Debate: Which SEC team has been biggest surprise in 2016?
By Chris Wright
Published:
Some surprises are good. Others, not so much.
The SEC has had plenty of both, but which one has shocked us the most?
That’s something we’ve been discussing and debating all week.
Answer: Sure Kentucky is a surprise, but the real lesson there is have no faith in the SEC East. Ole Miss has been a disappointment, but the lesson there is pay attention to what the Rebels just loss. And Tennessee is a disappointment, but see what was said about Kentucky.
So the real answer here is Auburn. Remember that when the Tigers played LSU, the word on the street was that Gus Malzahn was a loss away from being fired. So, if LSU got off the last-second Danny Etling-to-D.J. Chark touchdown pass off on time, Malzahn might be done right now (and Les Miles might still be chewing Tiger Stadium turf).
Instead, Auburn is the hottest thing not in Crimson and White and Malzahn may well be on his way to not only SEC, but also National Coach of the Year honors.
How? This might be the best defense he’s had and after looking like this team might only be as good as the defense could make it, now the offense has revved up with the emergence of Kamryn Pettway as the SEC’s leading rusher and Sean White as the league’s most efficient passer.
Auburn is on its way to making the Iron Bowl huge again and that’s the best way for any Auburn coach to stay employed for a long time.
— Gary Laney, LSU beat reporter
Answer: The worst surprise is Tennessee, no doubt. Now that the news of Jalen Hurd transferring has hit, it’s a “what could have been” season for the Vols already.
It all comes back to Butch Jones. Yes, the Vols have suffered an insane amount of injuries, but this team and locker room — it seems — have just fallen apart. Should the Vols somehow find a way to get to Atlanta, it will be more about a huge collapse suffered in Gainesville than anything Tennessee did.
If Tennessee finishes 9-3 or 8-4, Jones will be one of the most discussed coaches in college football entering the 2017 season. Had Jones not beaten Florida this year, we’d be possibly talking about a replacement in Knoxville.
— Jon Cooper, director of operations
Answer: Auburn is the biggest surprise in the SEC, for reasons both offensively and defensively.
Back at Media Days, coach Gus Malzahn was sitting on one of the hottest seats in the room. The three-headed quarterback monster he unveiled in the season opener was a joke, too. It didn’t look good for him.
But after settling on Sean White under center and then ramping up his run game, everything else has fallen into place for Malzahn. It was my belief that teams had caught up to his up-tempo, ground-and-pound approach. Instead, a preseason no-name like Kamryn Pettway leads the conference in rushing.
And then on defense, this was little more than a collection of blue-chip talent a year ago. Will Muschamp didn’t do much with it. Kevin Steele, on the other hand, has mashed all that talent into a cohesive unit.
Nobody wants to play the Tigers right now. They’ve gotten better on a weekly basis. The Iron Bowl could be all kinds of fun.
— John Crist, senior writer
Answer: Several teams can lay claim to being the biggest/best/worst surprise. What has amazed me most this season is how wrong some of these coaches were in their preseason decisions, and how fate suddenly has them looking like a genius.
To recap:
Alabama chose Blake Barnett over Jalen Hurts.
Auburn chose any number of running backs over Kamryn Pettway. Gus Malzahn chose to keep calling plays until finally relinquishing control to Rhett Lashlee.
Kentucky chose Drew Barker over Stephen Johnson.
LSU chose to keep Les Miles, who chose to keep OC Cam Cameron, who helped Miles choose Brandon Harris over Danny Etling.
South Carolina chose two quarterbacks over Jake Bentley.
Florida chose four running backs over featuring Jordan Scarlett.
Alabama corrected its mistake the quickest, giving Hurts the keys on the third series of the season. Miles changed quarterbacks soon after (and LSU changed coaches not longer after that). Injuries forced Kentucky and Auburn to change, and where would those two teams be now without Johnson and Pettway, respectively? Nowhere near the top of the division standings is a reasonable guess.
LSU clearly is better, more explosive, less predictable now under Ed Orgeron than it was under Miles.
I can’t remember another season where so many contenders overcame preseason choices — forced or realizing the mistake on their own — to right the ship.
— Chris Wright, executive editor
Chris Wright is Executive Editor at SaturdayDownSouth.com. Email him at cwright@saturdaydownsouth.com and follow him on Twitter @FilmRoomEditor.
Managing Editor
A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.
