August 31, 2012

Rivals.com
Rivals.com Football Recruiting

Our daily look around the SEC through the eyes of the Rivals.com network of sites.

SEC WEST Alabama One change in game-day philosophy for Alabama at SLB: while past 'Bama players at that position have come out on third downs, 6-foot-6, 248-pounder Adrian Hubbard will stay in. With 6-foot-3, 262-pound Xzavier Dickson manning the other outside spot and 6-foot-2, 242-pound Adrian DePriest in the middle, the Crimson Tide has a starting trio perhaps bigger than some NFL teams. Hubbard and Dickson will have the gargantuan task of pressuring Michigan QB Denard Robinson on Saturday. More Alabama coverage: TideSports.com Arkansas Hurricane Isaac has caused a lot of rain in the Southeast and Southwest, but there's only a 30 percent chance of rain in Fayetteville for Arkansas' Saturday opener vs. Jacksonville State. Coach John L. Smith isn't concerned about field conditions and won't prepare differently in the event of rain other than perhaps attempting fewer passes. Arkansas has won nine of the last 10 season openers, including five in a row. The Razorbacks went 7-0 at home last season and are 13-1 the last two. More Arkansas coverage: HawgSports.com Auburn Auburn's starting OL for Saturday's opener vs. Clemson has a combined 22 career starts. New offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler ran 77 percent of the time at Temple last year, and it appears Auburn will be a run-first team this season. QB Kiehl Frazier's August didn't always go well, but the good news for Auburn fans is that the sophomore has potential. Frazier has above-average arm strength and good mobility. Accuracy has been an issue, but Frazier's intelligence and work ethic should help him get better. More Auburn coverage: AuburnSports.com LSU DT Josh Downs has earned his first career start on one of college football's premier defensive lines. The senior is talented - he was once a member of the Rivals 250 - but he's never been able to stay healthy for an entire season. Downs was a first-teamer last season before getting hurt in preseason and missing the Oregon game, opening the door for Bennie Logan, who will occupy the spot next to Downs this year. Downs is up 15 pounds from his playing weight of 280 last year. More LSU coverage: TigerBait.com Ole Miss Coach Hugh Freeze has finally named a starter at QB: JUCO transfer Bo Wallace. Most media outlets listed Wallace as the starter coming out of the spring, but the competition between he and Barry Brunetti was close. Freeze insists that Wallace isn't the "starter" so much as he is the guy who'll take the first snap, and reiterated that both will play in the opener vs. Central Arkansas. Starting RB Jeff Scott remains doubtful with an irritated disc in his spinal column. More Ole Miss coverage: RebelGrove.com Mississippi State The departure of WR coach Angelo Mirando due to an NCAA investigation may be being felt in Starkville already. The three-star prospect from Pinson, Ala., de-committed this week. Woods holds at least eight FBS offers, including Arkansas, Auburn and Vanderbilt. More Miss. State coverage: BulldogBlitz.com Texas A&M The postponement of A&M's home opener vs. Louisiana Tech is an interesting lesson in SEC protocol. TAMU AD Eric Hyman said that in cases such as this one - Hurricane Isaac dumped truckloads of rain along the gulf and the Southwest - the call regarding re-scheduling goes to the commissioner of the home school. The game is being played in Shreveport, La., and with Tech being the home team, the WAC made the call to postpone the game after consulting with Tech officials. Tech did not want to move the venue, and conflicts with games on Friday and Saturday made it impossible to play the game those days. More Texas A&M coverage: AggieYell.com

SEC EAST Florida Anyone with visions of Florida's offense going back to the pass-happy days of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer needs to re-adjust expectations. First-year coordinator Brent Pease may have been part of some high-flying offenses from his days at Boise State, but this Gator team is going to do a lot of running between the tackles. The Gators will run a lot of motion with backs and ends and use hybrid players like Omarius Hines and Trey Burton in creative ways. More Florida coverage: InsidetheGators.com Georgia Three freshmen to watch when the Bulldogs open tomorrow against Buffalo are RBs Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall and K Marshall Morgan. Gurley and Marshall were outstanding in August, and although Ken Malcombe has the starting job for now, both could out-produce him. Morgan has a great leg - he hit a 59-yard field goal in high school last year - but coach Mark Richt didn't offer much of a response when asked about the state of the kicking game earlier this week. Senior Jamie Lindley, who's never played a college game, awaits if Morgan fails. More Georgia coverage: UGASports.com Kentucky Six-foot-11 athletes always draw a lot of attention on UK's basketball-crazy campus, but Jack Gruenschlaeger's not a football player. The 339-pounder has earned a spot as Kentucky's backup right guard heading into the season. Gruenschlager is a bit of a gentle giant and a scholar off the field: he's an accounting major who's an honor student, is well-liked by everyone around him, and once starred in a high school musical. More Kentucky coverage: CatsIllustrated.com Missouri Saturday will be a game of firsts in Columbia: Missouri's first game as a part of the SEC, and Southeastern Louisiana coach Ron Roberts' debut after coming from Division II Delta State. SELA runs a pro-style attack and is expected to have about a 50/50 balance between running and passing. Defensively, SELA will play a 3-3-5 alignment and features a big linebacking group. More Missouri coverage: PowerMizzou.com South Carolina The difference for Carolina in its opening-night, 17-13 win over Vanderbilt was RB Marcus Lattimore and QB Connor Shaw in the running game. Lattimore ran for 110 yards and two scores on 23 carries, and Shaw carried 14 times for 97 more. Shaw was knocked out of the game late in the second quarter and had a great deal of pain in his shoulder, but gutted it out for most of the second half and gave the VU defense tremendous problems with his mobility. His injury appears to be a bone bruise, and the Gamecocks don't think it's serious. More S. Carolina coverage: GamecockCentral.com Tennessee The five experts at VolQuest.com pick UT to knock off North Carolina State tonight by an average of 7.4 points. It looks to be a higher-scoring affair, with all five writers picking a score for the Vols in the 30s and for the Wolfpack, a point total in the 20s. Defense could be a concern for UT tonight: new defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri has installed a complicated new scheme with lots of pre-snap movement. The Vol defense was prone to giving up big plays in August practices as it learned what it needed to do. More Tennessee coverage: VolQuest.com Vanderbilt Two big depth-chart surprises for Vanderbilt in Thursday's loss to South Carolina came at K and RB. K Ryan Fowler was listed as the starting field-goal kicker, but Carey Spear had all three attempts. He looked good in hitting two, mis-firing only on a 51-yarder. Former SEC Freshman of the Year Warren Norman failed to see the field despite being listed on the depth chart. Norman tweeted after the game that his health was fine and it was a coach's decision. Instead, Wesley Tate, who'd been playing at WR, was VU's second-team back. More Vanderbilt coverage: VandySports.com