Phil Steele breaks down how SEC East and West will shape out in 2016
College football analyst human encyclopedia Phil Steele joined the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday to discuss his preseason predictions for the SEC East and West divisions ahead of the upcoming 2016 season.
It’s a no-brainer for the East, as Steele believes that Tennessee “is the most experienced” and “the most talented” team in the division and should be the easy favorite to play in the conference championship game in December.
“When I look at Tennessee, here’s what I see — I see a team that, last year, had four losses, but if you change one play in each of those games and it’s a team that could have potentially gone 13-0,” said Steele. “They were just one play away from winning all four games.
“Butch Jones has said, ‘we’re a young team, we’re a young team’ for all three years. He can’t say that this year. He’s got 17 returning starters. They lose 16 lettermen, but they’ve got Joshua Dobbs back. It’s a junior-senior team, and this is a Tennessee team that has the most experience in the East, and I think the most talented. I’m going with Tennessee to win the East.”
Things get a little bit more complicated on the other side of the SEC. Arguably the nation’s most difficult division, Steele says the West could be won by three different teams, but right now, he has a “tie for first” between Alabama and LSU.
“I have a tie for first in the SEC West this year; I’ve got Alabama and LSU,” Steele said. “In my power poll, I name Alabama as the most talented team in the country, but the top four teams in the SEC this year are Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and LSU [no particular order].
“Alabama has to play each of the other three on the road. That’s going to make it very difficult to run the table, but when you look at the Tide, the fact that they get back Jonathan Allen at defensive end, Reuben Foster at middle linebacker, Eddie Jackson [at corner] — three guys that could have gone to the NFL. That’s huge. You look at them offensively, I don’t think they’ll miss too much of a beat even without Derrick Henry. I like Damien Harris, Bo Scarborough; they’ve won three of their last four national titles with a first-year starting quarterback; Calvin Ridley, Robert Foster in the receiving corps; O.J. Howard at tight end. It’s a loaded Alabama team.”
Alabama will likely enter the season as either the No. 1 or 2 team in the country when the first AP Top 25 preseason poll comes out this summer. And while Steele is obviously very high on the Tide — for many great reasons, as described above — he cautions those listening/reading to watch out for LSU.
The Tigers have what it takes to dethrone Alabama in 2016.
“LSU is loaded as well,” said Steele. “The key piece they’re missing is at quarterback, everything else is beautiful. Leonard Fournette at running back, two NFL receivers in Travin Dural and Malachi Dupre, an outstanding offensive line, practically the entire defense is back, plus they get Dave Aranda at defensive coordinator — he did so much more with Wisconsin’s defense and he steps in here and has more talent than he ever had at Wisconsin.
“That’s a dangerous LSU team, and the game I’m really looking forward to, Paul, is November 5 when LSU hosts Alabama,” he continued. “That’s not only going to determine the West, but potentially the SEC and maybe even the national title.”
Without question, it’s going to be another fun year in the SEC.
Steele is right about Jones and Tennessee. Jones cant use the “we are a young team” anymore. Sink or swim. Where Jones lost all those games was in the 2nd half of ALL of them. The defense was on the field almost all tje 2nd half of all those games. Arkansas whiiped us plain and simple out of all 4. Jones was taken to school in that game. He came in to stop the run but Arkansas passing attack beat Tennessee. Like I said before, Tennessee didnt get outplayed in those 4 games, they got outcoached. This is gonna be the make or break year for Jones.
Alabama always is in it every yeat even if they had to replace everyone. When you recruit all 4 and 5 star talent, ots easy to reload not rebuild. LSU is still without a QB. Arkansas showed everyone how to beat LSU, stop the run and they are done. LSU cant pass. None of the QBs they have is a passer, not even a good passer. Franks flipping to Florida hurt LSU. Until LSU gets a QB again, they will be 2nd or 3rd in the west for a long time.
I totally agree about LSU. It’s gone on too long (no QB, no passing game). Until you prove to us that you can throw the ball in the 4th qtr, when you HAVE to, against a good defense… I am not buying it. I can’t give them the benefit of the doubt anymore.
We know they can run it. We know they will have studs on D. But they have to develop a legit QB. And I dont care what the stats say in the first few games against the cupcakes and the sh*tty SEC teams. Anyone can throw on those teams.
For once, I agree with you. LSU with s passing game would give me nightmares. They’d be a force.
Right, let’s not talk about that !
Tennessee is not young. Tennessee is experienced & talented. Tennessee is the only team in the East with a quarterback & a tailback. Tennessee probably should be the favorite in the East. Maybe that’s why Tennessee is the favorite in the East. Just a wild guess.
That’s what he was saying man, TN isn’t a young team so they cannot use the same excuse is all.
Franks isn’t a passer either. Ark shows how to beat LSU only since they’ve been getting them the game after the Bama game. And it’s already been shown at LSU they don’t need a great Qb to win it all. But they do need the run games two leading blockers to stay healthy unlike the last two seasons. He’s right tho it’s Bama LSU Ole Miss.
And just like when you said before that Tennessee got outcoached, you are 100%, totally, completely, absolutely wrong.
So what happened?
I’d love to hear his answer to this… Because not going for 2 in the Florida game is bad coaching. Deciding to play conservatively with a 17-point lead is bad coaching. Consistently being unable to stop a team on fourth down in the 4th quarter is bad coaching. Jones isn’t necessarily a bad coach, but he made really stupid decisions in some games last year and lost us games.
CHIPPY
Another small minded post from you? I hope you realize you repeated what was written in the article and made a complete fool of yourself.
Did you finish High School?
Why the F didnt onathan Allen, Reuben Foster, Eddie Jackson AND/OR O.J. Howard leave and go to the NFL?!?!?!
Fiddle Sticks! That would have been nice for the rest of the conference. Stupid F’ing decision.
Believe me, I wish Williams and Alex Collins both were going to be back in Fayetteville next season. However, along with the others, I can’t blame ’em for wanting to move on to the NFL. If they decide to play college ball one more season, they could end up hurt and likely never get the chance again. Especially Williams, since he was hurt last spring, and that caused him to miss the entire season. So, you never know. Then there’s also the millions of dollars thing, which I can only imagine would be extremely hard to turn down. Those things alone are reasons I really can’t blame anyone for making the decision to go pro instead of staying another season.
Who did he pick in 2015
Steele really going out on a limb here. I get the East prediction but that doesn’t mean Georgia won’t be very good. But the West isn’t as cut and dry as “LSU-Bama”. I think it’s a 3-4 team race with so many teams having key positions to fill.
I agree with Tenn to win the East, they won’t have any excuses this year. LSU is just way overrated. LSU won’t come close to winning the West. It will be between Bama and OM.
I’m not sure it’s that cut and dry either lol. I’d like to think we are in it, but I think it’s wide open. Our clear advantage is having the best QB in the SEC.
Best qb in the west (probably) but dobbs is better.
Dobbs? Really? He’s good, but he’s not better than Kelly. Biased or not, I think most non UT fans agree.
Crazy corndogs, Dobbs had what 15 TDs
Kelly had 31 TDs and 41 total TDs !
Corndogs make me smile, LOL
OM will have an advantage with Chad Kelly compared to the rest of the west, however he is turnover prone.
UT has a better rushing attack than OM which means Dobbs has less chance to turn it over than Kelly. If OM defense isn’t as solid as last year then Kelly will turnover your season into a 3-5 loss season(FSU, Bama, LSU, Arky, possibly Vandy(YES VANDY) or UGA). Look at the Vandy or Aub games neither team had an offense so the could not take advantage of the turnovers Kelly GAVE them.
Disagree with the turnovers. Kelly is only getting better !
In the last four games, Kelly was 11 TDs to 1 int that was against good teams.
And our losses were to teams with NFL qbs, because our secondary sucks from injuries.
And we play nine teams with Qb issues, so I don’t know where you think this offense is coming from. Either way, they will still have to score 40 points to keep up with Kelly !
And rushing Tenn had 32TDs to 29 TDs, so that’s not far off.
Not to mention OM was 2nd in the SEC in yds/a, yes LSu was 1st.
Yes TN does have a better rushing game. That doesn’t make Dobbs a better QB than Kelly. Besides, our run game could improve. (Not at all saying it would be close to TN or LSU or UGA). But it isn’t going to be as bad as last year I’d like to think. But Kelly is the better QB. Like I said Dobbs is good, just not better than Kelly.
I think we all agree on him being a GOOD QB. I think Kelly was a better QB down the stretch, however I’m not sold on him being able to protect the ball an entire season, the same way I’m not sold on LSU becoming a pass happy team.
Btw Rebel_Landshark thank you for proving me wrong,I thought you couldn’t go a post with mentioning corndogs. lol
LOL, that’s only for ‘Sacman’ :) !!!!!!
ive still yet to see him make a post without ‘LOL’ in it.
One step at a time :)
Predicting who will win is foolish. The question is which personalities will want to win the MOST. The best coach, the best history, the best rated recruits, the most fans in the stadium,….none of those things will get a team past 11 defense and 11 offense who simply believe they can win and are willing to put out the work from August thru November. I haven’t seen any speculation toward ‘that’ unless ole phil believe that being a returning starter = desire…. it does not. Here is the list of teams i believe have more of those personalities EAST: Missouri, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, on the fence Georgia and Florida. Although I think Kentucky and South Carolina have a have some other qualities going for them. WEST: I don’t know the 2016 leaders from the 2015’s graduated but, I don’t get a good feeling from AL or LSU’s rosters. aTm will be improved, Arkansas steady. I don’t get a good feeling from the Auburn coaching staff, the Mississippi State key players. Ole Miss will be lucky if they don’t have to forfeit last years wins, much less win this years key contests, Florida too.
This post made me laugh. So thank you for that.
Did you just predict that Missouri and Vandy will finish in the top 3 of the east?
Overall, Kelly I think is a better QB – Dobbs is a better runner, Kelly a better passer, but Kelly can scramble. If Dobbs can take the next step and improve his passing just a bit, UT will be in the SEC championship game. I am also looking forward to what Shoop can do with the UT defense. Should be entertaining.
Agree. Dobbs is a very good QB. TN has no excuses not to win the East this year. Nobody in the East should beat them. The only game you guys should lose it to Bama. And with them replacing so much on offense, you should beat them too. I’m excited for the year to start because I think we’ll finally see a couple different teams in Atlanta this year. Not saying it’ll be Ole Miss from the west (I mean I hope so) but I don’t think Bama and LSU are locks as everyone seems to think.
I would like to see a championship game matchup between Chad Kelly and Dobbs. Then we can compare the two.
I would like to see any run first team against Ole Miss !!!
If you’re looking at this from a purely talent standpoint, Tennessee should win the east this year, and Alabama should win the west every single year. But that’s why you play the games. I’m giving Tennessee the benefit of the doubt (for some reason, they’ve never given anyone a reason to under Butch Jones), and I expect them to win the East. That being said, Georgia and Florida both have the talent to win it. I really don’t think the West will be close. Alabama should win, and I really think Ole Miss will be their only true competition. I think the LSU hype is undeserved and kind of crazy. Those are just my opinions though! Can’t wait till the season gets here so we can find out. Go dawgs!
And they were also one play away from losing a game that they won against UGA, if Chubb doesn’t go down, UGA wins that game!