SEC lessons we learned in Saturday's spring games
We haven’t forgotten about you, Arkansas.
The SEC spring slate isn’t quite finished. But with a full seven televised games on Saturday, it was a great opportunity to learn about the conference’s football landscape in 2016.
Here are five lessons we gleaned from Saturday’s scrimmages.
1. SEC QB clarity hits a snag
We opened 2016 with major question marks at quarterback in part because of a transfer market at the position that touched almost every school.
That chaos turned to clarity after the first set of spring games as Texas A&M named Trevor Knight its starter. Kentucky did the same with Drew Barker immediately after Saturday’s noon ET exhibition. Arkansas pre-empted its spring game by naming Austin Allen the starter more than one week in advance. Vanderbilt all but confirmed Kyle Shurmur as its starter as well, and Florida’s Luke Del Rio exited spring as the clear No. 1.
Three of the seven teams that played Saturday, though, will barrel toward summer seemingly no closer to identifying a starter.
Alabama: Cooper Bateman entered the A-Day game with a slight lead over the other three competitors. With Cam Robinson sitting out spring practice due to injury, the first-team offensive line got railroaded by the likes of Tim Williams and Ryan Anderson. So there wasn’t much to evaluate with Bateman and David Cornwell on Saturday.
Going against a somewhat depleted second-team defense, Blake Barnett and Jalen Hurts were more productive. Both of them held onto the ball too long on occasion. Hurts, while impressive as a scrambler, looked like the lesser passer of the four despite a good completion percentage. And Barnett, who has developed a reputation for pressing a bit, bobbled a snap in the red zone.
From the outside, it seems that Cornwell is the fourth-team player as of now. It would not be a shock if he transferred. But will one of the younger players, Barnett or Hurts, mature enough to pass Bateman by September?
Georgia: A crowd of 93,000 showed up to watch the Bulldogs — and, let’s not kid ourselves, to catch a glimpse of true freshman quarterback Jacob Eason. He responded with a tremendous day, including a pair of perfectly-arched deep balls that dropped right over the shoulder of two well-covered receivers for completions.
Not that it means a lot, but Eason entered the day as the third-team quarterback behind Greyson Lambert and Brice Ramsey. There wasn’t all that much difference in the production of the three players Saturday, which coach Kirby Smart mentioned. So a few pretty throws won’t win Eason the job. He held the ball too long on occasion. He of course knew he was wearing a no-contact jersey and safe from pain. He also did not have to face much adversity, and went against vanilla defensive calls.
It’s doubtful Eason has separated himself, at least not yet. But it will be interesting to see how Smart and coordinator Jim Chaney handle the decision at quarterback. On one side, the coaches can hold back Eason, knowing that’s a feel-good card they can play after a loss to prolong the honeymoon stage. On the other side, Eason’s ability to attack defenses vertically, when paired with a healthy Nick Chubb and a bunch of athletes on defense, makes Georgia a much more dynamic team.
Mississippi State: To summarily suggest that there’s no way the Bulldogs can replace Dak Prescott seems lazy. Mississippi State fans rightly have hammered those that suggest the team’s 18 wins in the last two seasons were all because of one player. Or that coach Dan Mullen, he with one of the richest quarterback-developing resumes in the SEC, can’t find another successful signal-caller.
But after watching the spring game, it’s time to be realistic. I’m not saying that the team will be awful at the position in 2016. But to expect anything other than a significant drop-off seems illogical. There’s just not an All-SEC quarterback on the roster, not for this fall. Not to mention the receiving corps has taken a few painful hits.
I thought entering the spring that Nick Fitzgerald and Elijah Staley eventually would duke it out in the fall. But Damian Williams has played well enough to be entrenched in that conversation as well come fall. If one of those players can rank in the middle of the pack in the SEC this year, that’s a win for this Bulldogs team.
2. New year, same story for the Crimson Tide
As an observer, Alabama’s spring game was insufferable at times. The Tide entered the fourth quarter with four missed field goals and a 0-0 tie.
But look beyond the scoreboard and two things were apparent. The defense is going to get after opposing passers, maybe like never before. And the running game is going to be a major asset once again.
Damien Harris failed to generate much buzz in limited action last fall as a true freshman and got upstaged in the team’s first two spring scrimmages by Bo Scarbrough. It was easy to wonder whether 2016 class signee B.J. Emmons, a summer arrival, could come in and displace Harris as Scarbrough’s tag-team partner in the backfield.
That still may happen. But Saturday was the best I’ve seen Harris in an Alabama uniform. Yes, his 20 carries for 114 yards came against the second-team defense, and we’ve already delineated that unit was missing some pieces. But he looked decisive and fast. At this point I’d be surprised if he doesn’t enter the season as option 1B out of the backfield, if not 1A.
Oh, and that first-team defense without Jarran Reed, Reggie Ragland and Cyrus Jones? It should be fierce as ever. Even without Jonathan Allen on Saturday, the team was in the face of every black-jerseyed quarterback seemingly every play.
There are some terrific pass-catchers on this roster. It could be as deep as Bama has ever been in that regard. But with another new quarterback and some potential questions with the offensive line (even with a healthy Cam Robinson), don’t be shocked if the Tide returns to the familiar script of elite defense and running the ball.
3. LSU’s passing game seems to make progress
It was nothing revolutionary and we still want to see it enacted in game situations. But LSU quarterback Brandon Harris sure seems like he’s ready for a better season.
In a way, this is a catch-22 scenario for LSU coach Les Miles and the philosophy of his program. The roster always seems to be stocked with physically gifted wideouts. And the bar needed to be cleared by the team’s quarterback never is all that high, thanks to a usually-strong defense and running game.
To put it another way, one could argue that Miles has had the tools to engineer a better output from the team’s passing game all along. But, even when it was apparent that the quarterback position should be a major priority following the departure of Zach Mettenberger, Miles never seemed all that flustered.
Finally, this spring, it seems that LSU has devoted huge chunks of practice — and no doubt countless hours by the coaching staff behind the scenes, not to mention the addition of receivers coach and former SEC quarterback Dameyune Craig — toward improving the passing game. Funny how that works, that when you invest that much time and effort toward something, the outcome is positive.
Especially if new coordinator Dave Aranda improves on the effort of the ’15 defense and Leonard Fournette stays healthy, it will be a major development if this apparent progress proves real.
4. Tennessee receiving corps may have uncovered red zone, downfield threats
The Vols were down to four and even three scholarship receivers during the final week of spring practice. On the surface, that seemed like a misfortunate development. Outside of finding a left tackle and implementing the defense of new coordinator Bob Shoop, cultivating the downfield passing game has been perceived as a top priority for this team.
Yes, Butch Jones has been known to spin things positively. But for this one, we’re with him. It turned out to be a giant silver lining for Team 120.
On just two plays, the 6-foot-6 Jeff George convinced me that he’ll be one of the best red zone threats in the SEC East this fall. That joke that you’ve heard a few times now about his name also belonging to a certain former quarterback? Expect to be sick of hearing it from broadcasters by mid-October.
I still expect Josh Smith and Josh Malone to be the top receivers on the team. Ethan Wolf and Jauan Jennings should contribute as pass catchers. But Preston Williams, named the team’s most improved offensive player this spring, can give UT the vertical threat it lacked last season.
At 6-foot-4 and 209 pounds, Williams has the size/speed combination to demand safety help downfield and buy extra space for Tennessee’s strong running game. He averaged 22.6 yards per catch in limited action in ’15, and added three catches for 77 yards Saturday. The extra practice reps can only help aide his development.
5. Kentucky’s defense may be its undoing again
At one point Saturday, every UK beat writer was virtually slobbering over JUCO transfer quarterback Stephen Johnson.
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, the backup still looks as if one good collision to the midsection from an SEC linebacker could snap him in half. Wearing a no-contact jersey, Johnson — who is lightning quick — dashed for 69 rushing yards mostly against the first-team defense.
Johnson was never intended to win the starting job. The team named Drew Barker the starter in what had to have been a planned move as soon as the spring game ended. But Johnson’s scrambles shined a beam of light on a bigger problem: Kentucky’s run defense.
Yes, Chris Westry has All-SEC potential at cornerback. Yes, Denzil Ware was all over the field Saturday with 15 tackles and 4 “sacks.” But if UK continues to get manhandled at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, notching that elusive sixth win and earning a bowl appearance may be just out of reach once again.
The receivers and running backs still dropped too many passes, though I feel confident that new offensive coordinator Eddie Gran is the right man to coach up that group into the fall. The team signed two outstanding prep offensive linemen that should improve that unit in the years to come.
But if Johnson could break free like that against the defense, what’s going to happen when UK faces Joshua Dobbs (Tennessee) or Lamar Jackson (Louisville)?