Memorial Day weekend signals the unofficial start to summer. We’re three months from football season, which means every SEC team is now on the clock. They each have three months — and here’s one thing each team must focus on in those months.

West

Alabama: Cleaning up the flags

The Tide have the most talent in college football, so what can they improve? Well, tidying up the penalty game would be a good start. Last season, Alabama drew 86 penalty flags, while their opponents were flagged just 58 times. While some penalties are healthy, here’s guessing Nick Saban is stressing discipline this offseason.

Arkansas: Red zone run defense

The Razorbacks struggled defensively in 2016, allowing over 31 points per game. But one place where the struggle was especially visible was in red zone run defense. Arkansas allowed opponents to score touchdowns once in the red zone almost 73 percent of the time. And of those 35 touchdowns, 28 came on the ground, meaning Arkansas gave up the most red zone running scores in the league. That must change in 2017.

Auburn: Catching the Ball

Sure, Jarrett Stidham is bringing the pass back to Auburn. But who catches the ball? Auburn returns no player from 2016 with more than 25 catches or 292 receiving yards. There is talent, but somebody will have to answer the bell or Auburn will be one-dimensional again.

LSU: That thing called the forward pass

LSU players and fans have bought in to Matt Canada’s system. It’s worked everywhere he’s been … and he’s never had as much talent on hand as he has in Baton Rouge. Still, the spring game performance was troubling. Maybe most of that can be blamed on Danny Etling’s back injury, which required surgery just days after the spring game. Everybody knows about Derrius Guice and the run game.

But one-dimensional teams don’t beat Alabama. LSU finished 13th in the SEC last season in passing yards (2,281) and tied for 11th with just 12 TD throws. Both numbers need to be substantially higher.

Mississippi State: Pass defense

Dan Mullen’s team had never allowed 281.5 yards per game in the air — until last season. When considering that the Bulldogs played more than a few teams that weren’t exactly the early 1990s Buffalo Bills, it’s truly puzzling. Kentucky passed for nearly 300 yards on the Bulldogs, and if things don’t change, Mullen might have a second straight losing season.

Ole Miss: Run defense

Any defense would help, but the Rebels had the bad luck to play in the run-heavy West, which led to them being gashed for 246 yards per game on the ground. If Ole Miss doesn’t get better front seven play, Shea Patterson won’t be on the field long enough to win many games.

Texas A&M: Converting 3rd downs/keeping the ball

A&M’s offense is usually a strong point, and 2016 was no different. But the Aggies faltered in 3rd down conversions (39.2 percent, 11th in the SEC), which also led them to struggle with time of possession.

A&M’s opponents averaged seven more minutes per game of possession, and the Aggies have to keep a Myles Garrett-less defense off the field more in 2017.

East

Florida: Cash in from the red zone

Sure, the offense in general has struggled for Jim McElwain’s two seasons. But one of the hidden culprits is red zone production. Florida scored just 21 touchdowns in 42 red zone appearances in 2016. No other SEC squad approached ending half of its red zone trips without touchdowns. Florida has to turn goose eggs and field goals into touchdowns in 2017.

Georgia: Offensive consistency

There’s really no reason that a UGA team with Nick Chubb, Sony Michel, Jacob Eason, Isaiah McKenzie and Isaac Nauta finished 11th in the SEC in scoring and in total yardage. The offensive line was leaky last season, but there are no individual issue here among the playmakers.

The problem was that UGA’s offense just never got going — which it has to if the Bulldogs are going to go from East favorites to East champs.

Kentucky: Turnovers

Kentucky was third in the SEC in rushing and led the league in 4th-down conversions. The problem the Wildcats faced is that they gave the ball away too much. UK’s -7 turnover margin was the worst in the SEC by far, mostly because UK lost 16 fumbles, also the most in the SEC.

Ball security could be the different between 5-7, 7-5, or 9-3 for the Wildcats in 2017.

Missouri: Kicking

For the worst team in the league in 2016, there are plenty of things to correct. But one must fix is the kicking game. Highly regarded freshman Tucker McCann made just 6 of 12 kicks. Three of his misses were on kicks inside 30 yards.

The Tigers missed six extra points (no other SEC team missed more than two) and converted less than half of their field goals. Mizzou’s red zone offense was second-worst in the SEC, in large part due to five missed field goals. Yuck.

South Carolina: Protecting the QB

Carolina had an impressive 2016 campaign, and sophomore QB Jake Bentley should have a strong 2017 — if he stays alive. Carolina’s QBs took 41 sacks in 2016, six more than the 13th-place team allowed.

Had Carolina allowed one more sack, the Gamecocks would’ve given up twice as many as they themselves inflicted. Bentley isn’t made of steel, and Carolina’s pass blocking is a must to upgrade.

Tennessee: Patience — and replacements

For Butch Jones — but more so for Volunteer Nation — the challenge is going to be figuring out who to plug into some formerly familiar shoes, i.e. replacing QB Joshua Dobbs, RB Alvin Kamara, DE Derek Barnett, LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin and DB Cam Sutton.

Even more important, Tennessee (and Jones) will have to stay patient as young players labor to learn their new roles.

Vanderbilt: Rushing the passer

Vandy’s defense lost its best player — LB Zach Cunningham — and somehow has to come up with a legitimate pass rush.

Vandy had just 15 sacks in 2016 even with the dynamic Cunningham. Tennessee’s Derek Barnett nearly surpassed Vandy’s total by himself.

If the Commodores can’t figure out a way to make noise in the front seven, they’ll be back off the bowl circuit quickly.