FRIDAY

PRESSBOX UPDATE

This is the video on Facebook that I could not find on Wednesday.

https://www.facebook.com/KevinM67/videos/422853907403410?idorvanity=943957374120354

PRESEASON PREDICTIONS

The next two weeks are going to be filled with all the publications and podcast coming out with their pre-season predictions. This will be followed by the rallying of media types for the Southland Conference, Big 12, Big 10, CUSA, Sun Belt, ACC, and all the rest. The granddaddy of them all is coming July 15-18.

The 2024 SEC media days has set the schedule the most popular preseason media event in college football. SEC media days will be held from July 15-18 at the Omni hotel in downtown Dallas, Texas.

The SEC, which has won four of the last five national championships in football, will have 16 teams beginning in July 2024. Divisions will no longer exist within the conference for football. Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC in 2024, so it is understandable that the SEC is hosting media days in Dallas.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey will speak at the media days along with every SEC head football coach.

July 15 opens with Brian Kelly and the always entertaining Lane Kiffin. I don’t think a nametag with “Zem’s Gems” will get me in the door, but the lobby would be good people watching. I have been to a couple of NCAA meetings in Dallas and they are highlights in my brushing with greatness.

• Brian Kelly (LSU)
• Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss)
• Shane Beamer (South Carolina)
• Clark Lea (Vanderbilt)

Speaking of predictions, 247 Sports came out with their SEC predictions this week. I have seen enough of these podcasts and read enough publications that they are all starting to group together with little variance. I think we can safely say that the bottom group are consistently including Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas and South Carolina at the bottom. The next group of three are generally a mixture of Kentucky, Auburn, and Florida. Pick any way you want, but these are dangerous road games for anybody. One podcaster yesterday was picking LSU with 9-3 record. He said he was giving LSU the benefit of the doubt but didn’t like that trip to the swamp after playing Alabama in their game of the year. Everybody’s schedule is going to be loaded with potholes to avoid.

I have to say the top nine rated teams by 247 Sports and others is unbelievable when you think about how in the world can teams as talented as Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Tennessee be ranked 7-8-9. The only answer I have is somebody has to fill those slots. You could move LSU and Missouri down from 5 and 6 but do you want to take a 10-2 Missouri team with their star QB and two of the best WR’s in college football and place them 7-8, or 9. LSU’s schedule sets up for a strong season due to avoiding Texas, UGA, Tennessee, Missouri, and Auburn. They get OU, Ole Miss, and Bama at home. So, I would leave them probably in the 5 or 6 spot.

The potential of a fire burning down Tuscaloosa as the LSU podcasters are predicting could come true, but I think Matt Mosconi and his group of podcasters are overplaying their purple and gold eyeglasses. Just two weeks ago he laughed at Coach Deboer and said he could not recruit, and it was a joke that Alabama had picked up a 3-star QB from Texas. All Bama could recruit was three-star players he said. That kid went out to the Elite 11 Camp and won MVP and all of the pundits say he proved he will be given 5-stars. Since that time, Alabama has been soaring on the recruiting front and moved up to #2 in 247 recruiting.

However, if I had to pick two programs that I could drop from these rankings it would be Alabama and Missouri. Every publication and podcast that I have read and heard are consistent with Georgia, Texas, and Ole Miss. Of course, Ole Miss is a dark horse if their defense is not greatly improved, but they added four starters from other programs, while podcasters do not see the same portal additions at LSU who were near the bottom in SEC defense.

I still do not have enough information to start forming my opinion of the Southland Conference. I do know it will be more balanced this year because of the improvement of Lamar, HCU, Commerce, Northwestern State, SLU and McNeese. SFA will have one of the four best rosters in the conference if not the top three if you can believe recruiting. So, it is good for the league having them back. I will probably wait until Media Days so that I can get a read on the new portal additions and losses at each school. The SLC will have new coaches at NSU and Commerce which are always interesting.

RATING RECRUITING CLASSES ARE NOW IMPOSSIBLE

Remember that monster 30-man, No. 1-ranked class Jimbo Fisher signed at Texas A&M in 2022 that included 18 top-100 prospects? Ten of those top-100 players are gone and only 16 members of the class remain on the Aggies’ roster entering this fall.

Nick Saban’s 2022 class finished one spot behind the Aggies, but only 11 members of that 25-man class remain in Tuscaloosa.

Are Texas A&M and Alabama just bad examples because of the coaching changes at both schools? Hardly. Georgia’s 2022 recruiting class, the one signed by Kirby Smart in the midst of winning back-to-back national championships, ranked right behind Texas A&M and Alabama. Only 16 of the Bulldogs’ 30 signees from that class are still in Athens.

It’s not an anomaly. It’s college football today. Rosters flip quickly.

There are 61 players among a group of 341 who signed with the 17 current ACC programs in the 2023 cycle who are no longer with their respective schools. Go back to the 2022 cycle, and a combined 40 percent of the signing classes in the ACC are gone. In the 2021 cycle, that number is 57 percent.

The portal has opened up a can of worms and the future of four-year players is in doubt. How many players remain at LSU that Ed Orgeron recruited? How many ULL players that Billy Napier recruited are still at ULL? I would guess few Brad Laird players from 2022 remain, nor ULM players from the Bowden Era. I can tell you that I cannot name one McNeese player from the Sterling Gilbert signing class that remains. I did go back and look at the Frank Wilson roster from 2021 and only 4 of 85 players remain. It was no accident in 2023 if you follow the roster very closely.

Therefore, predictions are for those that are bored and have nothing to do. We still have 8 weeks left to football season and many rosters are still changing. By the way, name all the basketball players recruited by John Aiken just two years ago. Christian Shumate is the only Aiken player remaining.