Top 3 position battles to watch in the SEC
Top 3 Position Battles
There are a handful of pivotal position battles to sort out in the SEC with less than a month left before the college football season kicks off.
Alabama finds itself in a familiar spot, searching for a new field general for the second straight year. Three hours to its east, Auburn will be hoping to find its next feature back. And Florida is looking for its first difference-making quarterback since Tim Tebow left Gainesville.
The pads are popping and depth charts are taking shape as fall camp hits its stride down south. Here are three position battles to keep an eye on.
Auburn's starting running back
Gus Malzahn's breakneck tempo requires numerous playmakers to touch the football. In 2014, eleven offensive players touched the ball at least 10 times. Despite Auburn's versatility, Malzahn loves to identify a true bell cow; in his first two seasons as head coach on the Plains, his leading rusher toted the ball over 300 times. Tre Mason was able to parlay those touches into a trip to New York as a Heisman finalist. Last season, Cameron Artis-Payne rushed for 1,600 yards as the centerpiece of Malzahn's hurry-up, no-huddle offense.
Roc Thomas and Jovon Robinson will vie for the coveted starting job, a role that has typically led to both collegiate success and enhanced draft status. Thomas was nothing short of electric during Auburn's A-Day, a spring-game performance that unveiled his devastating spin move. If Thomas remains a dynamic home-run threat throughout fall camp, Malzahn may have no choice but to make him the feature back.
Robinson, whether the starter or a change-of-pace backup option, should complement Thomas perfectly. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound thumper was the top-rated JUCO running back in the country and will remind the Auburn faithful of Mason. He's adept at running between the tackles and shifty enough to elude tacklers once he reaches the second level. Due to Auburn's upgrade at quarterback, opponents won't be able to stack the box to stop either running back. Jeremy Johnson will provide the Tigers with a passing threat they haven't enjoyed since Cam Newton's record-setting 2010 season.
While this battle may bleed into the season, expect Malzahn to have settled on one feature back by the time the Tigers travel to Death Valley for a Week 3 showdown with LSU.
Florida's quarterback competition
The Gators were able to poach the Mountain West Conference's coach of the year from Colorado State this offseason, an acquisition they hope will rejuvenate their program. Jim McElwain's offense last season in Fort Collins was balanced and incredibly efficient. The passing game ranked fifth in the nation in efficiency while torching defenses for 321 yards per game. McElwain was able to transform the lightly recruited Garrett Grayson into a third-round NFL draft pick, while elevating Rashard Higgins from a raw prospect into a Biletnikoff finalist.
The recent addition of Luke Del Rio provides the Gators with another live arm, but the quarterback battle will essentially only feature two participants this month. Will Grier and Treon Harris exited the spring in what was described as a dead heat.
Grier, a former high-school standout at Davidson Day School outside of Charlotte, N.C., has the kind of measurables McElwain values in a quarterback. At 6-foot-2, the highly accurate redshirt freshman excels at throwing on the run. Since the Gators return just one starter along the line and intend to start a true freshman at right tackle, throwing on the move may be a necessity. Grier's biggest challenge will be acclimating to operating under center after an entire high-school career taking snaps in the shotgun.
Harris saw plenty of action last season, starting six games for Florida and winning four. His athleticism was on full display, most notably in the Gators' 34-10 victory over Vanderbilt, in which he scored two rushing touchdowns. Harris' biggest weakness is his accuracy, which fell below 50 percent in 2014. If he improves in that area, his exceptional mobility may be enough to sway the new coaching staff into handing him the reins.
Alabama's quarterback competition
The Crimson Tide begin fall practice without an established starting quarterback for the second consecutive season. Jake Coker, the presumptive starter entering last year's camp, will once again find himself embroiled in a position battle this August. While Coker flashed potential last summer, fifth-year senior Blake Sims piloted Lane Kiffin's explosive offense instead. The typically cagey Nick Saban has done little to identify the front-runners entering camp, but three players to seem have positioned themselves for a real run at the QB1 designation.
In addition to the strong-armed Coker, Cooper Bateman and David Cornwell are both former Elite 11 quarterbacks with the tools to lead a potentially potent Tide attack. Cornwell is coming off an impressive spring, which was the first extended look the coaches had at him after his surgically repaired ankle was back to full strength.
Bateman, ESPN's third-ranked pocket passer in the 2013 class, is a bit more fleet-footed than Coker or Cornwell, but it's his accuracy that could push him over the top. The Salt Lake City product would need uneven performances from his competition and a nearly flawless August to win the job, but he's already proven himself worthy of consideration.
Reading the tea leaves in T-Town can be challenging, but Saban's recent comments regarding Coker's progress seem to point to the senior getting the start Sept. 5 against Wisconsin. Whoever ends up starting for Alabama this year has to be encouraged by the fact that two of Saban's three titles in Tuscaloosa featured a first-year starter (Greg McElroy, AJ McCarron) under center.