Three guys that couldn’t even come to a consensus on where to eat dinner, sat down and attempted to agree on how the 14 teams in the SEC will finish the 2013 season.
Here’s what we got and why we picked the teams to go to Atlanta in December for the SEC Championship:
East
1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. South Carolina
4. Vanderbilt
5. Tennessee
6. Missouri
7. Kentucky
The ‘Dawgs will have to play an extra game this season, but they won’t have to travel far to play in the SEC Championship in Atlanta. Georgia will have to re-tool a defense that has a gutted interior with many of its key contributing interior linemen, inside linebackers and safeties no longer in school. We think they’ll have the offense to offset those issues and enough perimeter players on defense to be the East winner. Aaron Murray will be gearing up for his first NFL preseason this time next year, but he’s rarely looked like it when he’s faced the Gators – a game that will most likely decide the East in 2013. He’s thrown two picks in three of the games he’s played against Florida, and since Muschamp has begun coaching at UF, he’s been held to 169 and 150 yards respectively. That being said, we think the two-headed monster of Todd Gurley and Richard Marshall will run the ball just effectively enough to keep Florida honest. In addition, Murray returning as a fourth year starter, will be able to dissect the suspect Florida safeties and power Georgia to a victory. A victory over Florida will be the tiebreaker in the East race and book the Bulldogs to Atlanta for the second year in a row.
West
1. Alabama
2. Texas A&M
3. LSU
4. Ole Miss
5. Auburn
6. Mississippi State
7. Arkansas
The Tide will roll once again behind Gator Country consensus first team all-SEC QB A.J. McCarron and a defense that simply reloads, bringing back the likes of Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Ed Stinson and C.J. Mosley. They’ll dispatch Johnny Football in their September 14th bout and cruise to Atlanta, where’ll they’ll defeat Georgia again, and presumably, head to Pasadena to play for the National Championship. Alabama has the good fortune of facing always-formidable foe LSU at home, and a potential trap game against Ole Miss is also played in Tuscaloosa.
Champion
1. Alabama