SEC offenses were down in 2024, but 1 thing could turn that around in 2025

If you’re a fan of points, the 2024 SEC football season was sort of a bummer.

According to the raw numbers, Texas A&M finished No. 1 in the SEC with 29.4 points per conference game. Mind you, that number was slightly inflated by A&M’s 2 defensive touchdowns in SEC play, which meant that the offense averaged 27.6 points per conference game. The SEC’s No. 2 offense in conference play (still according to the raw numbers), South Carolina, was boosted by 3 non-offensive touchdowns and a safety, which meant that the Gamecocks’ offense actually averaged 26.3 points per game. And hey, while we’re at it, let’s also note that the SEC’s No. 3 offense in conference play, Ole Miss, had a non-offensive touchdown and actually finished at 27.9 points/conference game.

What does that mean? The best offense in the SEC in conference play — if you take away non-offensive scores in SEC play — was … Alabama? Yeah. The Tide‘s offense averaged 28.1 points/conference game.

To recap, the top scoring offense in conference play failed to average 30 points in SEC games — even 2023 Florida averaged 30.5 points per conference game with non-offensive scores taken away — and it changed play-callers at season’s end. Woof. That’s telling. The 2 best SEC offenses in conference play were Alabama (28.1 points/conference game) and Ole Miss (27.9 points/conference game), both of whom had disappointing 3-loss seasons. And again, not to disrespect the Year 1 A&M offense, but that group lost its last 3 conference games after it was the SEC’s last remaining unbeaten in league play.

Let’s call it what it is. SEC offenses were, in large part, disappointing in 2024. A year that began with 5 quarterbacks returning after New Year’s 6 bowl victories or Playoff starts ended with more questions than answers. If we exclude non-offensive scores, here’s how many SEC offenses averaged 30 points per conference game in the 2020s:

• 2020 — 5
• 2021 — 3
• 2022 — 4
• 2023 — 4
• 2024 — 0

Heading into 2025, the question should be asked: Why should that turn around? There’s 1 reason, and believe it or not, it’s not related to the promising group of quarterbacks in the SEC.

Offensive coordinator/play-caller continuity is working in the SEC’s favor. Look at how few changes there are at those spots this offseason:

• Alabama: Ryan Grubb replaces Nick Sheridan
• Oklahoma: Ben Arbuckle replaces Seth Littrell
• South Carolina: Mike Shula replaces Dowell Loggains

The only potential downgrade there is Shula, and that’s mostly in part because Loggains’ development of Spencer Rattler and LaNorris Sellers was an invaluable piece of South Carolina’s identity the past 3 years. Arbuckle is taking over a historically awful Oklahoma offense, which was held to 16.5 points/conference game in its SEC debut.

Oh, wait. Take away the 4 non-offensive scores in SEC play and Oklahoma’s offense actually averaged … 13 points/conference game. Double woof. Arbuckle can have his former Washington State quarterback, John Mateer, throw with his left hand and still probably produce a better offense than that.

Alabama, meanwhile, was among the most maddening in the SEC. The Tide’s offense somehow averaged the most points/conference game among SEC teams even though Jalen Milroe didn’t have a single passing touchdown in the final 4 SEC games. Grubb’s arrival and reunion with Kalen DeBoer should make for a more consistent offense after it was anything but that in 2024.

There’s no denying that Alabama and Oklahoma fell short of expectations on offense. They weren’t alone. How many SEC offenses could you argue were in the “exceeded expectations” camp in 2024? South Carolina, Vanderbilt and … maybe Florida? And again, the Gamecocks’ offense averaged 26.5 points/SEC game if you exclude non-offensive scores while Vandy and Florida averaged 20.1 and 26.4 points/SEC game, respectively. That’s hardly rewriting the record book. It was more about those 3 teams all having a quarterback emerge as a star. All 3 of those guys are set to return in 2025, too.

If you’re looking for a reason as to why it felt like a down year in the conference, that’s a better answer than “the SEC no longer has talent like it used to.” When the season began, 13 of the top 26 teams in the 247sports talent composite rankings were from the SEC. And if you want to look ahead to the way-too-early 2025 national title odds, 11 of the top 20 teams are from the SEC (via DraftKings). But when the vast majority of the conference feels disappointing offensively, especially among the preseason contenders, that path to a national title can close in a hurry.

We should also probably note that while SEC offenses were down, that meant SEC defenses did their part. Two of the 5 Broyles Award finalists (Texas DC Pete Kwiatkowski and Tennessee DC Tim Banks) were SEC defensive coordinators, and South Carolina defensive coordinator Clayton White was also 1 of 15 semifinalists.

In the latest ESPN Mock Draft, 8 of 32 (25%) 1st-round picks were SEC defensive players. If that played out in April, it would mark the most SEC defensive players selected in the 1st Round since 9 came off the board in 2017.

Here’s that breakdown in the past 10 years:

• 2015 — 3
• 2016 — 4
• 2017 — 9
• 2018 — 5
• 2019 — 7
• 2020 — 6
• 2021 — 4
• 2022 — 7
• 2023 — 4
• 2024 — 3
• 2025 — TBD (8 projected by ESPN)

In case you were wondering about whether that was just the byproduct of being a 16-team conference for the first time in 2024, none of the projected SEC defensive 1st-rounders in ESPN’s latest Mock Draft were from Oklahoma or Texas.

That 2017 NFL Draft with 9 SEC defensive players in the 1st round came on the heels of what was considered to be a down 2016 season for SEC offenses. That year, Tennessee was technically the only SEC offense that averaged 30 points/conference game (Alabama’s offense averaged 29.3 points/conference game after taking away the ridiculous 10 non-offensive scores). A year later, 4 SEC teams accomplished that feat in a season that ended with an all-SEC College Football Playoff National Championship.

There’s obviously no guarantee that the formula will repeat itself in 2025. But having 13 returning offensive play-callers helps, as does the fact that 8 of them will return quarterbacks who started multiple games in 2024. Offensive continuity won’t be lacking in 2025.

Here’s hoping that points aren’t lacking, either.

Connor O'Gara

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.