SEC Spring Game Recap: Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri

Saturday brought five more SEC spring games, so let's find out what they showed us.

Alabama

The Crimson Tide is coming off of an SEC title and playoff appearance, but it lost a lot of key players from a year ago. Blake Sims, Amari Cooper, T.J. Yeldon, Trey DePriest, Christion Jones, and more are not going to be back in Tuscaloosa in the fall. With the way that Nick Saban recruits, you can believe that there are plenty of talented replacements. Whether they'll get the team back to the CFP again remains to be seen.

Roll Bama Roll recounted the major points of interest, from offensive line and quarterback to wide receivers and secondary.

As Saban said, every big play by the offense on A-Day is a knock against the defense, and vice-versa. However, Tide fans must be somewhat optimistic (despite the rash of interceptions) as both the offense and defense looked further along than expected given the number of players each had to replace.

Auburn

The Tigers are debuting a new quarterback and brand new defense in 2015. Jeremy Johnson has the most time spent under Gus Malzahn yet of any college starter, and Will Muschamp's next bad defense will be his first one. We didn't get to see a ton in the spring game, but that's just the nature of the beast when coaches don't want to give things away or get players hurt.

College and Magnolia had some takeaways from the game and said what they may or may not mean.

There just really aren't any definitive conclusions you can draw from Saturday's A-Day game. What I'll say is that I believe it reaffirmed things we suspected and left us vague on a few things we wonder about. Johnson can throw the football. Duke can make some spectacular grabs. Both are still mortal. There are other receivers out there capable of contributing. There are defensive players who could step up in the fall (Cameron Toney, Stephen Roberts).

LSU

The Tigers were young and inexperienced on offense last year, and those young tiger cubs are growing up. The offense had a pretty great day statistically, which of course will cause some people to worry about the newly John Chavis-less defense. It's a work in progress on that side of the ball, though, as a defense doesn't get fully installed in a month.

And the Valley Shook recapped the game for your reading pleasure:

Anyways, with the first(ish) team offense putting up some 505 yards of offense, including 356 passing yards from Anthony Jennings and Brandon Harris with a combined for a 68 percent completion rate, I don't imagine there are too many complaints. People saw, more or less, what I would imagine they wanted to see. Certainly, if you're somebody that's complained after past spring games, you should probably be in a good mood.

Mississippi State

The Bulldogs are coming off of their best season in a long time, but following up a high point is always a tough time. The offensive line loses a lot to graduation, and Manny Diaz is back to run the defense with Geoff Collins off to Florida. This season will be a test to see how much Mississippi State can sustain success now seven seasons into Dan Mullen's tenure.

For Whom the Cowbell Tolls has a good review of the game, including the limited time we saw Dak Prescott in action.

Prescott was sacked 3 times during his short stint in the game, somewhat confirming fears that the offensive line is not as strong as last year's senior-laden unit. On the issue, Prescott said "I think they have come a long way. Communication-wise, they are just as good as our offensive line as last year and athletically and experience is going to come along in fall camp."

Missouri

The Tigers are coming off of back-to-back SEC East titles, and they're seeking to make it three in a row. Counter to Mizzou's old reputation, the defense was well ahead of the offense last year and continued to be so last weekend. If that offense can find a way to catch up, the team might just contend for the conference crown—not just the divisional.

Rock M Nation has some highlights in addition to a rundown of many reports from the game.

On a drizzly afternoon, a reported 30k fans turned out for Missouri's Black & Gold game to get their first glimpse of Mizzou's 2015 football team. The results were largely as expected -- struggling offense against stifling defense -- but the offense had its moments.