It’s May, which means there ain’t a lot of new stuff to discuss.
With that in mind, here’s Athlon’s 2017 All-SEC Team. Alabama leads the pack (duh), with 15 selections. Georgia is third, tied with Auburn, behind ‘Bama and Florida.
If I’m surprised by anything, it’s LSU’s poor showing.
Pick whatever bones you’d like to pick in the comments.
Get The Picture 
How’s this compare to last year?
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So our starting QB doesn’t even make the 3rd string SEC team? That’s kind of scary.
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He’s going to have to really do some work if he is going to live up to the “three year, first round” happy talk. I hope he becomes what many thought he would be.
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No he won’t. He is 6’6″ and 240 with a cannon for an arm. If he doesn’t improve a lick between now and next year he will go in the 1st round because some GM will convince himself that the talent is there and he just needs coaching. You don’t find that size/arm strength everyday and with the level of QB play in the league right now he is a shoe in to be a first round pick in 2019. Remember the Cleveland Browns are still in the NFL.
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Dead on, Rocket. Give the kid some protection and a chance. He’ll be fine.
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Right, GD. The kid didn’t really have much of a chance last year with the lack of blocking and the shitty play calling. I am hoping for more this season but fear the worst out of our coaching staff.
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Apologies for belaboring the point, but Cheney is my #1 concern going into the season….even more than our OL.
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A legitimate concern IMHO.
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Your last sentence was both funny and dead on. Remember, Johnny Manziel was taken midway thru the first round. Hell, if that Mahomme kid out of Texas Tech is taken in the 1st round, surely Eason will be.
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To add: The Browns picked DeShone Kizer out of Notre Dame in the 2nd round. You could shoot Eason in the leg and put in the supplemental draft as is and there are at least four teams that would trade in their 2018 1st round pick for him.
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Why would he after last year? Don’t worry about him being on any preseason lists. Worry about him being absent on lists coming out in December.
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Good point.
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Maybe Florida isn’t as down talent-wise as we’re lead to believe.
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They never are. That would explain why they typically kick seven shades of shit out of us in Jacksonville. Tennessee wont be either. South Carolina is likely to be much improved as well.
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Yeah, plus if UK is actually as improved over last season as everybody in the know seems to be saying, we could be looking up at several teams.
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Looking a little closer at the numbers, UGA and UF both have 10 players on offense and defense but UF has 3 special team selections, including the punter, place kicker, and punt returner. Callaway is also listed twice, offense and special teams.
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Feels like the 5th year in a row Florida has a lockdown caliber CB. Just an amazing run of talent on defense for the Gators.
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Totally agree. That started under Meyer and followed through.
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With a little luck and Ol’ Yellowteeth’s bad recruiting maybe in another year of so the good players will be out of their system.
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What is it about Auburn QB’s and preseason love? Dude has played half a season at Baylor and all of the sudden he is second team all-SEC???
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This is the same publication that put Lorenzo Carter on the 4th team. And Nauta on the 2nd team. Both of them are underrated here. I can’t wait to watch those guys. Good to see Michel in there somewhere…but he is at least in the top 8 RBs. And agreed about Auburn–so Malzahn made good with the cast off DB that time…If he really had the Midas touch they would have been better last year. I think Eason should be 5th maybe 4th team. There is a lot on his shoulders. If he is just better than last year, he is 3rd team. If he goes off…well that would be neat.
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Stidham is an interesting case. He has three games in his career with more than 10 passing attempts. They came consecutively two years ago against Kansas State, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.
In those three games he was 41/81 for 934 yards (419 came against Kansas State) 6 TDs, 2 INTs and average rating of 177.1.
Those three games amount to his entire career for all intents and purposes. In his other 7 games he attempted 28 passes total, 6 of which went for TDs (which is absurd).
So while he was highly rated out of HS and ended his abbreviated season on a legit high note, so much of the talk about Stidham is based on potential and a bit of mythology. People remember those three games and think he was some machine, but that was the height of Baylor’s run when they had legit NFL talent all over the field on offense PLUS they played against some of the worst defenses in the country.
-Kansas State was 109th in YPP.
-Oklahoma was 15th in YPP (Stidham’s numbers against OU were far more pedestrian. 16/27, 247 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs)
-Oklahoma State was 79th in YPP.
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So he’s Jeremy Johnson with a bit more seasoning?
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That is “ex Heisman favorite” to you….show some respect for the boy’s
po-tential. Was it the first game when Malzahn pulled him out of the game, or the second. Lord the media can dive deep into the doo-doo in a flash. New kid looked decent in the Spring but I really don’t understand the pre-season ranking for All SEC. Many of these guys will forever carry the “All SEC” tag after completely falling on their face before mid-season.
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Eason was 4th team on their list last year. The improvements/surprises of other returning QB’s notwithstanding, it’s hard to believe they couldn’t find it in their crystal balls to put him there again. It’s just a prediction, especially when you get to a spot where 4th team basically only puts you in the top 30% of QB’s in the league. But, as they were putting him there based on talent and high school acumen alone last year, well, that along w/ 2nd year in the league, 2nd year in a system, etc. and so forth, then it’s hard to not predict him being 4th best this year.
And Bama, D,JD. If I’m being honest, that Saban ever loses to anyone in the SEC ever is almost an indictment of his game-day coaching ability. Almost.
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Saban would agree. When Bama hired him he told Mal Moore: “I just want you to know you’ve hired a horseshit football coach, but nobody will out-recruit me.”
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He really isn’t much above an average game day coach, imo, but he is well prepared before the game and he always has had the better talent in the period when he came to be regarded as “invincible”. He lost an inferior team last year in Clemson, and two years before with ohio when all the chips were on the table. I would say he lost the Clemson game with his temper tantrum when he fired Junior the week before the game. But he has assembled a dynasty the past 8-9 years despite his stumbles.
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While part of me agrees, I think back to Charlie Weiss’s “schematic advantage.”
Not sure the Kiffin firing didn’t cost them the game, but at the same time, they did have a freshman QB who could only ad-lib, and their defense got lit up like a Christmas tree.
Anyway, point is, no matter how good a recruiter he is or thought he was, even he must still go to work some days wondering how the hell he keeps bringing in SO much talent. I guess at this point, he just points to NFL Draft picks and SEC and National Championships, but in this age of prima donnas, it’s hard to believe that so many kids are willing to risk riding the pine for a couple years, or never see the field at all.
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