Visiting the SEC - LSU #6 ?

On of my daily reads is the College Football Resource. On Tuesday, the site previewed the SEC. For starters, we all know the SEC is the deepest conference in the nation, especially this year. Auburn, LSU, Georgia, and Florida could win the title and are the usual suspects year in and year out. Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, and even Kentucky could go bowling.

As I was scanning the list I nearly spit my milk of my morning cereal when I see LSU at #6 for the conference behind the likes of Alabama and Arkansas. My first inclination is to question the state of mind of the author behind CFR. He goes through the depth chart and suddenly its not so surprising that the Bayou Bengals could slip that far...

But in the words of Lee Corso, "not so fast, my friend". First, the Tigers do have talent. Yes, not all of their highly heralded players have panned out in recruiting rankings, but a good percentage have, notably along the lines over the year. My biggest reasoning for the Tigers doing no worse than fourth lies with the options listed above them.

Alabama could not score last year with Brodie Croyle and watching the Tide after they lost Croyle in 2004 was painful. They also lost more than half of their underrated defense in 2005. Also, even with LSU's trio of backs with "bum knees", the Tigers still field a backfield better than half of the conference and better than anyone the Tide will trot out.

Arkansas is in the last throes of a panic job-keeping staff cleaning by Houston Nutt. The keg of powder waiting to explode amongst the Hog faithful will be to question their high school offensive coordinator when things go wrong. Yes, the Hogs competed well in 2005, but don't think the rest of the conference will be treating them lightly.

Just my two cents...