiting trail was evident when interacting with all the personalities on the desk, most notably Pat McAfee. Nobody complemented him better, which is something that even the anti-McAfee crowd could agree on. Saban spending his 70s as a front-facing analyst on the sport’s premier pregame show is a win for all of us.
Speaking of College GameDay …
11. The last Lee Corso appearance on College GameDay
Man, it’s gonna be water works. I know it. We’ve had plenty of Corso tributes throughout his 3 decades on the show, and understandably so. He’s an institution. But that final headgear pick is going to bring the house down in a way that we’ve never seen. Where that final headgear pick will be remains to be seen, but I felt the need to include it here in the likely event that it’s Texas-Ohio State, Alabama-Florida State or LSU-Clemson. My bet would be that Corso will pick against the visiting team, which will likely be from the SEC. But Corso deserves a proper sendoff after an iconic career as the No. 1 personality of college football the last 30 years.
10. Big Ten vs. SEC debates
They’ve become more relevant than ever after the Big Ten won consecutive national titles. Mind you, the conference had 1 total national title in the 2 decades before that, but I digress. It’s also relevant because for the first time since 2004-05, the SEC missed out on playing in a national title game in consecutive years. But what’s become clear is that it’s no longer the SEC vs. everyone else. The SEC finally has a worthy counterpart. It only took a decade into the Playoff era.
9. A Kirby Smart redemption tour?
I don’t know that it’s imminent. I do know that Georgia missed out on the semifinals in consecutive years and UGA will likely not start off as the No. 1 team in America, which it did in each of the last 2 seasons. That’s enough for Smart to sell his team that “everyone is doubting us,” even though the oddsmakers have UGA as one of the 3 favorites to win a national title, and nobody would be surprised if the Dawgs won their 3rd national title in the last 5 years.
8. Cam Coleman, AKA the most exciting “Cam” since … you know
I’m all in on Coleman after he was one of the best receivers in the sport in the final month of his true freshman season. Mind you, a shoulder injury hampered his slow start while Ryan Williams looked like the best receiver on the planet. The gap is certainly narrowed between those 2, but most important for Coleman last year was showing that he was every bit the 5-star recruit that he was billed as. In his last 3 games, he had 22 catches for 306 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns. He didn’t drop a pass once the calendar turned to October. That was with Payton Thorne as his quarterback. He’s got all the makings of becoming Auburn’s first 1,000-yard receiver of the 21st century.
7. Diego Pavia vs. Hugh Freeze, Part IV
I thought about putting this at No. 1, but I opted not to because I didn’t think enough people would understand the irony of this extremely 1-sided rivalry. The irony is that Pavia led New Mexico State past Freeze’s Liberty squad in 2022. Freeze then watched Pavia come into Auburn and pull off a stunning upset there. When Freeze could’ve poached Pavia from New Mexico State after the 2023 season with a “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach that anyone would’ve understood, Freeze then watched Pavia lead Vandy to a win at Jordan-Hare in 2024. That should’ve been the end of it … until Pavia sued the NCAA and got another year of eligibility. I’m convinced that Pavia came back for another year simply so that he could beat/haunt Freeze a 4th time.
6. More LaNorris Sellers
Once Sellers stayed healthy, he was a revelation. Shane Beamer said after the Clemson win that Sellers was the best player in the country. In the latter half of 2024, there might not have been a better quarterback than Sellers. He developed an unbelievable knack to escape pressure, keep his eyes downfield and deliver a dart to his target. Sellers will have to cut down on the turnovers and find more of a consistent downfield passing game, but it’s hard not to be bullish on him in Year 2 as a starter.
5. Texas-Ohio State to start the season
It’s the ideal season-opening game, and the only reason that it isn’t even higher on this list is because we only get it for 1 night. Granted, that night will have all sorts of overreactions with ramifications that will last well beyond that. But it’s as good of a season-opener as we’ve ever had in the sport. It’s potentially going to be a 1-2 matchup with the defending national champs and the team they beat in thrilling fashion in the semifinals. You’ve got the Arch Manning debut (more on that in a second), possibly the 2 best returning players in the sport in Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs and you could even have the aforementioned Corso sendoff leading into it. What more could you want in a season-opener? Well, I suppose you could want it to be played at night instead of at noon. But still, the timing couldn’t have been better for these teams to start a series in 2025.
4. Ryan Williams, 2.0
I thought about putting Williams at 17 — did you know that he was only 17 years old last season or did you pick up on that the first 1,700 times that it was mentioned on the broadcast? — but then I thought that would be unfair. After all, he’s 18 now. He’s also on the short list of SEC things that I can’t wait to see after what he did as a 17-year … sorry. Old habits die hard. Williams showed body control and an ability to make people miss after the catch that was already at an All-Pro level. He didn’t necessarily have a late-season run like Jeremiah Smith — he still delivered the best season by an SEC freshman wide receiver in 8 years — but there’s all the reason to believe that Williams will be as exciting to watch as anyone in college football.
3. Year 2 Garrett Nussmeier
I’d take Nussmeier over any returning quarterback in college football. His ability to pick apart a defense was on display last year during his first season as a starter. He was everything that LSU fans hoped he’d be, though not without the midseason struggles that he endured. What impressed me was how Nussmeier came out of that with those final 3 games, wherein he had a 169 QB rating against 3 respected defensive minds. Even that Ole Miss game when Nussmeier was able to work through a rough outing and deliver a go-ahead drive late, it spoke to his resilience in a 4,000-yard season. I think we’ll see plenty more of those moments in 2025. Nussmeier should improve his downfield passing game with Nic Anderson and board, and the Barion Brown addition will give LSU a nice complement to Aaron Anderson, who became a go-to weapon out of the slot. I’m bullish that Nussmeier will be the driving force behind an SEC championship season.
And dare I say, he’ll be the driving force behind a national championship season.
2. DJ Lagway … as long as his shoulder is right
Would I have preferred that Lagway throw a pass in spring football? Sure. I’m not alone in that. I’m a touch worried about the lack of game-speed reps that he’ll have with Florida’s pass-catchers, many of whom haven’t had more than a few games with him taking all the snaps. But if Lagway is able to make a full return and keep his shoulder healthy, yes, he can be everything that Florida fans hoped he’d be. The degree of difficulty of the throws he showed he could make was next level, and while he needs to improve with his pre-snap decision-making — something that doomed him at times against Tulane in the bowl game — there’s still such a tremendous ceiling for Lagway. There’s a reason why he was billed as the savior of the Billy Napier era. It’s time for the savior to get Florida into the Playoff conversation.
1. The Arch Manning era
Finally, it’s here. The 4th Manning to come through the SEC has external expectations of being the best yet. That would have to include a Heisman Trophy and/or a national title. To be determined on those things. For now, we can appreciate the fact that Manning is finally getting his opportunity at Texas. It’s easy to forget that when he committed to Texas in the summer of 2022, the Longhorns were coming off a 5-7 season in which Sarkisian was still considered an unproven fit in Austin. But now, Manning has the ability to get Texas to its 3rd consecutive semifinal berth and potentially more. Every pass he throws will be dissected as much as anyone in the country. Will it be smooth sailing from the jump? Probably not, especially with Ohio State in that aforementioned opener.
But will Manning provide intrigue in a way that perhaps no first-time quarterback has in recent memory? Absolutely. I can’t wait for that.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
