Who Steps up in 2012

College Basketball ended last Monday night with yet another SEC team walking away with a national championship. Kentucky struggled, at least at times, with a very good Kansas team, yet prevailed 67-59.  In the end, to much defense, to much talent and surprisingly, to much maturity from a very young Wildcat team sealed the Jayhawks fate.

The SEC is on fire, they have dominated college baseball ( won the last three College World Series’) this past year, South Carolina beat SEC East divisional rival, Florida, in the championship game.

In college football, they have literally annihilated the field, winning six national championships in a row. This past year, adding insult to injury, two teams from the SEC’s West Division (Alabama & LSU)  played for the BCS National Championship ending any lingering doubt about SEC’s dominance.

So who steps up? Will any BCS Conference or any conference for that matter, produce a team with the talent, the skill, and the mental toughness to challenge the SEC’s reign?

Two possible challengers for the coming year:

Florida State: QB E J Manual 6″5′ 245 is back and should provide the leadership as well as the athletic talent to lead this team. The running game is solid and the receivers are arguably the best in the ACC led by Rashad Greene. Last year in the Sport Champ Bowl, FSU started four Freshman against the Irish on the O Line, so look for better play from this unit as the talent gains experience. On defense, the Seminoles return their D line in tact! This unit is led by Brandon Jenkins, 6’3 267, who surprisingly did nor enter the NFL draft and has returned to school for his senior year. The LB play will be impacted by the loss of Nigel Bradham, their leading tackler for the past three seasons. However, Jeff Luc, Christian Jones, and Vince Williams have the talent, speed, and size to be a highly effect unit. In the secondary, both cornerbacks return, as Greg Reid and Xavier Rhodes did not enter the NFL draft. The cornerbacks are joined by All ACC (second team) free safety, Lamarcus Joyner. These players provide the needed talent, skill, and experience to be one of the most effective secondaries in the country.

Southern Cal: QB Matt Barkley, in my opinion, is the unchallenged best quarterback in the country! He returns to SC on a mission to lead the Trojans back from banishment to the BCS National Championship Game.  TB’s Curtis McNeal and D J Morgan have speed to burn and FB Samo Vainuku should fit nicely as the lead blocker in SC’s vaunted I formation. SC may have the best duo at WR in the nation, Robert Woods and Marqise Lee, not to mention George Farmer, who may have more talent than Lee or Woods. While the Trojans return 4 of 5 on the O Line, left tackle Matt Kalil is gone. Right Tackle Kevin Graf is most likely to fill the bill by moving over to the left side, this is a position that is critical to SC being successful. They must protect Barkley’s blind side. On Defense, the big question mark is the D Line, three of the four down linemen from the 2011 unit are gone. This is not an area where you want to have questions and SC must navigate these waters to challenge the SEC power teams. You simply can not just out score them. The LB’s are young, talented, experienced, and most importantly, back for the 2012 season. This group is terrific, Dion Bailey and Lamar Dawson are on the outside, while Hayes Pullard patrols the middle.  The secondary returns strong safety T J McDonald and cornerback Nickell Robey, both two year starters. While the other corner and free safety will lack experience, the talent level is high and this unit should perform well early and improve as the season progresses.

While every season has surprise teams, these are clearly two squads that have the talent, skill, and mental toughness to step up and challenge for a spot in the  national championship game.