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Coaching changes weren’t the only trigger for new directions in the SEC this offseason.
There are player transfers and coaches trying to avoid a path to a pink slip. But those changes start now as spring practice shifts into third gear. Here are five SEC teams looking to right the ship and change the recent reputation of an area of their team:
Will Muschamp’s South Carolina offense
The No. 1 trepidation for Will Muschamp’s hiring at South Carolina was his woeful offense as coach at Florida. He had three offensive coordinators at Florida, but Muschamp told AL.com that he expects to employ an up-tempo attack at South Carolina.
“Philosophically, we want to snap the ball as many times as possible to score as many points as possible,” Muschamp said. “The more times you snap it, the better chance you have to score. I have figured that out.”
The difference Muschamp is looking for is stability at the quarterback position, something the Gamecocks haven’t seen in recent memory. The five-man competition is still alive, at least publicly, but there’s still a ways to go to return to the level the position reached under Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson.
Offensive coordinator Kurt Roper has experience developing quarterbacks as well as playing a two-man system, and that could harken Gamecocks fans back to a decade ago when Syvelle Newton and Blake Mitchell shared the position.
The LSU quarterbacks and Cam Cameron
The ongoing narrative at LSU is that the quarterback position is the missing link to a program littered with five-star recruits and high-profile NFL wide receivers.
QB Brandon Harris last year was seventh in the SEC in passing and now is contending with Purdue transfer Danny Etling. Though it’s difficult to tell how much a midseason hernia injury — and offseason surgery — affected Harris, he regressed toward the end of the season (3 TDs, 5 INTs in the final four regular-season games).
Of course, fans won’t soon forget that coach Les Miles all but admitted staff changes — including Cam Cameron — were possible in November.
“Do we want to consider change? You betcha,” Miles said, as reported by The Advocate. “I think ‘serious overhaul’ is appropriate, but would be a little much.”
Ultimately, Cameron took a $300,000 pay cut.
Georgia and its record against ranked opponents
The narrative that gathered steam late last season and culminated with the firing of Mark Richt was centered on Georgia’s 14-23 record against ranked teams in the last eight seasons. Contrast that with a 25-13 mark in the first seven seasons of the Richt era and Kirby Smart already has a chief priority: Maintain Georgia’s winning percentage against lesser opponents while also beating ranked teams, especially in the SEC.
Already this offseason, Smart has been tested by his transfer policy and player arrests, and is beginning to make his own mark. Can Smart sacrifice the off-the-field standard Richt maintained while simultaneously winning more games?
Finding a quarterback is job No. 1 even though Smart has downplayed it in his comments to the media. Similar to South Carolina, Georgia is looking for a quarterback to depend on like it could Aaron Murray, one that helps fans forget underwhelming performances from Greyson Lambert, Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta. Of course, all the fans and media want to know is when freshman Jacob Eason will get the starting job.
“I think the biggest thing you can do at that position is structure the practice so that you get to see each guy the right amount of times,” Smart said, according to DawgNation.com.
“And y’all are concerned more with who’s going with what group, where that’s not as important to us. it’s what each guy is doing within this group that’s a lot more important.”
Kentucky’s late-season collapses
Not only does Kentucky doesn’t need to erase its label of maxing out at the Music City Bowl — the Wildcats haven’t even been there under coach Mark Stoops.
The coaching staff hopes the latest recruiting class will push the team to at least one more win. Can Stoops make comparisons to Rich Brooks materialize and match Kentucky’s most recent golden era, or will he be dismissed as another former coordinator who couldn’t lift the program into the middle of the SEC?
With an above-average running back, good talent at receiver and tight end and a developing secondary, Stoops is running out of excuses if he misses another bowl game. If not with a revamped coaching staff and a sophomore quarterback with promise, then when?
Auburn’s lowered expectations
Gus Malzahn’s program has fluctuated between seasons of five or more losses and two or fewer losses since 2009.
What must the Tigers do to prove the 2010 and 2013 seasons weren’t aberrations?
The massive turnover of players and assistant coaches — more than 35 combined — will help determine if Malzahn flushed out the right names.
Auburn hasn’t solved some of the ongoing issues are quarterback and defense despite multiple attempts. Malzahn’s offense is established, but the challenge has been tailoring it around the talents of quarterbacks not named Cam Newton and Nick Marshall.
Can Malzahn prove that he’s more than a coach who can diagram plays, and then watch top-flight athletes carry them out? Can he take lesser players and develop them into SEC leaders?
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
