With national signing day done there isn’t a huge amount left for college football fans to follow with a long summer ahead before the 2015 season kicks off. Many analysts have been creating their own top 25 rankings to try and fill the void as well as create debate among football fans. One of the first things that stood out to me is that most of these rankings included all seven members of the SEC West.
Who will finish unranked in the SEC West?
Naturally it is highly unlikely that all seven teams would be ranked by the college football playoff committee or any other poll come the end of the season unless they win all of their games against SEC East teams and non-conference teams. Once a team loses four or five games its very difficult to remain ranked at season’s end so which SEC West team or teams will finish unranked?
Arkansas Razorbacks
The Razorbacks were the bottom side in the SEC West last year after losing tight games to Alabama and Texas A&M before finally shutting out LSU and Ole Miss in victories. They then went onto to destroy Texas in the Texas Bowl so its no surprise that Arkansas are a popular pick to take that next step towards 10 wins in 2015. After such a strong finish to the season it’s clear that they won’t surprise anyone in the division like they did last year.
Bret Bielema has created a physical defence with an offence built around the running game and play-action passes but questions still remain over the play of QB Branden Allen. They also drew Tennessee and Missouri from the SEC East so it’s likely the Razorbacks could be an improved team in 2015 but still fall short of being a top 25 team come seasons end.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
The only team in the division to return their starting Quarterback from the opening day of 2014 in Dak Prescott. That gives the Bulldogs a Heisman candidate under centre and some level of continuity on offence that other teams in the division won’t have. Dan Mullan is renowned for producing talented teams despite not being able to match some of the big SEC powers on the recruiting trail.
But the worry for the Bulldogs is that they lose the highest number of starters in the division, especially on defense where they were so strong at times last season. Star Running Back Josh Robinson is also gone so it’s a big question as to whether Mississippi State has the talent on the depth chart to replace the stars of 2014?
Texas A&M Aggies
The Aggies landed John Chavis from LSU to be their new defensive co-ordinator and from the videos online of his practices it seems he’s already making an impact. But Texas A&M was thread bare last season on defence in terms of talent and another recruiting class is unlikely to improve them to the level required in the SEC West. Chavis has a big job to produce a good defence in 2015 based around a handful of talented youngsters.
The other concern for Texas A&M is that their offense wasn’t a juggernaut last season like it was under Jonny Manziel. Kyle Allen improved over the second half of the season when he became the starter but the Aggies did struggle to score points against teams like Louisiana Monroe and LSU. Although the good news for the Aggies is that they only lost a few pieces from last year’s offence.
Main Photo Credit: Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports
