Greg McElroy explains why he has zero SEC teams in his preseason top 5
By Rolando Rosa
Published:
The wait for college football is almost over. That means there’s plenty of opinions when it comes to rankings. ESPN’s Greg McElroy dropped his list and interestingly has no SEC teams in his preseason top 5.
McElroy has Ohio State at the top followed by Notre Dame, Indiana, Oregon, and Miami. Georgia checks in as the highest ranked SEC team at No. 6 and Texas slots in at No. 7. The rest of the top 10 comes from the SEC: No. 8 Alabama, No. 9 Texas A&M, and No. 10 Oklahoma.
McElroy explains it’s a testament to the conference’s parity but also last season’s underwhelming College Football Playoff performance. .
“The league is a blender. That’s what it is,” McElroy said. “If you look at the teams in the playoff last year, it wasn’t great. They went 1-3 against anyone who wasn’t in the SEC. If you look at my teams between 6 and 10, they’re all SEC teams.”
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McElroy shared his thoughts on Texas, who enters Year 2 of the Arch Manning era at quartertback. McElroy cites the Longhorns’ offensive line as a factor to monitor.
“I love Texas’ ceiling but I also saw Texas’ offensive line struggle to come together for the first 7-8 games of the year,” McElroy said. “It resulted in some losses that probably shouldn’t have happened and some poor performances there in October before they righted things at the end of the season.”
Meanwhile, McElroy sees a ton of potential in Georgia. Yet, it all hinges on if the Bulldogs can produce enough through the passing game.
“For Georgia, the big question has never been the floor. They probably have the highest floor in the SEC but there’s legitimate questions about how explosive they can be offensively,” McElroy said. “…If they can develop that big-play attack through the air to complement their run game and defense, then Georgia can easily find themselves as national champions at the end of the year.”
Texas takes on visiting Texas State and Georgia hosts Tennessee State on Sept. 5.
