Over the past decade, the Southeastern Conference has established itself as the most dominating and successful conference in all of college football. They have done so in large part because of the dominating performances of their defensive units. The SEC won 7 straight BCS Championships because schools like Florida, Alabama, LSU, and Auburn had stalwart defenses and sprinkled in just enough offense to hoist the crystal football.
Last year we saw a drastic change in that philosophy. The stars aligned, many of the schools had the luxury of starting a senior quarterback with a lot of experience, and we saw the offenses explode like we have never seen before. Defenses seemed to be lost for much of the season, never more so than in the SEC Championship game, where Missouri and Auburn put up an SEC Championship-record 101 points combined.
The SEC averaged 30.07 points per game, a far cry from the 9-0 all-SEC National Championship we saw a few years ago between Alabama and LSU. Nine of the SEC’s 14 teams were in the top 55 in the nation in scoring. Reigning Heismen trophy winner Johnny Manziel, along with senior quarterbacks A.J. McCarron, Zach Mettenberger, Aaron Murray, James Franklin, Connor Shaw, and others led the charge of highlighting the offenses instead of defense for a change.
However, with all of those play making quarterbacks either graduating or departing early for the NFL, and as many as nine teams starting new players under center this season, the SEC is poised to return to defensive dominance.
Focus Returns to Dominating SEC Defenses
As mentioned, there are only three or four teams with the luxury of having a returning starter under center. The experience will be back on the defensive side of the ball and we should see the hard-hitting, lower scoring, smash mouth football the SEC is known for.
Because of this, the race to Atlanta seems to be wide open. Alabama and South Carolina are the trendy media picks, but the pre-season media choice has been wrong more often than not. Nobody expected Missouri and Auburn to be playing for the SEC Championship at the start of last season. That is why the games are played.
This could be the most wide open race in the SEC in years. Every team should feel like they have a chance and should be enthusiastic going into this season. If Auburn can turn around from a 3-9 season in 2012 to a BCS title game appearance in 2013, anything is possible.
With the SEC returning to dominance on the defensive side of the ball, will this result in them returning to dominance in the post-season? Will the SEC hold up the first ever College Football Playoff championship, or will the inexperience on offense lead them to struggle in the new format? Only time will tell, but if they are going to return to their championship glory, it’s going to be because their defense carried them there and they got JUST enough offense.
The way it used to be.
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