Bold predictions are supposed to be exactly that — bold. Supposing that Kentucky might not win a game in league play isn’t some crazy notion; it might actually be the most likely outcome for the Mildcats in 2025. Predicting that the SEC will win a national title after 2 years without one isn’t bold either.
“Alabama will beat Georgia and lose to Vanderbilt,” is a bold prediction. That’s what we’re going for here.
So, here’s one actually-bold prediction for every SEC team in 2025.
Alabama Crimson Tide
Prediction: Germie Bernard makes an All-SEC team
In 2023, the offense coordinated by Ryan Grubb and Kalen DeBoer produced a pair of 1,100-yard receivers. That offense might have even supported 3 1,000-yard receivers had Jalen McMillan, the primary slot guy, been healthy throughout the bulk of the season. Rome Odunze was a star, Ja’Lynn Polk was the perfect No. 2, and McMillan opened the year with 311 yards and 3 scores on 20 catches in his first 3 games before an injury sidelined him for 4 of the next 6 games. McMillan didn’t make another catch until the regular-season finale. He then went for 131 yards on 9 catches in the Pac-12 title game. Odunze was an all-conference selection. Polk was robbed of a similar honor.
In 2025, with Grubb and DeBoer running the offense in Tuscaloosa, there’s another dynamic receiving trio to worry about. Alabama has Ryan Williams, Germie Bernard and Isaiah Horton to terrorize defenses with. Grubb is a master at putting defenses into conflict, and Alabama should have a quarterback who can consistently put the ball where it needs to be. Williams is going to lead every scouting report as a game-breaker on the outside. The 6-4 Horton is going to line up on the other side of the formation and bully defenses until they figure out how good he is. Bernard, out of the slot, should be able to feast. Bernard led the Tide with 50 receptions last season. He averaged 15.9 yards per catch. I like him to top 1,000 yards and land a spot on the All-SEC team when the regular season concludes.
Arkansas Razorbacks
Prediction: Bobby Petrino leads the Razorbacks for at least 1 game
Arkansas was bad in close games last year but still finished 7-6. Quarterback Taylen Green is a big play waiting to happen, but he also took 32 sacks last season and has 28 turnover-worthy plays in the last 2 years. The crown jewel of the Arkansas transfer haul this offseason was a big-play receiver with a 56.5% career catch rate. The backfield turned over. The offensive line lost 2 starters. The receiving group completely turned over. The defense entirely turned over. There is a ton of variance with this Arkansas team, and that’s not what you want in a group that can be mistake-prone. Arkansas could realistically be 2-5 when it hosts Auburn on Oct. 25. A road game against a Memphis team that went 11-2 last year is a challenge. Arkansas also travels to Ole Miss and hosts Notre Dame before October arrives.
There is very little buzz around the football program right now. And while the posturing from Arkansas all offseason has signaled that head coach Sam Pittman will be coaching out his contract, a lifeless start will test the patience of the administration. Let’s just say Arkansas loses 5 in a row from Sept. 13 through Oct. 18. If the Auburn game (at home) goes sideways, offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino will get a shot in a winnable game against Mississippi State the following weekend.
Auburn Tigers
Prediction: Auburn starts 3-0, then loses 4 straight to cost Hugh Freeze his job
Another hot seat situation to monitor in 2025 is in Auburn, where Hugh Freeze can’t seem to step outside without angering portions of his fanbase. Freeze said earlier this offseason he knows he needs to reach a bowl game to save his skin and the anti-Freeze crowd erupted. Freeze had to defend himself playing golf not too long ago. If Auburn starts dropping consecutive games, an already-restless fanbase will go into a tizzy.
There is no guarantee Auburn beats Baylor on the road. The Bears have an outstanding quarterback and the makings of a potent offense. After games against Ball State and South Alabama, the Tigers face Oklahoma on the road, Texas A&M on the road, Georgia at home, and then Mizzou at home.
Losing road games in the SEC can be forgiven. Losing to Georgia can be forgiven. If Auburn drops to 3-4 after a home loss to Mizzou, bowl eligibility isn’t completely out the window — the back half of the schedule is relatively lighter — but Freeze will be in danger. Auburn hasn’t been good since 2019. Note, that didn’t say “great.” It said “good.” Auburn has been mediocre for 5 consecutive years. A sixth will cost Freeze his job, because there is no promise of another top-10 recruiting class to fall back on.
Florida Gators
Prediction: Florida has a winning record on the road for the first time since 2020
Since the start of the 2021 season, Florida is 5-13 in true road games and 1-6 in neutral site games. If we want to talk about why things haven’t worked out in recent years, you have to start there. Florida hasn’t been able to win games it wasn’t supposed to win. That will change in 2025.
The Gators have the complexion of a team that will travel remarkably well. They project as a physical, pain-in-the-behind team along both sides of the line of scrimmage. They have a multi-faceted and deep running back rotation. They have a quarterback who can produce an explosive play with his legs or his arm. Against the teams with less talent than the Gators, Florida will be able to shorten the game and lean on its opponent. Against teams of equal or greater talent, Florida will be able to close the gap with its play at the line of scrimmage. To me, this projects as a ground-and-pound offense that will rank among the nation’s best in yards per pass attempt.
Florida has upcoming road games against LSU, Miami, Texas A&M, Kentucky, and Ole Miss. The Gators might only be favored in 1 of those 5 games, but they’ll win at least 3 of them.
Georgia Bulldogs
Prediction: 4-game winning streak over Florida will be snapped
It’s remarkable to think about how Georgia’s 2024 campaign is discussed. Consider the Bulldogs are even less effective in 2025. What will the conversation be like? If Kirby Smart loses 3 games, will it feel like the sky is falling in Athens? If the Bulldogs don’t make the SEC title game, will we get First Take segments about whether the game has “passed” Smart? The standard has been set outrageously high within this Bulldogs football program.
I’m not sold on Georgia being vulnerable enough to lose 3 regular-season games, but I do think the winning streak over Florida could end in 2025. The Gators got mighty close last season. A 13-0 second quarter gave Billy Napier’s group a 13-6 lead going into the halftime break. Georgia outscored Florida 14-0 in the third to take back control of the game, but 3 interceptions from Carson Beck made sure Georgia never felt much comfort.
Florida got the doors blown off by Georgia in Dan Mullen’s final season and then again in each of Napier’s first 2 seasons. In total, Florida has lost 7 of the last 8 meetings with the Bulldogs.
Florida finally gets it done this year, turning the page on an era of futility in this matchup.
Kentucky Wildcats
Prediction: Mark Stoops survives a bottoming out
Kentucky’s hopes in 2025 rest on the assumption that Incarnate Word transfer quarterback Zach Calzada will be better in his second SEC stint than he was during his first. A former Texas A&M quarterback, Calzada completed 56% of his passes with 17 touchdowns and 9 picks in 2021. He has at least 9 interceptions in each of his last 3 seasons — 2 of which came at the FCS level. Kentucky’s defense was fine last season, but the offense was a mess because of a total whiff at the quarterback spot. Kentucky ranked 120th in adjusted EPA per play, according to Game on Paper, and 127th in EPA per dropback. Top skill talent fled Lexington when the year ended and coach Mark Stoops opted to rebuild via the transfer portal.
He gave offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan another year to get it right but if Kentucky’s defense takes a step back there’s a very realistic possibility the Wildcats go winless in league play.
The prediction here is not that Kentucky will be bad, it’s that Stoops won’t lose his job over it. If Kentucky wanted to fire Stoops, it would owe him close to $38 million, and the entirety of that check would need to be cut within 60 days of his dismissal. Kentucky is in for another bad season, but the Wildcats won’t get a life raft tossed to them by a deep-pocketed booster to foot the bill for that buyout. They’ll have to hope Stoops can finally figure out a long-term solution at quarterback.
LSU Tigers
Prediction: LSU begins October with multiple losses
Is it bold to predict LSU will lose to Clemson on the road to open the season? Not really. How about a prediction that LSU will lose both of its road games in the first month of the year? LSU visits Oxford for a rematch with the Rebels on Sept. 27. Given the way last year’s meeting between LSU and Ole Miss played out — and the implications it had on the remainder of the Rebels’ season — that environment could be a hornet’s nest. Ole Miss should be 4-0 at that point and playing with a ton of confidence. If Austin Simmons looks the part, the Rebels are going to have another dynamite offense. Scoring points hasn’t been the issue of the Brian Kelly tenure in Baton Rouge; stopping the other team from scoring has. I’m not buying LSU as a team that will just waltz its way into the Playoff in 2025. If the Tigers make it in, they’ll have to scratch and claw over the final month of the season to do so.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Prediction: Mississippi State has a top-25 offense
Jeff Lebby coordinated high-flying offenses at Ole Miss before moving to Oklahoma. When he left the Sooners, the offense completely collapsed. Before he got injured last year, quarterback Blake Shapen was dealing, throwing for 974 yards and 8 touchdowns while completing 68.5% of his throws. Mississippi State took its lumps while Michael Van Buren tried to find his footing, but once the freshman did, he started shredding good defenses as well. The issue in Starkville last season was the Bulldog defense. MSU gave up 30 points or more in 9 of its 12 games. But the offense was fairly effective, even with a midseason quarterback change.
According to Game on Paper, MSU ranked 50th in adjusted EPA per play. With Shapen back and healthy, Mississippi State should have a backfield capable of making plays. I like South Alabama transfer Fluff Bothwell. Davon Booth has at least 750 rushing yards in each of the last 2 seasons. Whether Mississippi State has fixed the defense is anyone’s guess, but if Shapen can last through the year, I like Lebby to get the offense back on track. Three of his 4 offenses from 2020-23 ranked top 25 in adjusted EPA per play. The scheme is solid.
Mizzou Tigers
Prediction: Mizzou forces 20 takeaways and holds opponents under 20 points a game
Over the last 2 seasons, Mizzou is 10-1 in games decided by a single score. The analyst who sees a half-empty glass would speculate that late-game luck is going to run out and a regression to the mean is coming for Eli Drinkwitz and his Tigers. As someone who had an up-close-and-personal look at the Scott Frost era in Nebraska, I can say with some degree of certainty that late-game proficiency (or lack thereof) has more to do with culture than we typically like to admit. Perhaps Drinkwitz has a team that just won’t buckle under pressure.
To be fair, they’ve had plenty of experience in those moments. Eleven 1-score games are a lot over a 2-year span. With Brady Cook at the helm, Mizzou was metronome-like more often than not. They’ve won the games they were supposed to handle and have rarely been blown out. In each of the last 2 seasons, Mizzou has allowed less than 21 points per game to opposing offenses.
This season, the defense returns 7 starters from last year while adding Georgia defensive end Damon Wilson II and UNLV safety Jalen Catalon. I love the pieces coordinator Corey Batoon has to work with on this side of the football and think the Tigers will continue to be late-game maestros because they just won’t ever let opposing offenses get comfortable.
Oklahoma Sooners
Prediction: Jaydn Ott leads the SEC in all-purpose yardage
Washington State transfer quarterback John Mateer steals the spotlight whenever Oklahoma gets brought up. And that’s probably fair. But don’t sleep on Cal transfer running back Jaydn Ott. When Ott burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2022, he looked like one of the most dynamic players on the West Coast. In 12 games for the Golden Bears as a true freshman, Ott had 897 rushing yards with 321 receiving yards. He averaged 5.6 yards per touch on offense.
In 2023, Ott carried the load in the backfield and went for 1,315 rushing yards. He averaged a healthy 5.4 yards per carry and finished behind only Washington’s Rome Odunze for the Pac-12 lead in all-purpose yardage. Ott was hampered last season and wasn’t nearly as effective. He averaged just 3.3 yards per carry and ran for 385 yards in 10 appearances.
So long as Ott stays healthy, he’ll be RB1 in Norman. He’ll be surrounded by the most talent he’s ever played with and he’ll line up next to a quarterback who will be by far the most dynamic he’s ever shared a backfield with. Ott is said to have added some size this offseason and impressed the OU staff. I loved his ability at Cal, and the ceiling should be quite high at Oklahoma.
Ole Miss Rebels
Prediction: Suntarine Perkins leads FBS in sacks, Ole Miss to a top-10 defense
Suntarine Perkins was tied with one of his teammates (and several others) for 10th on the sacks leaderboard last season. He produced 10.5 despite not even being a full-time starter for the Ole Miss defense. Perkins didn’t even clear 600 snaps in his 13 appearances, instead splitting time with Jared Ivey and Princely Umanmielen. Perkins has gotten better in each of his first 2 seasons and, with the opportunity to star in a featured role as a junior, I think he becomes a bona fide star.
Pete Golding’s defense broke through in a major way last season, finishing third in defensive SP+. That group has to replace key figures all over the field this season, though. Another top-10 defense is on the table, however. You can’t discount The Portal King, and Golding is one of the best in the business at what he does. Plus, with a wrecking ball like Perkins who can line up in several different spots across the formation, Ole Miss should still inspire plenty of fear at the line of scrimmage.
South Carolina Gamecocks
Prediction: South Carolina gives Alabama its only loss
Alabama is my pick to win the SEC. In that piece, I predicted Alabama would go 11-1. The lone loss? To South Carolina in Columbia on Oct. 25.
Last season, the Crimson Tide narrowly escaped an upset by an unranked South Carolina team inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, picking off LaNorris Sellers in the final minute after giving up an onside kick recovery. Sellers threw into double coverage off his back foot on a third-and-8 from midfield to end the game. He also airmailed a receiver in the corner of the endzone on a potential game-tying 2-point conversion just minutes earlier. That game was there for the taking, and I thought South Carolina’s budding quarterback missed a couple of opportunities late.
In 2025, Sellers makes up for those errors and leads the Gamecocks to a signature victory. A win would be their first over the Tide since 2010.
Tennessee Volunteers
Prediction: The Vols have their worst season under Josh Heupel
Last season, Tennessee leaned on the SEC’s all-purpose yardage leader and an unyielding defense to win 10 games and secure a spot in the College Football Playoff. Dylan Sampson couldn’t touch the football without falling into the end zone. And the defense finished the year fourth in adjusted EPA per play allowed. Tennessee was also risk-averse with its passing attack, ending the year with only 7 interceptions thrown.
The defense could be great again, though an injury to star corner Jermod McCoy muddies that picture a bit. The ground game will be more by-committee, but the offensive line has mostly been rebuilt. I just don’t think this offense is going to be nearly as effective because Tennessee is moving to a quarterback that loves to take risks.
Former Appalachian State and UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar takes the place of Nico Iamaleava. Aguilar spent the winter with UCLA and then traded places with Iamaleava when the latter hit the spring portal. Over 2 full seasons with App State, Aguilar threw 24 interceptions and had 51 turnover-worthy plays, per PFF. He had 50 big-time throws, but his completion rate plummeted in Year 2 with the Mountaineers and his efficiency was all over the map.
I think Tennessee is due for its poorest offense of the Josh Heupel era. And, in the unrelenting SEC, that’ll likely result in the worst season of the Heupel era.
Texas Longhorns
Prediction: Arch Manning is fine
Can we just chill? Like, can we just take a second and chill?
Maybe a quarterback with the last name “Manning” is just as good as Tim Tebow. Loudly proclaiming that he is, when all we’ve seen to this point is a handful of quarters against crappy defenses, is reckless. Arch Manning, at this point, is overrated. And he has done absolutely nothing himself to warrant that title, but the hype train has completely lost control and done irreparable damage to the narrative.
There is a reason an injured Quinn Ewers continued to start over Manning, and, no, that reason is not solely because Steve Sarkisian wanted to honor an outgoing senior. At Texas, Sarkisian will be judged and ultimately retained by how many titles he wins. The assertion that Manning gave Sarkisian a better chance at winning trophies last season and Sarkisian chose to leave him on the bench is ridiculous.
The bold prediction here? Arch Manning will be a fine quarterback. He’ll end the year in the 75-80 range in ESPN’s Total QBR metric, which will put him in the top 25 or so quarterbacks in the FBS but outside the top 10. He’s not going to be a Tim Tebow because very few quarterbacks have been a Tim Tebow. Let’s just watch the kid play.
Texas A&M Aggies
Prediction: Texas A&M starts 7-0
I really like Texas A&M in 2025. The Aggies return a bunch of last year’s production and have more talent than just about any team in the country. They have a good coach in Mike Elko, a strong backfield, and a clear identity. The schedule is what it is, but how about a hot start in College Station? Texas A&M has tune-ups against UTSA and Utah State before heading to South Bend to face Notre Dame. Then, A&M plays 3 straight home contests against Auburn, Mississippi State, and Florida. The Aggies play Arkansas on Oct. 18. After that game, Elko’s squad will be sitting at 7-0.
Vanderbilt Commodores
Prediction: Vandy needs to win 3 straight to sneak into a bowl
Vanderbilt enjoyed its first winning season in over a decade last fall. New Mexico State transfer quarterback Diego Pavia was exactly the shot in the arm the Vandy program needed to escape the doldrums of the SEC. He’s back in 2025, but Vandy might not be partying as much.
The Commodores had huge highs but they also had some rather low lows. They lost to Georgia State by 4 points on the road 2 weeks after knocking off Virginia Tech. After beating Auburn to get bowl eligible on Nov. 2, they lost 3 straight to close out the regular season. South Carolina hammered them and Tennessee grounded them.
Vandy should make a bowl game again in 2025, but it’ll be the inverse of last season. Road games against Virginia Tech and South Carolina in the first 3 weeks of the season will be difficult. The ‘Dores also play Alabama and Texas on the road. LSU and Mizzou come to Nashville in mid-October. Heading into a matchup with Auburn on Nov. 8, Vandy will be sitting at 3-6. The Commodores will sneak into the postseason, but they’ll have to win 3 straight to do it. Cue some more Pavia magic with the end of the line in plain sight.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
