🏈 Who's your top 5 overhyped teams or players for 2014?

[Max]

1. Auburn. A bunch of lucky breaks last year and over half of them at home. This year they are on the road for those games they slipped through last year.
2. Ole Miss. A better season than most likely finishing tied for third in the division. A Liberty Bowl team.
3. Leonard Fournette. He's getting comparisons to Adrian Peterson and hasn't carried the ball a single snap in college ball?
4. LSU as a team. I can see them tied with Ole Miss for third in the west but winning a tiebreaker to put them in the Cotton.
5. USCe and their defense. When I heard their offense would be their best defense I translated that to they don't have an offense.

 

[bama alum]

Completely agree with you about #s 1 and 2. I do think the barn will probably be a 8 - 4 team. The Jawja game is the only toss up for me.

I think Fournette could be in the top five SEC freshmen lists. Lester's OL is better than average, and this kid does have a lot of talent.

 

[sean]

my list would be:

auburn - agree on the lucky breaks they got last season is what put them in the title game.

ole miss - they have a returning starter at qb.....so what? as a team ole miss under-performed last season. why should this season be any different.

south carolina - like 12gage said, their offense will be their strong point. but it's not THAT strong. and not having a good or even decent defense means you will have to go into a shootout with just about every team you play. Spurrier could do that when he was at florida...but not at south carolina. at least not this year.

tennessee - i've heard a bunch of talk about their recruiting class and how good it is. well, all those new recruits won't be on the field this season, unless they have a massive amount of injuries or those recruits really are that good and they all get to start in place of the multiple-year starters that have been there.

ALABAMA - as a team, i think we'll be fine. but as for players i wish they'd just stop talking about them. of course i'm talking about Jacob Coker. a lot of sports journalists have written him down as the heir-apparent to AJ and say he'll be the starter when he steps on campus. if there's one thing we know about Coach Saban is he will decide who will be the starter and that won't be before practice resumes. i know there's really nothing else to talk about at this point in the "season", but i just wish they'd leave it alone.....

 

[252BAMA]

1. Auburn. A bunch of lucky breaks last year and over half of them at home. This year they are on the road for those games they slipped through last year.
2. Ole Miss. A better season than most likely finishing tied for third in the division. A Liberty Bowl team.
3. Leonard Fournette. He's getting comparisons to Adrian Peterson and hasn't carried the ball a single snap in college ball?
4. LSU as a team. I can see them tied with Ole Miss for third in the west but winning a tiebreaker to put them in the Cotton.
5. USCe and their defense. When I heard their offense would be their best defense I translated that to they don't have an offense.

1. I have them losing all 4 SEC road games this year
2. Sorry, but I'm on that bandwagon. I have them tied for second at 6-2 with MSU and winning the tie-breaker HTH
3. Agree
4. I have them in a 3 way tie for fourth at 4-4 with *u and ARK and finishing sixth. Round robin is thusly, *u 2-0, ARK 1-1, and LSU 0-2.
5. East is so weak, they will win it anyway even if you are right. I think you meant that they don't have a defense.

 

[BamaFan334]

1. Jameis Winston - I didn't see anything that spectacular out of him last year. Call me stupid, but I just didn't see it. His team played the worst schedule out of anyone in the Top 10 other than maybe Ohio State, their competition didn't finish .500 combined, so how can we go by that as he was this awesome force? His arrogance and cockiness is another thing that makes me want to puke, because the kid is simply an idiot, and he magnifies it for everyone to see. He benefitted from having good personnel around him. Watch a lot of his passes and the fact it took good hands and athleticism to bring his wobblers and high passes down. Can't stand the kid and think he will fail this year after playing a couple teams of note.

2. Auburn - Another team I see losing 2-3 games atleast. They had a heck of a run last year, they were good and underestimated. This year they are without a stud running back, their all world defensive lineman, and their big time recruit Lawson. I think they'll still be good, but not 11,or 12 game good.

3. Ohio State - I feel as if this team will fall off a ton after all they lost. Their schedule was right there with Florida State's in the fact they played a lousy schedule. I just don't think this year shapes up like the analysts think.

4. UCLA - They are a few years away in my mind. All of this hype and yet they still haven't really won a game of note. Nebraska is mediocre and a mid-tier team these days, so not major victory there. Beat USC all you want, but it's Oregon and Stanford that run the show out West.

5. Georgia - I think Georgia has a lot of issues to overcome. They have arguably the best running back in the country and a ton of athletes, but they also have no proven defense. Mason is a dang good quarterback, but his line is going to have to block and his receivers will have to step up. I think Georgia finds a way to lose 3-4 games this year. I only put them on here because so many Georgia fans are annoying and ESPN analysts are tabbing them possible SEC East winners. No way they ascend to the top after kicking their secondary off the team and having to revamp a unit that has underachieved the past few years.

I also want to say I think Fournette will be the real deal stud everyone says he is. You don't flop very often on a guy with his size and speed. He has proven against other recruits he can tote the rock. I think he's gonna be hell on wheels.

 

[TerryP]

One thing that makes me skeptical on Fournette having the year they are saying he will is what he's working with on offense.

There isn't any doubt in my mind they have one of the better offensive lines in the SEC. They're going to run the ball, and successfully. However, until proven otherwise, teams will stack eight and nine in the box and focus on stopping the running game because of the unproven situations at WR and QB.

Even when we play in November I'm not sure they'll can establish a good enough passing attack to make our defense focus on that threat. I can see more of the approach we took with Jefferson.

 

[riz]

Going with UCLA.

 

[TerryP]

Going with UCLA.

Why?

 

[PhillyGirl]

Auburn, Ohio State, FSU, and .. Alabama ..

 

[riz]

Why?

Just not sold on them. I don't think Hundley is as good as the media does, and I think their relative success of late has been more a function of USC being down than Mora being awesome. Just my thoughts.

 

[TerryP]

Just not sold on them. I don't think Hundley is as good as the media does, and I think their relative success of late has been more a function of USC being down than Mora being awesome. Just my thoughts.

Given the choice, Mora or Richt? They seem about on par with each other (don't know a lot about Mora though.)

 

[psychojoe]

1. USCw is usually ranked higher than they should be, a condition we have faced at various times.

2. Ole Miss-sometimes returning a two year starter at QB is not a good thing.

3. Maty Mauk- most of the weapons he had a year ago are gone, especially at WR.

4. Georgia- brand new QB and questions on defense.

5. I hope not, but Jacob Coker. Very high accolades for someone who has never started a college game, never heard a noisy crowd at LSU, never had to take his team down the field for score with the game on the line in the fourth quarter. Obviously we did well in 2009 and again in 2011 with first year starters, but Greg and A J did not have to deal with all the hype that has preceded Coker.

 

[TerryP]

Georgia has popped up a few times.

Joe Cox rode the bench for several years and didn't fulfill expectations. Then we've got DJ Shockley who did the same behind David Greene and took the 'Dawgs to the Sugar Bowl. Terreshinski didn't do badly when he took over the starting role after riding the bench. His injury really doesn't give us enough to make a decision about how good of a quarterback he was other than five or six games in early 2005.

The point is backups at UGA after spending years in Richt's system tend to do well. They aren't horrible. Mason started the last two games and put up numbers very similar to what Murray did last year (with awful play from his receivers against Nebraska.)

Their linebackers deserve consideration for the best group in the SEC.

 

[BamaFan334]

Georgia has popped up a few times.

Joe Cox rode the bench for several years and didn't fulfill expectations. Then we've got DJ Shockley who did the same behind David Greene and took the 'Dawgs to the Sugar Bowl. Terreshinski didn't do badly when he took over the starting role after riding the bench. His injury really doesn't give us enough to make a decision about how good of a quarterback he was other than five or six games in early 2005.

The point is backups at UGA after spending years in Richt's system tend to do well. They aren't horrible. Mason started the last two games and put up numbers very similar to what Murray did last year (with awful play from his receivers against Nebraska.)

Their linebackers deserve consideration for the best group in the SEC.

Hutson Mason will be a good quarterback. Set all kinds of passing records in Georgia and has the size to do it. I just think they'll hit a lull like they always do. I was a Georgia fan for most of my life until I attended Alabama, and I can remember having so much talent it could rival anyone in the country, but they just can't seem to put it together. With their secondary gone, they simply don't have as much talent as they'll need to contend for an SEC or a National Championship. I could easily be wrong, but I feel good in my assessment that they'll end up like last year, maybe a game better.

 

[TerryP]

Hutson Mason will be a good quarterback. Set all kinds of passing records in Georgia and has the size to do it. I just think they'll hit a lull like they always do. I was a Georgia fan for most of my life until I attended Alabama, and I can remember having so much talent it could rival anyone in the country, but they just can't seem to put it together. With their secondary gone, they simply don't have as much talent as they'll need to contend for an SEC or a National Championship. I could easily be wrong, but I feel good in my assessment that they'll end up like last year, maybe a game better.

There are projections for UGA to win the east. Based on what you've said—and there isn't anything to necessarily disagree with—one might think they're being over-hyped in those projections.

However, the issues you bring up with the secondary at UGA are found at UofSC. That leaves UF lurking with questions opposite of those found at either school.

In my eyes, a 6-2 record likely wins the east. At a quick glance I'm inclined to believe UGA has an easier time reaching six conference wins than UofSC or UF.

 

[riz]

Given the choice, Mora or Richt? They seem about on par with each other (don't know a lot about Mora though.)

Can I go with a sharp stick in the eye?