In comes former Arkansas State head coach Hugh Freeze to try and fix the mess in Oxford, Mississippi.
Last year was Houston Nutt’s final chance holding the clipboard at Ole Miss, and once it was announced that Nutt wouldn’t be back, the Rebs got crushed in three consecutive games, including embarrassing losses to LSU (52-3) and – even more shamefully – to in-state rival Mississippi State, 31-3 in the Egg Bowl.
South Carolina was knocking on the door for a long time, with a good-but-unspectacular SEC East team under “the Ole Ball Coach” Steve Spurrier.
Last season saw the Gamecocks kick the door in, with an 11-win season that included victories over Florida, Georgia and Tennessee (for the second straight year, actually) and a drubbing of #21 Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl.
While it is a tragedy to college football fans that the storied Texas-Texas A&M rivalry has come to a close, there will be plenty of excitement around College Station in 2012 with A&M’s move to the SEC. The Aggies will play in the West division; they move to a conference and division that – with all due respect to Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State – is more ferocious than the Big 12.
MSU head coach Dan Mullen has already been a miracle-worker, without even scraping near a BCS bowl; he has made the Bulldogs relevant in the suffocating SEC West division and has re-energized a fanbase that was sorely in need of it.
The boys from Baton Rouge had a flawless 2011 season before rival Alabama shut them out in the BCS title game, 21-0. For the balance of the campaign, LSU had a defense that might have been the only unit more imposing than Alabama’s.
The Hogs have really taken a step forward in the last several seasons, but this off-season has been shrouded in controversy (not unlike many other scenarios in the world of college football). The lying and sex scandal that precipitated the firing of head coach Bobby Petrino should hopefully not affect the product on the field in Fayetteville in 2012, but who knows? At the very least, Arkansas could miss Petrino’s aggressive play-calling.
The Gators, long an SEC powerhouse, must rebound from a disappointing 2011 season. Until 2010, Florida (under former head coach Urban Meyer) made appearing in BCS bowls its calling card, winning a national title in ’08 against Oklahoma and a Sugar Bowl in ’09 versus upstart Cincinnati.
Head coach Nick Saban has fielded a lethal football squad in Dixieland since his arrival six years ago. The Tide had a Sugar Bowl appearance in 2008, followed by National Titles in ’09 and last season. While taskmaster Saban must replace a considerable amount of NFL-bound talent in 2012, this team is deeper and more talented than most, and is poised for another great season in the SEC West division.
Head coach Mark Richt enters his 12th season as the main man Between the Hedges at Sanford Stadium, holding the clipboard for the Georgia Bulldogs. Various times during his tenure, he has been on the hot seat and also been lauded for being a brilliant motivator.
Frankly, Franklin steps into a mess. The new Vandy head coach inherits a 2-10 team on the bottom rung of the Southeastern Conference.
The Wildcats have always been more of a basketball power rather than a force to be reckoned with on the gridiron in the SEC.
Auburn had its whirlwind dream season last year, coming back to beat nemesis Alabama, winning the SEC title and the National Championship and yielding a Heisman Trophy-winning QB in Cam Newton.
This program has had its share of turmoil since long-time coach Phil Fulmer’s forced resignation in 2008.
There is tangible pressure on Houston Nutt in just his fourth season at the helm in Oxford.
It has always been a challenge for the Bulldogs to rise beyond mediocrity in the killer SEC West division, but, now in his third season, head coach Dan Mullen is doing an excellent job making this program relevant.
New head coach Will Muschamp evidently got tired of being the eternal coach-in-waiting at Texas, and snapped up a plum gig as the head man in Gainesville.
