With all 14 camps in the books -- thanks for getting there eventually, Texas A&M -- it's time to review the 2012 spring football season in the SEC. Here's what we learned (or think we did, anyway), in the East, and immediately below, in the West:
ALABAMA: The Tide aren't going to miss Trent Richardson as much as you'd think. Yes, there was that Mark Ingram guy a couple years back who won that Heisman thingy for which Richardson finished up a mere finalist, but we're going to say this anyway: Richardson was the best Alabama running back since Bobby Humphrey in the mid-1980s.
So why are we also saying that the Tide will easily clear whatever hurdle Richardson's departure to the NFL left behind? Several reasons, the first being that five-star true freshman T.J. Yeldon looks ready to live up to his Marcus Lattimore-like hype, piling up 179 yards from scrimmage in the Tide's "A-Day" game to earn MVP honors. The second is that even with an unsettled outlook at wide receiver, AJ McCarron looks ready to be the Tide's biggest weapon at quarterback in recent memory. He completed 29 of his 42 A-Day passes for better than 300 yards and two touchdowns -- albeit with three interceptions. And while there are still some kinks to be worked out in the much-younger-than-usual defense, Nick Saban was much more complimentary about its work ethic and focus across the spring than he was with a similar unit in the Tide's last post-championship season, 2010.
Add all that up with the likely fall return of de facto tailback starter Eddie Lacy (out this spring following surgery), and the bet here is that whatever struggles the Tide might have in 2012, they won't come down to the empty shoes in the backfield.
To be fair, the Hog defense still has a ton to prove. But in a league where points remain at a premium, it's still not hard to look at the Razorbacks' offensive spring and imagine them playing "catch me if you can" on a whole series of conference scoreboards this fall -- Bobby Petrino or no Bobby Petrino.
But barring a surprising late charge from senior Clint Moseley, the Tigers do all but know that sophomore Kiehl Frazier will wind up their starting quarterback. Though Moseley had the advantage of seniority and a handful of starts in the second half of 2011, he was limited throughout spring drills by an injured shoulder. Frazier took that opportunity and ran with it, drawing positive reviews in practice and hitting 7 of 9 for 92 yards and adding 21 more on the ground. Though Moseley hit 5 of 6 himself, it's impossible to find an Auburn observer who doesn't now believe Frazier has the inside track on the starting job -- and given that he's an athletic sophomore with plenty of upside still to explore, it's hard to see him giving it back to his less-mobile, older competition.
So we know the Tigers have the pieces to put together an offense that can put fear into opposing defenses both on the ground and in the air. The only question: When push comes to shove this fall, will Miles let Steve Kragthorpe really put them to use? We'd say "yes" given that Miles seemed as frustrated with the Jordan Jefferson-Jarrett Lee tag team as anyone by the end of the national title pratfall, but it's Les Miles. Who knows?
There are some positives for Freeze nonetheless -- the receiving corps, in particular, where Donte Moncrief had a huge spring and converted quarterback Randall Mackey looked like an immediate-impact playmaker -- but the bottom line is that it's hard to pinpoint what spring developments truly suggest the Rebels are ready to move out of the division cellar.
Of course, this is still Dan Mullen we're talking about, and the Bulldog backfield still features a dynamic home-run threat in LaDarius Phillips, so don't expect the Bulldogs to go Mike Leach on us or anything. But those halcyon 2010 days of Relf and Anthony Dixon lumbering over the line-of-scrimmage for six or seven plays at a stretch are done for now.
And assuming he hangs onto it, Showers is going to have to prove that his spring was no fluke, or else; the nearly 600 yards of offense racked up by the Aggie offense in the spring game might suggest that the attack is well ahead of schedule, but it also suggests that new defensive coordinator Mark Snyder has his work cut out for him making the switch from the Aggies' old 3-4 to his preferred 4-3.
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