Five bold, crazy, stupid, daring, wacky SEC college football predictions for the 2019 season.
5 (Potentially) Stupid SEC Predictions
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– CFN Preview 2019: All 130 Team Previews
SEC Team Previews, 5 Things To Know
East Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | Missouri
South Carolina | Tennessee | Vanderbilt
West Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | LSU
Mississippi State | Ole Miss | Texas A&M
– 2019 SEC Preview
– Ranking The SEC Coaches
– CFN All-SEC Team & Top 30 Players
– CFN SEC Team-By-Team Predictions
– SEC Schedules
What if you were told last year at this time that Florida – coming off a four-win season – would win ten games?
What if you were told last year at this time that Kentucky would not only beat a ten-win Florida squad, but would be deep in the SEC East title chase in November?
What if you were told last year at this time that Alabama was going to lose 44-16 in the national championship?
What if you were told last year at this time that all 14 SEC head coaches would still have their jobs going into 2019?
They’re the wild and wacky curveballs that make each season fun. Enough safe and sane, it’s time for dumb and dangerous with five (potentially) stupid predictions thrown at the wall to see if they stick.
5. Kelly Bryant will be the Second-Team All-SEC quarterback, and …
He’s about to become a hot NFL prospect, too.
Bryant won’t be taken ahead of Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert or Jake Fromm, but he’s going to be someone’s guy in the top 100 picks after a year of working with Mizzou offensive coordinator Derek Dooley.
Forget some dopey national championship ring – this was the right career move Bryant needed to make.
He has the 6-3, 225-pound size, and he’s more accurate and consistent on his quick midrange throws than he gets credit for. He might not have Drew Lock’s cannon, but he has the prerequisite NFL arm and he can move far, far better than his predecessor could.
Missouri has the veteran receivers for Bryant to work with, but it’s the scheme and coaching at the right-fit program that will turn him into a statistical star.
Fromm will be in for a great season, but he won’t have Bryant’s numbers. Remember, Lock was Second-Team All-SEC last year behind Mr. Tagovailoa.
Now it’ll be Bryant’s turn.
NEXT: The SEC’s must-see, fun-bad team is (redux) …
4. Arkansas will be the SEC’s must-see team
In this same piece last year, I pushed the idea that Arkansas was going to be the SEC’s top fun-bad team …
“The Hogs aren’t going to play a lick of D, they’ll wing the ball all over the yard, and they’ll put the pressure on everyone game-in-and-game-out in shootout after shootout.”
Oops.
Arkansas was just plain bad-bad, failing to score more than 17 points six times in an ugly 2-10 season. However, it did battle hard in close losses against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and LSU …
And finished up the season getting its doors blown off by Mississippi State and Missouri by a combined score of 90-6.
So let’s try this again.
Under second-year head coach Chad Morris, the Hogs still won’t play a lick of D, they really will wing the ball all over the yard – they’ve upgraded at quarterback with Ben Hicks coming in from SMU and Nick Starkel from Texas A&M – and helped by a talented young receiving corps, they’ll put the pressure on everyone game-in-and-game-out in shootout after shootout.
And thanks to a schedule with Portland State, Colorado State, San Jose State and WKU, they’ll get to six wins and a bowl game, too.
NEXT: Playing Alabama in the SEC Championship will be (redux) …
3. Florida will get to the SEC Championship
Okay, so the call of Arkansas being fun-bad didn’t quite work out last year, and neither did the call of Florida getting to the SEC Championship.
So let’s keep hammering that nail until it goes in.
This time around, it’s not nearly as nutty of a prediction considering Florida is a preseason top ten team. From last season’s piece, when the Gators were coming off a four-win season …
“Kirby Smart’s team has to go to South Carolina, and it has a date at LSU and a home game against Auburn to deal with. If it loses just one of those games, the door should be open.”
But that was with the caveat that Florida would beat the Bulldogs in Jacksonville, and that didn’t happen. Georgia won 36-17, but the door really was open after getting thumped by LSU the week before.
This time around, an improved and solid Florida will be the one losing at LSU, and it’ll drop one other SEC game – possibly at South Carolina against a desperate Gamecock team with a brutal schedule, or maybe at Missouri, or possibly against Auburn or on the road at Kentucky. However …
Georgia will lose at Auburn, or at home to Texas A&M. It’ll drop that one other game needed so the Gators can get back to the SEC Championship for the third time in five seasons.
NEXT: This year’s LSU will be …
2. 2019 Texas A&M will be 2018 LSU
LSU was supposedly in big, big trouble going into the 2018 season.
Head coach Ed Orgeron was at the top of every hot seat coaching list, the quarterback situation was iffy, and the schedule looked impossible to manage.
The Tigers had to start out the season against Miami, had to go on the road to face Auburn, Florida and Texas A&M, and had to deal with Georgia and Alabama, too.
It was tough, but they got great play on both lines, a terrific season from a swarming defense, a nice year out of QB Joe Burrow, and in the end, managed to win ten games with a Fiesta Bowl victory over UCF.
Welcome to 2019 Texas A&M – this year’s 2018 LSU.
Head coach Jimbo Fisher isn’t remotely close to being on any hot seat list, but the schedule is a gigantic bag of unfair.
Any normal team would have to scratch and claw just to get bowl eligible with a slate of at Clemson, Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi State, at Georgia, and at LSU, with dates against Arkansas and Ole Miss away from College Station, too.
It’s going to be tough, but A&M will get great play on both lines, a terrific season from a swarming defense, a nice year out of QB Kellen Mond, and in the end, it’ll manage to win ten games after taking home a bowl victory.
Also like last year’s LSU team, A&M will lose to Alabama at home. It’ll also lose the late-season games against Georgia and LSU on the road, but before all of that, welcome to the throw-ball-before-receiver-breaks-out-of-route call that was made from the very start of the offseason. It’s too late to back off it now …
Texas A&M will beat Clemson.
The defending national champs are better than the Aggies, they’re playing at home, and unlike last year’s battle – a tight 28-26 Clemson win – when Trevor Lawrence was just getting up to speed, the offense is going to be devastating. But Kelly Bryant had a good game, and it wasn’t the offense’s fault that the defense couldn’t handle Mond’s 430-yard passing day.
A&M will pull off the thriller, setting up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup when Alabama comes to College Station on October 12th.
Relax, Clemson people … you will still get into the College Football Playoff.
NEXT: The blowouts will come from (redux) …
1. Alabama will once again win every regular game by double digits
Yeah, the “Arkansas will be fun-bad” and “Florida will win the SEC East” calls last year didn’t quite work out, but on the idea that Bama would pull a 2013 Florida State and win every regular season game by double digits …
Nailed it.
It’s the (potentially) stupid prediction so nice let’s do it twice.
Alabama won each of its first 12 games by ten points or more, with no one coming closer than 22 points. This time around, after the way last season ended against Clemson, fun time is over.
Nick Saban wants to get back to playing Alabama football.
Get ready to hear some talking off the ledge, as the CFN Podcast goes deep with Ryan Fowler from Tide 102.9 The Game in Tuscaloosa – @RyanCFowler – looking ahead to the 2019 season.
The 2017 Alabama team won ten games by double-digits on the way to the national title. The 2016 version won 13 of its first 14 by ten or more before losing the CFP championship to Clemson, and the 2015 national champion won 12 games with ease.
So you think it’s too tough for Alabama to make it two regular seasons in a row going 12-0 with all blowout wins?
Duke, New Mexico State, at South Carolina, Southern Miss, Ole Miss, at Texas A&M, Tennessee, Arkansas, LSU, at Mississippi State, Western Carolina, at Auburn.
That’s the schedule, and while A&M, LSU, Miss State and Auburn all have the potential to put up a fight, it’s going to take something otherworldly – or a slew of unfortunate injuries – to touch this Tide team.
This is Saban’s most talented offense by far.
QB Tua Tagovailoa might be the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft. Running backs Najee Harris and Brian Robinson, and receivers Jerry Jeudy, Jaylen Waddle, Henry Ruggs and DeVonta Smith are all NFL players playing college football.
Also part of the equation, it’s Alabama coming off a disappointing year defensively – it finished 16th in the nation in total D and 12th in scoring defense.
Yeah, that’s not happening again.
What will happen again is another 12-0 regular season, another trip to the College Football Playoff, and another shot at the national championship.
– CFN Preview 2019: All 130 Team Previews
SEC Team Previews, 5 Things To Know
East Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | Missouri
South Carolina | Tennessee | Vanderbilt
West Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | LSU
Mississippi State | Ole Miss | Texas A&M
– 2019 SEC Preview
– Ranking The SEC Coaches
– CFN All-SEC Team & Top 30 Players
– CFN SEC Team-By-Team Predictions
– SEC Schedules
