It hasn’t been the best year for the SEC in general, as the conference has lacked the amount of big-name wins over other power-five schools that its racked up in previous years.

Granted, Alabama is still strong at the top of the conference, and Georgia, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Kentucky have all looked strong.

Outside of that, though, the rest of the teams look mediocre or worse, and ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum says coaching problems are to blame:

Indeed, the days of Les Miles, Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer, Bobby Petrino and other top-level coaches are over in the SEC, with Kirby Smart and Dan Mullen trying to work their way up to that level.

Finebaum is probably right about coaching being to blame for the conference’s struggles this year, but change could be coming — it’s not inconceivable to think that as many as seven SEC teams could have new head coaches in 2018.