Alabama, South Carolina preseason picks for SEC Championship GameBy Charles HollisJune 02, 2014 at 7:10 AMCan Alabama coach Nick Saban's Crimson Tide win the SEC West and the championship game? A vote of the league's football information directors says yes. (Vasha Hunt/AL.com) When you've won 11 games in three straight seasons and defeated Clemson, your biggest rival, for five straight years, what in the world would possess Steve Spurrier to keep doing what he's doing at 69 years old?"That SEC title is part of it," said South Carolina's coach for going on 10 years. "Been chasing that forever it seems like. Maybe we'll get it, maybe not. We're going to keep trying."The only thing that Spurrier hasn't done at South Carolina, the thing that still drives him, is win his elusive seventh SEC championship.Spurrier won five SEC championships in six years at Florida (1991-96) and picked up his sixth championship in 2000. He left Florida after the 2001 season and spent two seasons in the NFL with the Washington Redskins. He then took a year off before agreeing to replace Lou Holtz at South Carolina.It must not matter that he's losing one of those players of a lifetime, defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, and a few others on defense, because in the AL.com/Birmingham News' 68th annual Spring SEC Football Report, his Gamecocks and Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide are the teams to beat.According to voters in the 2014 report -- the league's 14 football information directors -- Alabama and South Carolina are the choices to win their respective divisions and meet in the Dec. 6 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.South Carolina received five first place votes from the Eastern Division football information directors to top its division with 35 points. Alabama, in a battle with defending SEC champion Auburn, also got five first-place votes for a total of 35 points to edge the Tigers, who picked up two first-place votes and 32 points.In the overall poll that is voted on by all 14 football information directors, Alabama and Auburn waged another close battle. The Crimson Tide received eight first-place votes to Auburn's six to finish with 164 points. The Tigers were second with 152.Where Alabama received five seconds, Auburn received four seconds,three third-place votes and one SEC school apparently doesn't think the Tigers can chase another division title, voting them ninth. By leading the overall poll, the Tide becomes the preseason pick to leave the Georgia Dome as the SEC champion.South Carolina was third with 134 points, and Georgia was fourth with 131. A school's football information director could not vote for his school in the polls.Following Alabama and Auburn in the West was LSU with 26 points. Texas A&M was fourth with 20, Ole Miss was fifth with 15 and Mississippi State and Arkansas rounded out the division voting with 11 and 7 points, respectively.In the East, Georgia was second with 30 points and defending East champion Missouri was third with 24 points.The SEC champion is a gimme to reach the new four-team college football playoff, so if Saban's Tide can do what the voters think, check off one team down.Of course, to get to Atlanta means beating your rival in the Iron Bowl, a team many believe will be part of a 1-2 SEC punch in the playoffs when it's all said and done. Losing to the Tigers in the final seconds last season has become almost a battle cry for Alabama in the offseason, while Auburn is using its 34-31 loss in the final seconds to Florida State in the BCS Championship Game as motivation to deliver a little something extra to make it another season to remember.In Auburn's case, the offense is loaded, while Saban's is minus three-year starter AJ McCarron. That piece of the puzzle -- will it be spring No. 1 Blake Sims or FSU transfer Jacob Coker, or neither of them -- has to rank as one of the biggest to overcome among national championship contenders this fall.And Saban knows it."Quarterback is a critical position, but we don't have to make that decision until early in the season," Saban said coming out of the spring. "Then we'll decide who has made the most improvement -- who is in the best position to play winning football? All of our quarterbacks have done a good job this spring, and we expect the same from Jacob when he gets here."Just don't pencil in Coker throwing to Amari Cooper and handing off to T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry just yet. And there is work to do on defense, too, or was it a figment of our imagination that the secondary wasn't what it used to be last season?Spurrier at least starts out knowing who his quarterback is, and that's after losing Connor Shaw, the most successful quarterback in school history with a record of 27-5 in games that he started.Waiting to take over is Dylan Thompson, his backup for the past three seasons."We feel good with Dylan," said Spurrier. "He's a fifth-year player, and he wants to be our quarterback. He's played in some big games and played very well for us over the years."Replacing Clowney and the fear factor he brought to the field probably isn't going to happen, but that's where going to a 3-4 defense might pick up the slack, says defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward."We don't have a dominating defensive end, so we're probably going to have to do something different," said Ward. "We have a lot of good young talent at linebacker."
Even a blind squirrel would be nuts not to pick Auburn to win the SECBy Kevin ScarbinskyJune 01, 2014 at 10:38 AMThere are two things we know about Gus Malzahn after one year as a head coach in the Iron Bowl rivalry.He can beat the reality of Alabama. He still has a way to go to beat the perception of the Crimson Tide.Him and everyone else in college football.How else to explain the predicted order of finish in the SEC West in the 68th annual AL.com/Birmingham News Spring SEC Football Report? The conference's football information directors voted this way:1. Alabama.2. Auburn.Alabama also was the overall favorite to win the league. Auburn was second. At least these voters recognized the two teams that should be the best in the league again for the second straight year.It's a tribute to the job Nick Saban and his staff have done that picking the Crimson Tide to win - games and championships - has become a default mode for all kinds of voters in all kinds of polls no matter how the team's circumstances change from week to week or year to year.Saban has to hope his team retains that benefit of the doubt in the minds of the College Football Playoff committee.In this case, in this poll or any other looking at the SEC West for the 2014 season, the "pick Alabama" instinct is both understandable and a little puzzling. The Tide and Tigers both have to be considered major contenders to make the first four-team playoff field, but if you put together blind resumes for each team, even a blind squirrel would have to be a little nuts to put the Tide ahead of the Tigers.Last time they met, Auburn beat Alabama. There's even a road map to the the decisive play, the most amazing final play in college football history, painted on the Jordan-Hare Stadium grass as we speak as evidence.As memorable as the Kick Six was, it tends to overshadow what Auburn accomplished last Nov. 30. You know people have forgotten the circumstances that led up to Chris Davis' game-winning 109-yard touchdown return of a missed field goal when you hear an ESPN commentator say that, without that magic, Alabama would've won the game.Wait just a second. If Davis trips or steps out of bounds, the game goes to overtime. If the game goes to overtime, Auburn is the team with all the momentum and energy. Auburn is the team that got stronger as the game got longer.Even without the Kick Six, Auburn likely wins the game, but that's the kind of perception the Tigers are battling.In reality, though, if you look at tangible factors such as starters returning at key positions, you would have to give Auburn the edge over Alabama going into this season. There's no more key position on a Malzahn team than quarterback, and Nick Marshall's return alone is a huge advantage for the Tigers.Malzahn and Rhett Lashlee turned Marshall into an SEC championship quarterback without the benefit of spring practice. Imagine how good he could be this season as he becomes the first starting quarterback to return for a second college season under Malzahn.Auburn also returns the bulk of an outstanding offensive line, which puts history on Malzahn's side. What happened the last two times he had a really good quarterback operating behind a really good offensive line at Auburn?He won the SEC and played for the national championship.Meanwhile, Alabama continues to have more talent up and down the roster than any team in college football, but this team has more questions going into the season than any of Saban's teams in Tuscaloosa.The offensive line and the secondary both underachieved last season, and whoever wins the quarterback battle in fall camp will be a first-time starter who has yet to take a significant college snap. If it's Florida State graduate transfer Jacob Coker, it's also a guy coming off knee surgery.If Alabama has an obvious edge over Auburn, beyond its overall defense, it's the schedule. Auburn has to play South Carolina, the pick in our poll to win the East, while Alabama gets rebuilding Florida. Auburn has to play both Georgia and Alabama on the road, but even that task may not be as daunting as it looks on paper.Last time I checked, Auburn has a winning record in Bryant-Denny Stadium.So if you put aside the Alabama mystique and look at the facts, Auburn should be favored to win the SEC West. Of course, if you look at Auburn's history of failing to live up to great expectations, Malzahn may be glad the voters chose the Crimson Tide.
Someone also picked Missouri dead last.
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