MrSEC.com’s Official “Don’t Put Money On These” 2010 Predictions

 Send This Story To A Friend

Predictions are fun.  And usually useless.

There’s no telling who’ll be hit with injuries at the worst possible time.  There’s no way to predict which games will be impacted by bad weather.  And it’s impossible to guess which game might change entirely based on an opening-kickoff fumble.

In other words, I wouldn’t go putting any money on the predictions you’re about to read.  But as we’re set to start the 2010 season tonight, here’s the current view from MrSEC.com:


Teams Most Likely To Reach Atlanta

1.  Alabama — The Tide won’t go undefeated this year, but it’s hard to imagine anyone in the West slipping past them in the standings.  The gap closes a little this year, but the Tide is still way out in front.

2.  Florida — The Gators will have new players on the field and new coaches on the sidelines.  They’ve also had a few issues with a particularly cocky and mouthy freshman class.  But the big question is can they replace Tim Tebow — meaning Tebow the team leader and Tebow the automatic-third-down-converter.  Odds are they’ve got the talent to win the division, but…

3.  Georgia — The Bulldogs have talent on offense.  They can insulate new quarterback Aaron Murray by putting veterans at every position around him.  On defense, it doesn’t seem possible that the Dawgs could be any worse than last season.  For those reasons, UGA is our current sleeper to reach Atlanta.


Rising / Falling

As we just noted, Georgia has a lot of pieces in place to compete in the East.  Florida is still the favorite and they’ll get the biggest dose of media scrutiny.  The Dawgs might thrive with lower expectations and an underdog mentality.  UGA is on the rise.

South Carolina looks to be the team set up for disaster.  What should be a good quarterback situation appears murky at the moment.  The Weslye Saunders/Whitney Hotel situation has been a distraction.  Mix in the fact that many people are raising expectations for the Cocks and this could be the perfect storm. 

All that said, if Carolina tops Georgia in Week Two, you can officially flush these last-minute preseason gut feelings.


Best Record For A New Coach

Joker Phillips beats out Derek Dooley and then Robbie Caldwell in this one.  Just look at the Wildcats’ schedule for the reason why.  Louisville, Akron, Western Kentucky and Charleston Southern make up the non-conference part of the slate.  Inside the SEC, UK will go to Ole Miss and Mississippi State and host Auburn.

Dooley’s Vols will face Oregon outside the conference and their SEC West games consist of visits from Alabama and Ole Miss and a road game at LSU.  Advantage Wildcats.

As for Caldwell, if Vandy wins 3 games, he’ll have done a solid job.  The roster is young.  The schedule is tough.  Things don’t look good for the ‘Dores.


Player of the Year on Offense

Ryan Mallett’s stats should be spectacular at year’s end.  As we’ve broken down previously, he’ll need to improve his performance in league games (specifically on the road), but coupling his arm with Bobby Petrino’s system is sure to produce more fireworks.


Player of the Year on Defense

Everyone seems to be going with Alabama’s Dont’a Hightower in this slot, but the edge here goes to LSU cornerback Patrick Peterson.  Both are tremendous players, but Peterson is likely to star in a league filled with great receivers.  He wins on degree of difficulty.


Who’s The Real #2 in the West

We like Georgia as the only real sleeper in the league behind Alabama and Florida.  Period.  But if someone said, “Pick someone from the West or else,” we’d study the teams’ non-division opponents and their matchups with each other:

Arkansas — at Georgia, at South Carolina, Vanderbilt, LSU, at Auburn

LSU — at Vanderbilt, at Florida, Tennessee, at Arkansas, at Auburn

Auburn — South Carolina, at Kentucky, Georgia, LSU and Arkansas

Scratch LSU from the list immediately.  That leaves a head-to-head race between dark horse darlings Auburn and Arkansas.  Auburn has the schedule advantage, but they also have more questions to answer — Is Malzahn’s offense for real?  Will the defense be better? 

We have to wonder about Arkansas’ defense, too, but we can be pretty sure that their offense will thrive.  For those reasons, we like the Hogs to finish #2 in the West.