I’m just gonna throw this out there — some things that none of us anticipated during talkin’ season will happen in 2024.

They always do. Go back and tell everyone that Texas A&M would pay a $76 million buyout for Jimbo Fisher and that the initial reported replacement would be … Mark Stoops? Sure. Just like we all predicted.

A correct bold prediction would’ve been calling Nick Saban’s retirement. I wasn’t on record with that, nor was I on record with the Tide winning the SEC for the 3rd time in 4 seasons.

(Go figure that actually predicting Alabama as the SEC champ was considered “bold” because Georgia was the significant favorite.)

So that begs the question — what things that nobody is anticipating during talkin’ season can happen in 2024?

These are my 25 bold SEC predictions for the upcoming season:

25. Texas starts 12-0

Why? Buddy, have you seen that schedule? The Longhorns are a 12-win team with 67% of last year’s production back that won’t have an SEC road game until mid-November. Oh, wait. A trip to Vanderbilt is on the schedule before that. So yeah, I said what I said.

Related: Looking to place a bet on the 2024 College Football Playoff National champ? SDS has you covered with all the latest odds!

24. The SEC leader in 40-yard catches is Squirrel White

White’s abilities weren’t maximized by Joe Milton. Period. With Nico Iamaleava and a healthy Bru McCoy to take some of that attention underneath, I’m back on board with White becoming the guy that I thought he’d be last year as Jalin Hyatt’s replacement.

23. Neither Cam Coleman nor Ryan Williams hit 500 receiving yards

That’s not an indictment of either freshman. I just don’t think that the masses realize how difficult it is for true freshmen to step into this league and become stars. Jaylen Waddle is the SEC’s lone true freshman wide receiver in the past 8 seasons who hit 800 receiving yards, and it took him 15 games to get there. Keep that in mind with the decorated 5-star freshman wideouts in the state of Alabama.

22. James Pearce Jr. and Harold Perkins Jr. both miss out on the SEC sack title because of Nic Scourton

For the second time in as many seasons, yes, I believe Scourton leads a Power conference in sacks. Alongside Shemar Turner and in a Mike Elko defense, the sky is the limit. That A&M defensive line will undoubtedly be the strength of the team, and the Purdue transfer will be a massive reason why that’s the case.

21. Pete Golding leads Ole Miss to a top-30 defense

It’s not just that Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen came on board. It’s that they’re joining a group with Jared Ivey and JJ Pegues, both of whom established themselves as impact players in Year 1 of the new scheme. With all the talent that group has now — Trey Amos is getting a lot of buzz after coming over from Alabama — I expect Ole Miss to have its first top-30 scoring defense since it had the nation’s top unit in 2014.

20. The SEC’s leading rusher will be … Marcus Carroll

Full disclosure: I had CJ Baxter as my original leading rusher. Then, unfortunately, the Texas sophomore went down with a season-ending injury in the first week of fall camp. My second choice was Carroll, who’ll get first billing to replace Cody Schrader at Mizzou. It’s not just that Eli Drinkwitz produced 3 different All-SEC running backs. It’s that Carroll came from Georgia State, where he led FBS with 22.8 carries per game. Even if Nate Noel steps into a significant role as a fellow former 1,000-yard rusher who transferred to Mizzou from a Group of 5 school (Appalachian State), Carroll can be the next stud back in Columbia.

19. Mizzou’s Playoff path is over by early-November

Wait, what? Where are the losses? At Texas A&M, vs. Auburn, at Alabama and vs. Oklahoma. It won’t be the offense, which should be a top-10 unit in the sport. But that defense had more players drafted than Georgia, plus it lost its top 2 assistants. A ton of turnover will be Mizzou’s undoing, and a Nov. 9 loss to a more complete Oklahoma team will end the Playoff path for good.

18. Luke Hasz is a finalist for the Mackey Award

I’m not sure people outside of Arkansas and LSU realize how good Hasz was as a true freshman tight end before getting hurt last year. LSU fans know how good Hasz is because he had 6 catches for 116 yards and 2 touchdowns in a night game at Death Valley. At the time he went down, he was 6th among all FBS tight ends in receiving. He was so good in 1/3 of a season that On3 named him a Freshman All-American. Don’t be surprised if that turns into an All-American season in a better offense in 2024.

17. The SEC’s top receiver duo will be Deion Burks and Nic Anderson

I’m all in on Burks, who thankfully got preseason All-SEC love. He’s expected to be an even better version of Drake Stoops, who primarily operated in the slot. Anderson, on the other hand, was a big-play machine as a redshirt freshman last season. He was the only receiver in America with an average of 20 yards per catch and 10 touchdowns. Even if there’s a bit of a transition process with Jackson Arnold, who was considered the starter when the offseason began after Dillon Gabriel’s departure, Burks and Anderson have potential to be even better than the likes of Tre Harris and Juice Wells (Jordan Watkins makes them more of a trio) and Luther Burden III and Theo Wease.

16. LSU’s 5-game winning streak vs. Florida finally comes to an end

People don’t talk enough about how Florida hasn’t beaten LSU since Joe Burrow threw that pick-6 and The Swamp turned into pure chaos in 2018. But this year, with that matchup coming in The Swamp, I’ll take the Gators to beat LSU for 1 simple reason. I can’t imagine Florida losing 5 in a row to end consecutive seasons. This win, wherein Garrett Nussmeier struggles in a hostile road atmosphere, prevents that.

15. Walker Howard will get multiple starts for Ole Miss

Don’t get it twisted. I don’t think Jaxson Dart gets benched. I do, however, think his physical and sometimes reckless nature as a ball-carrier catches up to him and he’s sidelined for a couple games, which means we get a sneak peek of Howard as Lane Kiffin’s quarterback of the future.

14. Nico Iamaleava leads a top-5 offense in America

In his first 5 seasons as a head coach, Josh Heupel did nothing but crank out top-8 offenses. Then Joe Milton limited what the Vols could do and that streak ended. Do you know what Iamaleava won’t do? Limit the ceiling of a Heupel-coached offense. There should be more explosive plays, a more dynamic mobile quarterback and a tougher group for defenses to shut down.

13. Taylen Green leads Arkansas to an upset of Tennessee

The Green-Bobby Petrino connection will catch someone by surprise. Tennessee could be the perfect team for that with the questions we have about the secondary, which could be in trouble facing a mobile quarterback who can buy time and find bigger-body targets downfield. Perhaps still licking their wounds after an Oklahoma loss, Tennessee doesn’t come out with the right mindset to win in Fayetteville.

12. The most improved player in the SEC is Payton Thorne

The only way to go is up, right? This is bold when you consider how much Thorne struggled. But in Year 2 of Hugh Freeze’s system, everyone knows that the surroundings should be better. It’s not just the true freshmen wideouts. The KeAndre Lambert-Smith addition was key, as was Robert Lewis from Georgia State. An overhauled receiver room, a more hands-on Freeze approach with play-calling and a full offseason instead of a post-spring learning curve will make the difference for Thorne.

11. CJ Allen becomes an All-American

Allen is the next Nakobe Dean in Kirby Smart’s defense. Maybe it’s not bold to say that he’s going to become an All-American as a sophomore, but Jamon Dumas-Johnson’s departure for Kentucky was telling. Allen was excellent down the stretch after Dumas-Johnson’s injury against Mizzou. If he becomes the best player on a top-3 defense, nobody should be surprised.

10. Conner Weigman will be an All-SEC QB and a potential first-round QB prospect

I’m all in on Weigman. I’m so all in that when my guy Trevor Sikkema suggested that Weigman could have a case to be QB1 in a wide-open 2025 NFL Draft quarterback class, I didn’t push back. Weigman showed tremendous potential with reading pressure, and while the sample size is still limited, staying healthy is the only thing that can get in the way of him and Collin Klein becoming an ideal combination in Year 1 of the Mike Elko era.

9. Florida starts 5-0 … but Billy Napier is still fired after a 6-6 season

The Gators have a brutal end to the schedule, but nobody in those first 5 matchups won more than 7 games last year. The lone road game in that stretch is a trip to Starkville, where the Gators should be able to put up some big numbers against a new-look Mississippi State defense. But a 5-0 start is spoiled by that brutal schedule, and after Scott Stricklin is let go as athletic director, Florida opts to move on from Napier following a season-finale loss to Florida State.

8. We’ll get at least a month of Arch Manning starts

Quinn Ewers missed multiple starts due to injury in each of his first 2 seasons as a starter. That means the odds are decent that Manning will make his first career college start. Let’s also remember that with Texas’ roster and a favorable schedule, Steve Sarkisian could play the long game with Ewers and hold him out an extra game if necessary. Arch Madness will be in full effect in 2024.

7. Brent Venables will lead Oklahoma to a 9-3 regular season … and get another raise

I believe that this Oklahoma squad is better than the average SEC fan or the oddsmakers are suggesting. Going 9-3 against the second-most difficult schedule in America would be no small feat. But a Year 3 Venables defense should finally look like those 2010s Clemson units of his, and even if there are some growing pains for Arnold behind a new-look offensive line, I’ll take the Oklahoma offense to punch above its weight en route to a 9-win regular season. That’ll result in him joining the expanding $9 million club at season’s end.

6. DJ Lagway won’t start a game in a Florida uniform

I hope I’m wrong on this because I’d love to see the Gatorade National Player of the Year in Napier’s offense, but the durable Graham Mertz and the backloaded schedule will prevent this from happening. Lagway will have no shortage of teams tampering with him if Florida doesn’t quiet the offseason noise with a 7-5 or 8-4 season. The 5-star true freshman will see the field plenty, but it just won’t be in a starting role during a roller-coaster season.

5. Mike Elko will lead upset wins vs. 2 top-10 teams (Mizzou and LSU)

A&M’s 4 biggest games are all at home. Something tells me that Elko will pull off an upset in at least 1 of them, perhaps 2. Both Mizzou and LSU could be ripe for an upset against Weigman and the A&M offense. I don’t know that those squads will have defenses that’ll travel well. That’ll be their undoing against an A&M team that’s the ultimate wild card in 2024 with top-10 wins, as well as losses at Florida and South Carolina.

4. The SEC’s top offense is … Alabama

I believe in Kalen DeBoer. Period. The combination of him and Nick Sheridan will yield an elite offense in Year 1. It’ll barely edge out Tennessee and Georgia, but even with the questions about Jalen Milroe’s transition into DeBoer’s scheme (more on that in a second), the interior offensive line should be elite, as well as a running game that’ll have far more depth than DeBoer had at Washington last year. Germie Bernard and Kobe Prentice will lead a surprisingly effective group of receivers (Williams will have his moments) and the Tide will be forced to roll offensively … because the defense will need all the help it can get.

3. Jalen Milroe will win the 2024 Heisman Trophy

If I had a nickel for every time I said/wrote this offseason that Milroe finished higher in the 2023 Heisman voting than any returner, I’d be a wealthy man. I’m buying the improvement that Milroe will make under DeBoer and Sheridan. I’m buying Alabama having a center who can snap the football. I’m buying a more consistent group of pass-catchers. I’m buying Milroe being the guy who won’t have his career defined by his performance against an all-world Michigan defense. With a defense that’ll force Milroe to stay late in games to add to his stats, I’m predicting a 40-touchdown season that quiets a whole lot of naysayers.

Related: Looking to place a bet on the 2024 Heisman Trophy? SDS has you covered with all the latest odds!

2. Mark Stoops will step down at Kentucky

It’s not just the NCAA probation and the frustration over NIL fundraising. Stoops’ flirtation with A&M — if that’s what you want to call it — felt like the beginning of the end. I wonder if he’s lost the passion for the job that fueled him and got Kentucky out of the SEC basement. There will be surprising retirements/resignations in this new era of the sport, especially with coaches who have already made tens of millions of dollars. Stoops will join that group at season’s end.

1. Texas and Georgia will face off 3 times to decide the SEC and national championships

When Georgia and Texas face off in Austin, yes, it’ll be the start of a 3-game series of sorts. In a division-less SEC, Texas and Georgia could both then run the table in SEC play and get a rematch in Atlanta. Let’s also remember that the national championship is in Atlanta … where the 2 could have a grudge match after splitting the first 2 games. But I’ll take Kirby Smart to make all the right adjustments after a regular-season loss in Austin. UGA will switch to a more ground-heavy approach and have more unique blitzes in both Atlanta matchups to win its third national title in 4 years.

A new SEC rivalry is born.