National Columnist Mike Farrell is here with the 3-Point Stance, ranking the SEC top-tier linebackers for next season, the next wave of expansion, and which coach needs a better season — Ryan Day or Lincoln Riley.
Top SEC Linebacker Rooms
— Let’s move on to the SEC linebacker groups.
1. LSU
— Harold Perkins Jr. And Omar Speights are arguably the best 1-2 punch in the entire country, and this LB group will be all over the field.
2. Alabama
— Dallas Turner is a hybrid who can do damage standing up, while Chris Braswell has similar skills and upside.
3. Georgia
— Jamon Dumas-Johnson should come close to 100 tackles this season as he leads yet another nasty defense.
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4. Missouri
— Ty’Ron Hopper had double-digit tackles for a loss last season and leads a crew not many pay enough attention to.
5. Mississippi State
— Nathaniel Watson is one of the best in the country, with more than 100 tackles last season and six sacks. His leadership gives State the edge over a group of others here.
Predicting the Next Wave of Expansion
— What’s gonna happen in the next wave of expansion? No one knows, as few saw Colorado coming until the rumors popped up a couple of weeks ago. Oregon and Washington are talking to the Big 12, and you can bet every other PAC 12 team is working the phones. My best guess is this….
1. Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah round out the Big 12 moves
— it makes sense geographically, and the Buffs were supposed to be a throw-in here until Deion Sanders was hired and made Colorado the most attractive of the bunch. This will inch the landscape out west a bit more and put Utah with BYU.
2. Oregon, Washington, Cal, and Stanford join the Big Ten
— the Bears and Cardinal have the academics the Big Ten likes to boast on, and the Ducks and Huskies dominate the Pacific Northwest TV market for the conference. All four add travel partners to USC and UCLA.
3. The SEC stands still
— no need for addition for Greg Sankey and company as they don’t want to reach far west, and no one adds great value.
4. Oregon State and Washington State drop down
— They land in the Mountain West but can still make an expanded playoff. But there’s no Power Four home for the second market in states that don’t move the needle that much.
5. The ACC changes revenue dispersement
— The bigger schools are stuck with the Grant of Rights, and ESPN isn’t going to re-negotiate a TV deal that is good for them and bad for the ACC. To avoid Florida State or Clemson or someone else biting the bullet and eating the $120 million of lost revenue by leaving, they will come to the conclusion that equal revenue share won’t keep them alive and reward those who bring the eyeballs. And the ACC will survive as it is.
Under the Microscope: Ryan Day vs. Lincoln Riley
— And finally, who’s under more pressure to have a big season — Ryan Day at Ohio State or Lincoln Riley at USC?
Ryan Day was somehow hearing Buckeyes fans call for his job last season despite the fact that he is 45-6 in four seasons at the helm in Columbus. And half of those losses are in the postseason. He’s proven to be an elite recruiter and has a squad that can yearly compete with anyone on a talent-for-talent basis.
But if Day’s Buckeyes lose to Michigan for the third straight season, it would be the first time since the John Cooper era. And we all know what happened to Cooper.
Lincoln Riley has been one of the greatest offensive minds in the country for nearly a decade, and as a head coach, he’s got a 66-13 record, with five of those 13 losses coming in the postseason. Furthermore, he is arguably the preeminent quarterback whisperer, having coached three Heisman Trophy winners.
However, he’s apparently completely given up on trying to have any semblance of a defense, as he continues to employ Alex Grinch as his defensive coordinator despite diminishing results every season. And given some of the postseason letdowns we’ve seen from his teams, including just this past season against Tulane in the Cotton Bowl, it doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his teams.
This really comes down to Day’s ability to beat Michigan. If the Buckeyes beat the Wolverines in Ann Arbor this fall, then he’s off the hot seat. If he doesn’t, there will be a lot more questions than answers. And because of that, Day is the coach under more pressure this fall.
