Most important assistant on every SEC team
Head coaches matter in college football. They’re the leaders of the program, and the guys taking the questions in victory and defeat.
The assistant coaches don’t always get the same glory, but you won’t have a winning program without a quality coaching staff. It’s no accident that head coaches are always pressuring the athletic department to free up more money to pay top-notch assistants.
There are dozens of excellent assistants in the SEC, but here is one from each team that will play a major role in their team’s fortunes in 2016:
ALABAMA
Lane Kiffin, offensive coordinator: He’s about to enter his third year as Nick Saban’s offensive coordinator, and in that short time, he’s become a key part of Alabama’s success. His offenses have been effective — and versatile.
In 2015, the Crimson Tide ranked third in the SEC in rushing yards per game behind record-setting running back Derrick Henry. The year before, quarterback Blake Sims propelled Alabama to the league’s fourth-ranked passing offense.
Love him or hate him, assuming he can get into the stadium, he’s turned into Saban’s right-hand man.
ARKANSAS
Kurt Anderson, offensive line coach: Bret Bielema’s teams have become well known for producing big, powerful offensive linemen that grind down defenses in the running game. With Sam Pittman joining Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia, the job of keeping that legacy going falls to Anderson.
Anderson, who spent last season with the Buffalo Bills, will have to replace three starters from last year’s unit. How quickly he can forge a cohesive unit will be critical to any success the Razorbacks have offensively in 2016.
AUBURN
Kevin Steele, defensive coordinator: Steele is the third defensive coordinator in as many seasons at Auburn, following Will Muschamp and Ellis Johnson. He spent the 2015 season in the same role at LSU, where his unit finished fifth in total defense and 10th in scoring defense.
He has a wealth of experience, with stops at Alabama and Clemson also on his resume, but adding some stability to the unit would be almost as valuable than any on-field contributions.
This is shaping up to be an important season for coach Gus Malzahn, and some improvement from his defense (which ranked near the bottom of the SEC last fall) would ease the burden on the offense and the eventual winner of the quarterback derby.
FLORIDA
Geoff Collins, defensive coordinator: With head coach Jim McElwain’s offensive background, having a good defensive mind on staff is a must. Collins aptly fills that role for the Gators.
His first defense in Gainesville finished near the top of the league in most statistical measures, but the departure of six starters will test Collins’ mettle a bit this season.
His track record suggests that he’ll mold another solid unit, leaving McElwain free to figure things out on the other side of the ball.
GEORGIA
Jim Chaney, offensive coordinator: Chaney’s hire, in conjunction with Pittman being named offensive line coach, suggests that the Bulldogs plan to run the ball a lot under new coach Kirby Smart.
With the running backs on the roster, that sounds like a good idea. Chaney also coached Drew Brees at Purdue, so he knows a thing or too about grooming talented players (like Jacob Eason) at the quarterback position.
Smart’s forte is defense, so Chaney will have plenty of say on how the Georgia offense is run. So much of its success or failure will fall at his feet.
KENTUCKY
Darin Hinshaw, co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach: Right now, Drew Barker is the only quarterback on the Kentucky roster who has taken a snap at the major college level. Getting the most out of him and the rest of the Wildcats quarterbacks is Hinshaw’s biggest challenge in his first season in Lexington.
In the spring, he’s preaching fundamentals to his players. No matter who wins the job (likely Barker or JUCO transfer Stephen Johnson II), getting better play from the position could help the team get over the hump — and back into a bowl game — in 2016.
LSU
Cam Cameron, offensive coordinator: He’s a frequent source of criticism for Tigers fans, but Cameron is still a key figure on coach Les Miles’ staff.
Whether he can generate more offense this season than he did during a late-season collapse last fall will determine how long he remains in Baton Rouge.
For better or worse, he’s committed to changing things up a bit and throwing the football more.
“There will be improvement, there will be a noticeable change,” he told the Times-Picayune. “The people at practice yesterday (high school coaches) thought there was a noticeable change. There was a couple of periods there where we threw three balls each down and the ball didn’t hit the ground, and that’s a start. For probably 20 minutes the ball never hit the ground. Collectively, you’re going to see improvement.”
MISSISSIPPI STATE
Peter Sirmon, defensive coordinator: Like at Auburn, there has been a bit of a revolving door for the defensive coordinator job in Starkville, with Sirmon following Manny Diaz and Geoff Collins.
Sirmon arrives from Southern Cal, where he coached linebackers for the past two seasons. He’s a Washington native and an Oregon grad, but he knows the region after a seven-year NFL career with the Tennessee Titans and a two-year stint as an assistant with the Volunteers.
In a year when coach Dan Mullen is focused on replacing the most decorated quarterback in school history, Sirmon will need to hit the ground running in his first year as a coordinator.
MISSOURI
Josh Heupel, offensive coordinator: Missouri’s offense was one of the worst in college football last season, finishing 127th out of 128 FBS teams in scoring offense (13.6 points per game).
Heupel is the man tasked with changing that, after a year as Utah State’s offensive coordinator and three seasons in that role at Oklahoma before that.
He’ll need to oversee a retooling of the offensive line while continuing to develop his young quarterback, Drew Lock. It’s a pretty large rebuilding job, and one that has to be done while playing a SEC schedule, albeit an SEC East one.
OLE MISS
Dave Wommack, defensive coordinator: The Rebels led the SEC in scoring defense in 2o14, allowing just 16 points per game. That figure jumped to 22.6 last season, so Wommack will try to reverse that trend in 2016.
He’ll have to do that while replacing more than half of his starters, but thanks to a string of solid recruiting classes, the pieces should be in place to make it possible.
Wommack seems happy with his unit’s progress this spring, singing the praises of his young players to reporters at the team’s workouts.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Kurt Roper, offensive coordinator: Will Muschamp hired Roper before his final year at Florida in the hopes that the former Duke and Ole Miss coordinator could jumpstart his team’s offense.
He didn’t get the chance to finish that job, but he’ll be starting with Muschamp from day one in Columbia. The coaching staff closed the talent gap a bit with a decent run late in the recruiting cycle, giving Roper some contenders for playing time at the skill positions.
With a true freshman (Brandon McIlwain) potentially winning the starting quarterback job, and other newcomers likely to fill spots in the two-deep, it won’t take very long to see how Roper holds up in his latest coaching endeavor.
TENNESSEE
Bob Shoop, defensive coordinator: Fourth-quarter collapses against Oklahoma and Florida soured the first half of Tennessee’s 2015 season, and the blame — fairly or unfairly — fell on defensive coordinator John Jancek, who was let go at season’s end.
Enter Shoop, formerly with coach James Franklin at Vanderbilt and Penn State, as the man tasked with building on the Volunteers’ solid overall defensive numbers from last season while giving the unit that extra push that takes them over the top.
With the returning talent he has on hand, most notably Derek Barnett, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Cameron Sutton, he’ll have every chance to do just that.
TEXAS A&M
John Chavis, defensive coordinator: The heat is on for coach Kevin Sumlin, but at least he doesn’t have to worry about his defense.
Chavis propelled the Aggies from the bottom of the SEC in total defense in 2014 to the middle of the pack in his first season. The unit finished third in the league in sacks while allowing seven fewer points and 70 fewer yards it did in 2014.
With seven starters back, the unit could take another step forward this fall, easing the pressure on Sumlin and new offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone a bit in the process.
VANDERBILT
Andy Ludwig, offensive coordinator: Coach Derek Mason has built a respectable defense in his two seasons in Nashville. But the development of the offense hasn’t moved at the same pace.
Ludwig, entering his second season in charge of the Vanderbilt offense, is working to change that. His work with rising sophomore quarterback Kyle Shurmur will be the key to any improvement on the 15.2 points the unit averaged last season.
With Shurmur and six other starters back from last year’s unit, Ludwig has a fighting chance to field a unit that puts more points on the board — which would bring that good defense into play more often.