Lindy's Likes Florida, LSU
June is next week, so that means it's about time for the preseason magazines to come out. The first one I've seen this year is Lindy's.
Now, we all should probably take it with a bit of salt given that the magazine doesn't measure up too well in Stassen's accuracy rankings, but as it's the first one out let's take a look anyway. For the record, Phil Steele and Athlon are usually the most accurate.
The magazine likes Florida and LSU to play for the conference title. I'll be shocked to see anyone pick someone other than Florida in the East, so let's see why they like the Bayou Bengals. It basically comes down to being impressed by the hire of John Chavis for the defense and the returning offensive personnel of Jordan Jefferson, Charles Scott, Brandon LaFell, and Ciron Black.
Here's the national rankings for the 12 SEC teams:
1. Florida
6. LSU
7. Alabama
9. Ole Miss
17. Georgia
28. Tennessee
36. South Carolina
42. Arkansas
46. Auburn
50. Kentucky
64. Vanderbilt
78. Mississippi State
The four teams in the top ten are the most of any conference, just ahead of the three for the Big 12 (No. 2 Texas, No. 3 OU, No. 10 Oklahoma St.). The five in the top 25 is tied with the Big 12 for most of any conference (No. 21 Kansas, No. 22 Nebraska).
Seeing Tennessee on the cusp of the rankings was a bit of a surprise to me, but the Lindy's folks seem to believe in Lane Kiffin's energy. The mag also predicts Eric Berry to be defensive player of the year and Bryce Brown to be freshman of the year. It's not all sunshine and unicorns though: warnings about spotty quarterback play appear pretty much everywhere the word "Tennessee" does.
The part on Kentucky pretty much sums up the perils of commiting all of this information to the printed page though. One reason Lindy's is high on Kentucky's defense is a trio of defenders, one of whom is Jeremy Jarmon. An unfortunate mixup with a supplement has left Jarmon suspended for the year, so it leaves one to wonder how much his loss affects their opinion of the 'Cats.
In any event, it's the first one out there so if you're starved for football, just head to your local grocery store's magazine rack. I mean, it's a preseason magazine so you basically know what you're going to get: over a hundred glossy pages of stats, a few feature articles, and a staff of writers' best guesses at the outcomes of sporting events that are three months away.
They're all fairly interchangable, except on accuracy as Stassen tracks. That, and no one pushes the limits of how many words on a page are possible quite like Phil Steele does.
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Comments
It’s a pretty safe guess that most predictions will break down like Lindy’s; barring some really off-the-wall event between now and the beginning of the season, Florida will be the obvious and universal pick in the East, and some combination of LSU-Bama-Ole Miss will be in the top three positions in the West. The East behind UF is a bit tricky, but I think the consensus will look pretty much like Lindy’s list (at least in terms of relative divisional position); and I figure Arky to be the generally accepted fourth in the West.
And in this case, I have no problem with the conventional wisdom… there’s no real reason, except a fit of contrariness, to come to any different conclusions at this point. (Now we’ll see how injuries and arrests affect matters over the summer.)
by peachy rex on May 29, 2009 11:08 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I'm still not sold on Tennessee or Arkansas
And I think you can quibble with putting Alabama ahead of Ole Miss. Then again, I think Teams 4-11 or so are basically a crap shoot at this point, so…
Team Speed Kills. All SEC, all the time.
by cocknfire on May 29, 2009 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
At the moment I’m thinking of the divisions more in terms of tiers rather than of 1 through 6 ordering. In the West I could live with any order of the top three, with Arky a long step behind, and Auburn and MSU at the rear (I’ll believe the Chizik Restoration when I see it.) In the East, I would put UGA second on the basis of overall strength, then USC and Tenn together, and finally UK and Vandy, both of which had a bit too much of the smoke-and-mirrors thing going last year for my taste.
The wildcard in all of this is QB development – like last year there are a lot of question marks around the conference. (Aside from UF, Ole Miss is the only team that appears to have a really first-rate starter… but I find it difficult to fully endorse a team that lost its best lineman on each side, you know?)
by peachy rex on May 29, 2009 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
LSU ranking is pretty silly
They had one quality win last year, right?
by FSUncensored on May 29, 2009 11:54 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
A couple of wins over decent SEC teams as well
But, yeah, it’s odd. I plan on having them way lower. I think Tennessee’s a bit high, too. Both are cases of the name and the “they’ve got talent” factor, which is why everybody kept putting Miami and (sorry) FSU in the preseason Top 15 long after they had any actual reason to do so.
Team Speed Kills. All SEC, all the time.
by cocknfire on May 29, 2009 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
LSU’s problem last year was almost entirely about the defense (that, and all the pick-sixes from Jarrett Lee). They sorely missed Bo Pelini, and the co-coordinators thing did not work well at all.
LSU now has John Chavis running the defense, who was Phil Fulmer’s DC. Chavis engineered two top-10 defenses in the last four years at UT, and he’s been consistently good throughout his career (with one or two down years, as everyone can be expected to have).
LSU also had a really young secondary last year, kind of like Florida did in 2007. Having gone through trial by fire (and now having a top shelf coordinator), it should be much improved.
My gut instinct is that LSU is still a year away from challenging for the divisional title, but I wouldn’t consider it foolish to pick them to win it at this point in time.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
by Year2 on May 29, 2009 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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