🏈 Who will win the SEC West in 2009?

[alagator]

i'm not sure that it's so much a matter of quality of player as it is gelling and playing together as a unit. the line has to play together. that doesn't come overnight and in the spur of the moment or even over a week of practice before a bowl game. that comes over spring, fall camp... if it comes in that short a period of time. no doubt it would be great if we had 2 Alonzo Ephraims 1 Antoine Caldwell and 2 Andre Smiths we'd be better off, but it doesn't take a line made of all-stars to have a great line.

one thing for sure... the Bama ole miss game in 09 is going to be a game to watch.

Quality offensive linemen, that was the term you used, should be able to substitute into an existing group and be able to run the ball and pass block better than the pathetic results we witnessed in both the Tulane and Utah games. Granted, the line may not remain at Porsche levels, but they skipped right past Mercedes and Acura and even Toyota and Honda levels down to Hugo levels with just ONE substitution.

Our substitutes, when given the opportunity to play against non-scrubs, demonstrated they are not ready for prime time. Other teams, Georgia comes to mind (and even Auburn in 2007 when they played three true freshmen on their OL and still won a lot of games with physical line play - chop blocks aside), seem to do well on their OLs without having to wait three years for a unit to develop cohesiveness.

We need about a dozen more current players on scholarship to lose that status in order to fit in all the recruits we expect to sign in a few weeks. Unless I am grossly wrong, you will see about half that number come from the ranks of the current OLmen. That will be telling about what the staff things about their ability to contribute toward championship performance.

 

[Guest]

I think it's a toss-up between LSU, Alabama and Ole Miss.

All three teams lose their fair share of players.

Alabama returns the most on defense if I'm not mistaken, so if they can get someone to carry them at the QB position they can win the division.

Ole Miss needs to remain consistent. They could have easily been 4-0 entering the game against Florida this season, so they could also try and win some more close contests in 2009.

LSU needs to get great QB play and leadership from younger plays, or senior running backs. They have a proven defensive coordinator now, too.

 

[TerryP]

Quality offensive linemen, that was the term you used, should be able to substitute into an existing group and be able to run the ball and pass block better than the pathetic results we witnessed in both the Tulane and Utah games. Granted, the line may not remain at Porsche levels, but they skipped right past Mercedes and Acura and even Toyota and Honda levels down to Hugo levels with just ONE substitution.

In a sense, I agree with this completely.

It's one of the things I pointed out earlier in my editorial about Pendry. That ONE substitution really ended up being TWO when the left side of the line was completely re-shuffled.

FWIW, I can't say I can honestly put Tulane in the same sentence as Utah. Mainly because of that one substitution becoming two on the left side, and we lost Marlon very, very early on in that game as well.