Category Archives: Football

Bringing all the latest news and updates related to SEC football.

Nick Marshall Won’t Start Opener for Auburn Following Marijuana Citation

It looks like Jameis Winston isn’t the only high profile QB who will be scrutinized for off season transgressions this year. His counterpart in last year’s National Championship, Auburn’s Nick Marshall will sit out the Tigers’ opener against rival Arkansas. While Marshall won’t be the starter, coach Gus Malzahn did say at the SEC media day that Marshall will in fact play in the game.

Marshall has already paid the fine for the marijuana possession citation he received in the off season and given the fact that Auburn opens the season against a Conference rival, it should come as no shock that he is going to play. Let’s face it, if Auburn were playing a cupcake opponent in week one then Malzahn would more than likely hold Marshall out for the entire game, but Gus isn’t dumb enough to risk his season because a player got caught with something as harmless as marijuana.

We should applaud Malzahn for having a good level of awareness here and not overreacting as some coaches would and putting his year in jeopardy because of something that is completely legal in multiple states. While the NFL freaks out and suspends Josh Gordon for an entire year of his prime, Gus has shown great perspective in punishing his star quarterback.

Malzahn refuses to give a concrete answer on when exactly he will put Marshall in the game and with him being so non-committal it will likely boil down to how the game goes for the Tigers while Marshall sits. Even though Arkansas didn’t win an SEC game last year, Gus is well aware this isn’t a season opener against Troy and that every SEC game counts on this schedule and no opponent should be taken likely. I would expect Marshall to enter the game by halftime, if not even sooner. I wouldn’t be shocked if he only sat out the first quarter for such a minor offense.

Along with Nick Marshall, Gus Malzahn also announced that cornerback Jonothan Mincy will be given the same punishment for a marijuana charge that he was hit with during the month of June. Just as with Marshall, Malzahn gave no exact answer to how long Mincy will be forced to sit out, and will likely again come down to how Auburn fares against Arkansas this fall.

The Tigers will face the Razorbacks in the season opener on Saturday August 30th, with kickoff scheduled for 3pm.

Malcolm Mitchell suffers yet another setback injury.

It appears that Georgia star wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell,  will likely miss fall camp due to another knee injury. He apparently  hurt it earlier this week and had it scooped Thursday. He first hurt his knee last year when he was celebrating with Todd Gurley on Gurley’s first towndown during the the Clemson game. Since then, Malcolm missed the rest of last season. Then he got hurt again in spring drill. This last set back means he will miss valuble time getting practice in before Georgia’s first game against Clemson. Malcolm when healthy,  can be a game changing difference maker with his speed and ball handling skills.  Let’s hope for Georgia’s sake that he can make a full recovery.

College Football Preseason Rankings Are Coming Out

Once again we have come to that time of year when college football teams are reporting to preseason camp. Another year when really every team in the country is starting with a clean slate (0-0).  Yet the preseason rankings are starting to come out and trying to tell us who’s the best 25 teams in the nation before one snap  is ever played. I honestly don’t trust preseason rankings. They are just based off of what those teams did the year before. With everything that happens to a team over the course of an off season, You can not really justify a ranking based off the previous season. Take for instant the Florida Gators. Based off of a 4-8 record last year, they should not be that great this year. Keep in mind the Florida gators were littered with injuries last year. That was basically the same team that went 11-2 and 7-1 in the SEC in 2012. The Georgia Bulldogs are another example of a team that was littered with injuries. Yet they still managed to go 8-5 last year. That same team was 12-2  in 2012 and was one play away from going to a national championship. Injuries to a team is like driving a car that needs a tune-up. It just slows the team down and they are doomed for the rest of the season.  So I say give it about 3 games into the season before we start ranking these teams. Stay tuned to SecBeat.Com and I will start ranking these teams based off of this years team starting week 3.

4-star Florida safety Ronnie Harrison commits to Alabama

Alabama added the 20th commitment of its 2015 class when Tallahassee, Fla., safety Ronnie Harrison gave his verbal commitment on Tuesday afternoon.ronnie harrison

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Harrison was offered by Alabama earlier this summer and made two trips to Tuscaloosa over the past two months. He chose the Crimson Tide over LSU and North Carolina, the school he had been committed to since before his junior season.

RELATED: Ronnie Harrison’s coach goes in depth on Harrison as a player and person

Harrison, a standout for Florida State University School, announced his commitment at a high school media day in Tallahassee.

In the 247Sports composite, Harrison is rated as the No. 205 prospect and the No. 9 overall safety in the country.

Recovered skill players give Bulldogs many offensive options

ATHENS — Georgia Bulldogs

Georgia managed to set several school records for offense last season despite enduring a perfect storm of injuries among its skill players. Most of the hobbled play-makers are fully recovered if not completely so as the Bulldogs get set to open camp Friday, and that has offensive coordinator excited about the prospects this season.

“All the guys look good,” Bobo said Wednesday. “They’ve got a great mindset, they feel good and they’re all anxious to to get out there and go again, which is good.”

The Bulldogs lost flanker Malcolm Mitchell, their most explosive play-maker at wide receiver, to a season-ending knee injury on the first offensive series of the season last year. A few weeks later, knee injuries ended the seasons of split end Justin Scott-Wesley, tailback Keith Marshall and tight end Jay Rome.

All four have recovered to the point that they will be able to practice at least in a limited capacity when preseason practices begin on Friday. Rome (foot) and Scott-Wesley (knee) are slightly further behind but should be available to play early in the season. Scott-Wesley is suspended for the first game due to a team rules violation.

“They haven’t played in a long time and they’re anxious to show what they can do again,” Bobo said. “We’ve just got to be careful with all of them and have that in mind while we’re out there practicing.”

That’s just part of Bobo’s offensive dilemma this fall. Another aspect is deciding how to attack opposing defenses. He has a lot of options with Todd Gurley & Co. at tailback and 15 players to choose from at wide receiver.

“We’re going to have to see how we unfold as a team offensively and what our best personnel groups are and what our identity becomes for us to move the ball,” Bobo said. “That changes year to year. Everybody sees Georgia as a two-back team, which we do. But last year we were a one-back team 74 percent of the time with three receivers and one tight end and one back. so really it depends on who we feel like is our best personnel and who gives us the best chance to move the ball.

“We’re still going to have that element of two-back runs and two-back power game to establish some physicality when we go in the stadium and to help with our play-action passes.”

SEC Links

Here we go. Football practices are about to start at campuses across the SEC, meaning we’ll have actual football stuff to discuss for the next several months. Let’s take a quick spin around what’s happening in the SEC as camp approaches.

• AL.com gives us five storylines to know heading into preseason camp at both Auburn and Alabama.

• Benardrick McKinney was hardly a major prospect, but he’s making the most of his opportunity at Mississippi State.

• USA Today’s Dan Wolken explores how private gurus such as Ken Mastrole and George Whitfield seem to be growing their influence among college quarterbacks.

• In a weekend speech before the Houston A&M Club, Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin addressed some of the team’s offseason disciplinary issues — as well as the scheduling criticisms lobbed by Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops.

• LSU’s quarterback competition between Anthony Jennings and Brandon Harris should be a hot topic once the Tigers open camp in a week.

• Tennessee coach Butch Jones is fine with the prospect of fielding a team of unknowns.

• South Carolina offensive line coach Shawn Elliott knows his group has the experience and skill to rank among the SEC’s top lines, but he’s taking a wait-and-see approach.

• Former Mississippi State quarterback Dylan Favre is aiming to have a big season at Tennessee-Martin this fall.

• Darrion Landry hopes to become the next Kentucky receiver to experience success immediately after joining the Wildcats as a junior college transfer.

• Adding Korliss Marshall to last season’s highly productive tandem of Alex Collins and Jonathan Williams, Arkansas has three strong options at running back.

• Florida players like Jeff Driskel, Clay Burton, Latroy Pittman and Demarcus Robinsonshared their knowledge with campers at the Brantley Quarterback Camp over the weekend.

• Davin Bellamy’s weekend arrest will shuffle the deck for Georgia’s outside linebackersearly in the season.

Top Sec Players: 25-21

With the season inching closer and closer, it’s time for us to once again take a look at the 25 best players the SEC has to offer.

This year, we’re changing things up a bit. Instead of taking 25 days to do our countdown, we’re making it a week-long effort and releasing five names a day. All of our reporters will be handling a list a day.

Remember that our criteria for each player on this list include talent, stats and importance to his respective team.

Today, we’re starting with players 25-21:

25. Trey Flowers, DE, Arkansas: Flowers has enjoyed a solid, three-year career with the Razorbacks. In 36 games (26 starts), Flowers has 12 sacks and 32 tackles for loss. He’s a terror off the line with his size, strength and speed. Although he’ll likely face more double-teams this fall with Chris Smith gone, Flowers has gotten into even better shape heading into the season in order to combat the pounding he’ll take this fall. He believes he’s stronger and faster, which is scary.

24. Sammie Coates, WR, Auburn: Heading into the past season, the Tigers weren’t sure who would be their top receiving threat. Well, Coates had no problem taking that title and registering a team-high 902 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. Coates defined big-play athlete by averaging 21.5 yards per catch. He might not have had the “Kick-Six” in the Alabama game, but his 39-yard touchdown to tie it with 32 seconds left was pretty special too.

23. Ramik Wilson, LB, Georgia: Talk about underrated. Wilson quietly led the SEC with 133 tackles (76 solo) the past season. He will anchor Georgia’s defense at middle linebacker and poses as the Bulldogs’ defensive quarterback. Wilson covers so much ground on the field; he might start in the middle of the field, but he can roam sideline to sideline and make plays along the way. He even has the speed to wreak havoc in opposing backfields. The future early-round NFL draft pick might be one of the league’s most underrated players.

22. Leonard Fournette, RB, LSU: No, he hasn’t played a down of football at the college level, but the talk out of Baton Rouge is that this youngster is the real deal. He’s already being compared to Michael Jordan, for crying out loud! Fournette will make an immediate impact for the Tigers this fall after being the nation’s No. 1 recruit. He finished his high school career with 7,619 rushing yards and 88 rushing touchdowns, including 1,792 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior.

21. Leonard Floyd, LB, Georgia: You might not know who Floyd is now, but he could be a household name in the SEC this fall. Georgia’s best pass-rusher, Floyd led the Bulldogs with 6.5 sacks, and he had 9.5 tackles for loss. He was also second on the team with 22 quarterback hurries. Floyd can attack standing upright or with his hand in the ground and is incredibly quick off the line. Expect to see Floyd hurl himself into the double-digit sack column this fall.

Penn State hires James Franklin as head coach

The Penn State Nittany Lions will be moving forward with the hire of former Vanderbilt coach, James Franklin today during a Saturday afternoon news conference.

Franklin, who has coached at Vanderbilt over the past three seasons, turned down other coaching jobs such as the Houston Texans, Washington Redskins, and the Cleveland Browns and decided that Penn State was right for him. According to sources, Franklin will be earning $4.5 million per year at Penn State.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to come home,” Franklin said in a statement Saturday. “I grew up watching Penn State football and now to be at the helm of such a storied program is a tremendous honor. It’s important to me to be a part of a university that strives for excellence in everything they do.

“When football student-athletes come to Penn State, they have a unique opportunity to receive a premium education while playing at the highest level of competition.”

A news conference has been set for Saturday at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium at 4:15pm today.

Franklin, who is also a Pennsylvania native, will be Penn States 16th head football coach in history.

Penn States Compensation Committee voted earlier, 6-0, Saturday morning to approve Franklin’s contract.

The SEC has been a wild ride for Franklin and we wish him the best of luck at Penn State!

BCS National Championship: No. 1 FSU vs No. 2 Auburn

Tonight is going to be one helluva match up down in Pasadena between the two best teams in the country, Auburn and Florida State.

Will the SEC keep their BCS championship streak alive? Or will Jameis Winston become the first freshman player to win a Heisman trophy and lead his team to a national title?

First quarter notes:

Florida State won the toss and selected to defer for the second half. Auburn started off their first drive looking jittery against FSU’s strong defense, gaining just one first down on the first play of the game by Tre Mason. The Tigers then went three and out and Florida state marched down the field with ease and knocked down a 35 yard field goal to take the lead, 3-0. Auburn’s defense comes up big and holds Winston and the Nole’s to a three and out on their own 2 yard line which set up a huge return with outstanding field position. On 3rd and 9, Nick Marshall dishes off a pass to Tre Mason for a 12 yard touchdown pass that put the Tigers up 7-3. Florida States defense on that third down showed a big bust. With just over one minute remaining in the first, Jameis Winston is sacked hard for a huge loss on third down and is forced to punt. Defensive back Johnathan Ford attempts to block the punt by lodging out with his right arm but runs into the kicker and is penalized with 15 yards which gave the Nole’s a free first down. I admire the hustle and aggressiveness on that play but you have to have discipline.

Second quarter notes:

Auburn’s defense comes up with another big stop and forces the Nole’s to punt. Nick Marshall connects with Melvin Ray for a 5 yards touchdown pass that puts Auburn over the Nole’s 14-3. Auburn has got to have FSU’s defense big eyed right now after this drive. With 13 minutes remaining in the second quarter, Auburn’s defense comes up with yet another huge stop and forces FSU to punt it away. Jameis Winston is continuing to show signs of struggle, only completing 4 of 11 passes so far. Florida State is showing lots of signs of rust. I don’t know what it is but I’m not use to seeing FSU miss so many open field tackles. Auburn is just simply dominating on both sides of the ball so far tonight. Even though Florida State’s defense has their hands on their knees and hips, they still find a way to hold Marshall and the Tigers to a missed field goal from short distance. That defensive possession was huge for the Nole’s so lets see if they can search for any answers as they trail 14-3. And of course I would jinx the Seminoles. Jameis Winston fumbles on a attempted rush on the very next possession and turns the ball right over to the Tigers. Just several plays later Nick Marshall rushes for a four yards touchdown that puts the Tigers ahead, 21-3. Jameis Winston found some life in his team by driving the Nole’s all the way down for a touchdown. The Nole’s had 11 plays for 66 yards on the drive with just 1:28 remaining in the first half.

LSU’s Becham and Landry to enter draft

Sources have confirmed that LSU junior wide receivers Odell Becham and Jarvis Landry will be exiting their collegiate careers early to enter the NFL draft.

The two will join teammates Anthony Johnson and Ego Ferguson who also announced their decisions to go pro.

Becham was listed as the No. 6 non-senior receiver among possible draft prospects back in November by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. He also ranked Ferguson and Johnson fourth and fifth among non-senior DT’s.

This past season was one of LSU’s greatest offensive years yet. With Landry, Becham, Jeremy Hill and Zach Metternberger, those were some serious weapons on offense. All of them helped LSU become the first SEC team to have a 3,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers. Now that is quite impressive Id say.

Becham is ranked second nationally in all-purpose yards with 178.1 per game. Becham also won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation’s most versatile player and was a third-team All-American as an all-purpose player. Landry caught 77 passes for 1,193 yards and 10 TDs while becham recorded 59 catches for 1,152 yards and 8 TDs. Both were All-SEC juniors and became the sixth and seventh LSU players to record 1,000 or more receiving yards in one season.

We wish all of these young men a bright future in the NFL.