Phil Steele's Projected SEC Returning Starter Tally

by kleph on Jan 20, 2012 12:09 PM EST in SEC Football

If it's the off-season, it's time for Phil Steele to start dropping serious knowledge bombs all over the place. Today he get's the conversation off with a bang offering his tally of the 2012 returning starters. Included is the breakdown by conference which, to help our loyal readership, we will show here.

Phil Steele's SEC Returning Starters List

SEC Rank	Natl. Rank	School	Offense	Defense	Special Teams	Total
1	2 (tie)	Tennessee	10*	8	2	20
2 (tie)	8 (tie)	Auburn	7*	9	2	18
2 (tie)	8 (tie)	Florida	7	10	1	18
2 (tie)	8 (tie)	Vanderbilt	9*	7	2	18
5	20 (tie)	Mississippi	8*	7	2	17
6	29 (tie)	Texas A&M	9	6	1	16
7 (tie)	44 (tie)	Arkansas	7*	6	2	15
7 (tie)	44 (tie)	Georgia	6*	9	0	15
9 (tie)	64 (tie)	LSU	7	5	2	14
9 (tie)	64 (tie)	S. Carolina	7*	6	1	14
11 (tie)	81 (tie)	Alabama	7*	4	2	13
11 (tie)	81 (tie)	Kentucky	6*	6	1	13
11 (tie)	81 (tie)	Miss. State	5	7	1	13
11 (tie)	81 (tie)	Missouri	5*	6	2	13

* designates offenses with a returning quarterback

Tennessee leads the SEC with a whopping 20 returning starters. Of all the woes Derek Dooley must contend with next year, experience ain't one of them. Auburn, a sieve for starters last season, will bring back 18 players who were in the starting lineup during 2011.

Interestingly, no less than ten teams are returning starting quarterbacks next season or just more than 70% of the teams in the conference. That's up from the less than 60% of returning signal callers the SEC saw last year.

Steele notes that incoming Vanderbilt coach James Franklin inherited a squad that returned a whopping 21 of 24 starters in 2011. The Commodore's abundance of experience continues into 2012 as they boast 18 returning starters matches Florida and Auburn for second in the conference.

Alabama's National Championship defense faces steep challenge with just 13 returning starters in 2012, tied with Kentucky, Mississippi State and Missouri at the bottom of the SEC. With at least three of Alabama's departees slated for the first round of the 2012 NFL draft, the whallop of talent will be particularly acute in Tuscaloosa. A run of highly-ranked recruiting classes has the larder well stocked but only a portion of it is fully battle-tested.

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I really thought Mizzou had a chance to take down UGA...

until looking at this. Since they play them so early in the year, it is going to be a mighty tall task. I’d like to know just how many players they return on the offensive line, but seeing that they only return 5 starters on offense and one of them is their QB…I wouldn’t imagine that they are returning very many. If they have to replace much there, I think UGA will terrorize their QB all game long.
The east might be down right now, but the defenses are still considerably better than anything Mizzou has seen the past couple of years (especially UGA, USC, and Florida). And correct me if I am wrong, but don’t they also have to play Bama?

by coastalrazorback on Jan 20, 2012 2:24 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

They do.

I believe Bama and Florida play both newcomers this year.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

by Slice of Life on Jan 20, 2012 2:48 PM EST up reply actions

They return 2 OL starters, but at least it's the LT and C

They also bring back their 3 leading rushers (including the QB, Franklin) and #1 WR.

by parlagi on Jan 20, 2012 4:18 PM EST up reply actions

2 guaranteed to be back on our O-Line

and hopefully one more if our preseason starting LT gets a medical hardship waiver for an extra season. I haven’t seen any news on his waiver since December, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for that one.

Our defensive line is losing three starters in name, but with the way we rotate our defensive line I think it’s more in name only. Injuries forced us to play some younger guys so it’ll be a challenge, but I’m not freaking out about the lack of starting experience.

I’d rather be making this move this year than last season, though. That is for sure.

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by D-Sing on Jan 29, 2012 11:49 AM EST up reply actions