Fox on the Fifty’s weekly mailbag will run every Thursday throughout the season, focusing on the SEC, ACC and Conference USA. To submit your question or comment, tweet or e-mail Zach Dillard (@Zach_Dillard) or send us a note on any of our company’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
There is a Wynfrey Hotel pen resting by my left hand as I type this, cap irresponsibly cast aside, memories of SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., now a blur of offseason notes, quotes and more lists compiled than ever before.
Long days inside the Wynfrey are a month in the rearview, the college football season is a just a week away, and yet there is still a number wrapped around the side of my white writing utensil – 1-800-Wynfrey, the building’s primary phone number – begging to be called. There are still questions to be asked. Perhaps the hotel’s operator can answer them better than most; we’re all just offering educated guesses at this point anyways.
I want to ask if Media Days is the most entertaining event of the year for the Wynfrey.
I want to ask if they ever fixed the broken handicap sign in the lobby, the one near the revolving door, the one that was knocked off by some overly-enthusiastic fan in a mad scramble to see (touch? smell?) Alabama coach Nick Saban.
I want to ask if the hotel ever offered Missouri wideout T.J. Moe a free night’s stay for the free entertainment he provided the sports media establishment.
I really want to ask if they found my iPod hidden underneath piles of quote sheets and press releases.
But I don’t dial the number. I can’t. Call it laziness, or call it a hatred for the phrase, “Please listen to the music while your party is reached.” Some things are best kept in the past, and a broken handicap sign is one of them.
So, instead, we’ll turn to your questions for our first college football mailbag of the season, and it – much like the modus operandi inside the Wynfrey last month – is dominated by the Southeastern Conference. Don’t take it personally, John Swofford.
Sammy Serrecchio (via Facebook): Who’s gonna be the gators opening day qb?
Quarterback play is supposed to be a statement of pride inside The Swamp. The names serve only as one testimony among many.
Steve Spurrier. Shane Matthews. Danny Wuerffel. Chris Leak. Tim Tebow.
But since the departure of Tebow, the position has provided nothing but headaches. In 2009, Tebow passed for 2,895 yards, 21 touchdowns and just five interceptions – his worst season, statistically speaking. In the two years since, five different quarterbacks have combined to pass for just 25 touchdowns and a disturbing 25 interceptions. The Gators are 15-11 during that stretch, which amounts to four more losses than the entire Tebow Era.
Very little has gone right.
A guy by the name of Cameron Newton was slated to replace Tebow, but his dismissal from the university eventually led him to Auburn where, of course, he obliterated defenses en route to a Heisman Trophy and becoming the top pick in the NFL Draft. John Brantley, the Gatorade Player of the Year coming out of high school, never lived up to the hype (or Deonte Thompson’s expectations). Trey Burton was not the answer. Jordan Reed moved to tight end.
And now, second-year Florida coach Will Muschamp remains at an impasse between sophomores Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett.
According to all news coming out of Gainesville, neither player has distinguished himself as The Guy yet. Practice reps remain at 50-50. The two guys have similar measurables and physical attributes. Muschamp even said they can win with either signal caller at the helm, which essentially downplays this entire discussion.
Although Driskel was the No. 1 quarterback out of high school (Brissett was ninth-best), I’ll take a bit of a shortcut here and go with Brissett. The West Palm Beach, Fla., native received an extra day of practice last week while Driskel nursed a minor shoulder injury, and the slight gap in those reps could make all the difference in such a tight position battle.
Brissett also has the experience of throwing an actual collegiate touchdown (206 passing yards, two touchdowns, four interceptions in 2011), while Driskel struggled mightily last season, especially after being thrown to the wolves and injured against Alabama’s rugged defense. He finished the season throwing two interceptions and being sacked on five of his 34 plays under center.
Brissett seems to have the confidence from a distance – “Both of us can win a national championship with this offense,” he said at Florida’s media day – but don’t be surprised by either selection. Muschamp and offensive coordinator Brent Pease will likely wait until next week – GAME WEEK, PEOPLE – to make their decision.
Right now, my bet is that Jacoby Brissett will be the starter against Bowling Green. After that, all bets are off.
Adam D. Eller (via Facebook): How good does connor shaw have to be for south carolina to win the sec???
In short, fantastic.
Connor Shaw is the best quarterback under Steve Spurrier’s tutelage since Rex Grossman on Florida’s 2001 squad, but he has a tall task in front of him if he is to lead the Gamecocks not only to the SEC East title, but also overcome, what we all assume, will be an underdog role against LSU or Alabama in the conference title game.
Last season, Shaw was extremely efficient in posting a 2.33-to-1 touchdown-interception ratio, but he averaged just 7.7 yards per attempt as Spurrier reined him in a bit. If South Carolina is going to take down a fairly rough schedule – highlighted by a stretch of playing four teams ranked in the preseason over a five-week span, featuring a road trip to No. 3 LSU – he will need to continue to protect the ball but provide more of a big-play threat. That’s easier said than done without playmaking wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey, who’s now a member of the NFL’s Chicago Bears.
However, the re-addition of star running back Marcus Lattimore, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury in 2011, should help take the pressure off Shaw if he’s back to full speed.
If Shaw leads this South Carolina team to an SEC title and BCS automatic berth, he will likely be a Heisman contender. (Think 4,000 passing yards, 40 total touchdowns and limiting the turnovers which plagued his predecessor Stephen Garcia.) I don’t foresee that type of jump in his production, but I do expect him to be one of the top-5 quarterbacks in the league.
Keep in mind: The Gamecocks’ road to Atlanta is littered with the types of obstacles that division rival Georgia will avoid for the second straight season, which was the primary reason the Bulldogs won the SEC East last season. South Carolina was the better team in 2011, and it still didn’t matter. Connor Shaw and his teammates will need to approach this season as if they are already a game (or two) behind the Bulldogs in the divisional race.
So, Shaw will need to be spectacular. We’ll see if he can measure up.
Speaking of Georgia and schedules…
@mjharris: Does Georgia have the best shot to get to Atlanta with this season’s schedule?
There are two ways to approach this question.
First option: Does Georgia have the best shot of any SEC team of reaching Atlanta based on its weak schedule?
Second option: Is this the best shot Georgia has had in recent years to reach the SEC title game based on its weak schedule.
Yes and no, respectively.
The 2012 Bulldogs do have the best shot of any team to reach the Georgia Dome and compete for their first SEC title since 2005, but, as has become custom of late, they have not made the road any easier on themselves with their rough offseason. Though there are only two teams on the schedule ranked in the preseason (an unreal number in this day and age of SEC football), suspensions will litter the early portion of the season, including a couple interesting games against Missouri and Vanderbilt.
I do not expect the Bulldogs to stumble in either game, but I’m also not sold that this schedule will be a cakewalk for this team. If this were Alabama or LSU, you could write in their Georgia Dome attendance in permanent marker, but this is essentially the same Georgia team that did not win a single game against a team that finished in the final Associated Press poll last season (0-4).
In fact, Mark Richt’s program has not beaten a team that finished ranked in the final AP Poll since Nov. 2009 against Georgia Tech. So are losses possible? Sure seems like it, and anything less than a 10-win season will certainly be considered a disappointment.
That being said, moving on to Option No. 2, last year’s team had a better shot of reaching Atlanta, if only for the state of the SEC East and the offseason losses the Bulldogs suffered.
Dismissed running back Isaiah Crowell was a problem on many fronts, but he was arguably the most naturally gifted running back in the league. He’s gone. Defensive starters Bacarri Rambo, Alec Ogletree and Sanders Commings will all serve two- to four-game suspensions to kick off the season (up to two SEC contests). Graduation and the NFL Draft also cut some key guys out of the equation.
On top of that, South Carolina, as mentioned above, has its quarterback situation resolved and Spurrier could have his best team in Columbia yet. Florida cannot be much worse than it was last season. Tennessee and Missouri will put up points in bunches. Vanderbilt coach James Franklin is attempting to spark a revolution in Nashville. Georgia has more talent, top to bottom, than every team in the division, but it has proven over the past two seasons that it is more than capable of losing games to quality opponents.
No, last year was the division title by default. This season, the Bulldogs’ schedule gives them every right to be the favorite, but it will not be handed to them on a platter.
@shacker56 UK starting QB Maxwell Smith. OH YEA!!
So I’ve heard – even seen, if you count Smith’s helmet cam.
Smith, a true sophomore, was rated a two-star quarterback from California out of high school and possesses many of the qualities Joker Phillips said he’s looking for in a quarterback. He passed for 819 yards and four touchdowns as a freshman.
But don’t get too excited. This Wildcats bunch remains neck-and-neck with Ole Miss for the worst team in the conference, and a quarterback with limited experience does not appear to alter that perception. I see three wins on the schedule, and none of those come against SEC foes.
However, there is a bright side, even if it took former starter Morgan Newton to find it. Newton handled Monday’s demotion with humor and grace, even going as far as saying Kentucky fans and students will “start liking” him again now that he’s the backup. Classic.
“You’ve just got to respect the coaches’ decision. It was going to be tough for me anyway, just coming back from shoulder (surgery),” he told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “And I’m still coming back, so I’m just working hard on that and working hard on being a good teammate. That’s the only thing I can do.
No player wants to lose his spot, especially to injury. But that’s the perfect way to handle it.
Plus, nine losses hurt a lot less from the sidelines.
