Kentucky quarterback could be SEC's best signal-caller
Now that spring football and the drive to pack stadiums for spring scrimmages is over, it's time to start thinking about the other sport — fall football.
You know, that's where the play games that actually mean something. So with that in mind, here is some random thoughts about the upcoming college football season …
Who will be the preseason All-SEC quarterback? Should it be Erik Ainge at Tennessee? Brandon Cox at Auburn? John Parker Wilson at Alabama? Okay, they are all nice solid quarterbacks when healthy, but that would be overlooking the obvious choice—the Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson. Woodson was the led the SEC in passing and total offense last season, but hardly anyone outside of Lexington realized it.
The Kentucky senior had a remarkable 31-to-7 touchdown pass to interception ratio as a junior. In the Kentucky spring game he completed 17 of 28 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns. He will make things interesting in the SEC again this season as the Wildcats shoot to go bowling in back-to-back seasons.
It's a rather interesting situation regarding quarterbacks in the conference. Woodson was outstanding. Wilson set Alabama passing records, but he wasn't able to keep the Tide from a seven-loss season. Ainge had an outstanding year, but it comes on the heels of a bad season. Cox had a sub par season after an outstanding one.
Matthew Stafford at Georgia finished strong but on the whole it was just an average first season. Tim Tebow had outstanding moments for Florida running the football, but he didn't have the added burden of running the team.
In short, the conference opens this season with less star power at the star position than in most years. The biggest star quarterback nationally is probably Tebow, which says something about the position this season. …
When the preseason football magazines hit the newsstands later this month, look for LSU to be given plenty of respect despite losing its starting quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, in the recent NFL Draft. Several will go as far as predicting the Tigers will find themselves in the BCS Championship Game against Pete Carroll's USC Trojans. That says a lot about the LSU defense, and of course that some people haven't forgotten Matt Flynn's performance against Miami two years ago. …
By the way, by now you have heard how the Southeastern Conference led all conferences with 11 players selected in the first round, including Russell, who was the first player chosen. …
Four SEC schools drew over 31,000 for their spring games, topped by Alabama's 92,138 fans. What does that say about SEC football? Actually it doesn't say a thing about the football, but it says a lot about how much SEC fans love their football. There have been some critical things written and said in the national media about how silly it was for that many fans to come to a spring game. But why not? If it is a pretty day, are there too many better ways to spend a Saturday afternoon watching a football scrimmage with no stress attached to the outcome?
I can't think of many. …
College football coaches must dread the offseason. More and more football players wind up in the headlines for trouble with the police. LSU coach Les Miles has kicked Zhamal Thomas, Kyle Anderson and Troy Giddens off the football team. Giddens and Thomas were arrested and accused of breaking into an apartment and the theft of money and other items. Anderson was arrested and charged with second-degree battery after a fight at a campus hangout.
Steve Spurrier must have loved having his hot shot quarterback recruit Stephen Garcia arrested twice before even taking a snap as a Gamecock. He was suspended and then reinstated. If you're a pretty good quarterback, you've got to do more than key a professor's car and get nabbed for drunkenness to be kicked off the team. …
My new hero is Florida president Dr. Bernie Machen. Finally, there is an academician who wants to see a college football playoff for Division I. Machen advocates that a third-party run a playoff. It's funny, the Florida president benefited from the flawed BCS system this past year, but that hasn't changed his desire to see a college football playoff. You've got to love that. …
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