SEC Football: Realistic Expectations for all 14 Teams

As we finally enter the last week before SEC football, it’s time to set realistic expectations for all 14 teams.

SEC football fans are a unique bunch.  We band together during bowl season and in major games against teams from other conferences.  SEC football fans will (nearly) cheer in unison for Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU, Georgia, Missouri, Texas A&M and Auburn as they put SEC football front and center with major opening games.  While we wish every team could play a similar game, these teams will carry the banner top open 2016.  We’ll all know more after that week, but what expectations can each SEC football fan have entering 2016?  Knowing this will also help us know whether their season was a success of failure.

Mississippi State

Dak Prescott will unexpectedly start his first game in the NFL, his brethren he left behind will miss him sorely.  It’s fair to expect Dan Mullen to guide the Bulldogs to a bowl game, but fans expecting another rise to #1 are in for a disappointment.  Bulldog fans can expect to sweep their out of conference competition and dominate a minor bowl game.

Arkansas 

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Razorback fans have to be getting tired of the slow starts, but they should expect them to continue in 2016.  Bielema will have to replace his entire offense and Arkansas will be behind SEC football as a result.  They’ll manage to get the necessary wins to reach and dominate a minor bowl, however.

Auburn

So much for the John Franklin III hype.  Sean White has been named the starter for Auburn and Tiger fans should expect a similar season to last year.  The Tigers always have elite talent, but expecting anything more than 8 wins is unrealistic.

Texas A&M

Aggie fans keep hearing more and more about how good they should be this season.  I’m one that tends to agree that we’ll see more from them than expected.  8 regular season wins should be considered a disappointment.

Ole Miss

Ole Miss football fans want an SEC football championship badly.  There’s not a more difficult opening month in the country than what the Rebels face, however.  Ole Miss fans should expect another 9 win season, but nothing more.

LSU

LSU fans have been told to expect an SEC football championship.  I don’t think that’s fair or realistic.  We should all band together and support the Tigers after their season fall short, but of course we won’t.

Alabama

Whether we think it is fair or not, Alabama fans rightly expect a National Championship each year.  At a minimum, an SEC football championship is expected.  I can’t say those expectations are unrealistic.

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Kentucky

Wildcat fans should expect a bowl game.  While we don’t expect them to reach it, those should be the expectations.  If they fall short, all of us who need a defensive coordinator should all pay attention to Mark Stoops.

South Carolina

Because we’re all excited to see how this experiment works out, expectations are practically nonexistent.  As a result, we should just set the expectations at the Gamecocks being competitive. Will Muschamp won’t be happy about this, though.

Vanderbilt

SEC football fans will be watching this season closely.  Derek Mason must succeed or face being fired as a result.  A lot of fans would love them as their defensive coordinator, though.

Missouri

Missouri fans will have to get used to not seeing Gary Pinkel on the sideline, which will take some getting used to.  Tigers can expect to be good defensively, but  we should all give Odom some time to get the offensive woes corrected.  Here’s to hoping Odom is a great coach.

Georgia

The SEC East is home to so many new coaches. We hope Smart is as good as his mentor, but we have no idea.  Georgia fans can expect to win 9 games and compete for an SEC East title in year one of the Smart Era.

Florida

Jim McElwain certainly exceeded expectations in year one, even with a nonexistent offense for the second half of the season.  Whether or not McElwain is able to get that corrected will determine the Gator’s success this season.  Florida fans should expect to be relevant in the SEC East, but not to win a title.

Tennessee

Butch Jones has to deliver this season.  He has built expectations and has no choice but to deliver this season.  If the Volunteers do not win an SEC East title this year, the season will go down as a disappointment.

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While none of us know how good SEC football will be in 2016, expectations matter.  Fair or not, we judge a team’s success for a season based on what was expected of them.  We’ll all be hoping for SEC football to dominate, but we all also want our favorite team to exceed expectations.  Unfortunately, that just isn’t possible.

In conclusion, let’s just hope together that SEC football goes undefeated out of conference.  As a result, we’ll all likely have something to cheer for more often than not.