 "Photo: Courtesy of Texas Sports")
With the SEC winning back-to-back championships and three in the last five seasons starting with LSU's 2003 title, it's easy to argue that it is the best conference in college football.
Coaches Steve Spurrier (South Carolina), Urban Meyer (Florida), Les Miles (LSU), Nick Saban (Alabama, but won title at LSU) and Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee) have all won national championships, and Tommy Tuberville led Auburn to a 13-0 record. Sylvester Croom of Mississippi State was coach of the year last season.
The signature theme of the SEC: bone crushing, hard-hitting, fast defenses.
This season, three of the best defensive coordinators who were previously coaching in the SEC are now reunited coaching together in the Big 12.
Gene Chizik, Auburn's defensive coordinator when they went 13-0 in 2004 and Texas' defensive coordinator when they won the 2005 championship, is now head coach at Iowa State. Former legendary Alabama defensive coordinator Joe Kines is now Mike Sherman's defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. And of course, Will Muschamp, who was defensive coordinator of LSU's 2003 national championship team and a firey Saban disciple, is now Texas' defensive coordinator.
Factor that in with Oklahoma, who will always be a defensive powerhouse under Bob Stoops aside from their yearly Fiesta Bowl meltdowns, and Kansas, who was ranked 12th in total defense last season en route to an 11-1 season and Orange Bowl victory, plus Texas Tech, whose defense made a dramatic turnaround under new defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeil, and the Big 12 could be making a shift toward being a major defensive powerhouse.
The reason Texas Tech is getting so much hype this season is that most experts finally believe in their defense. After McNeil took over as defensive coordinator last season following Tech's 49-45 loss to Oklahoma State, Tech led the Big 12 in defense in its final eight games.
Kines will be a lot more aggressive at A&M than the Aggies' previous defensive coordinator, Gary Darnell. Muschamp will up the intensity level of Texas' defense. Oklahoma will probably be back with a vengeance on defense after getting humiliated in the Fiesta Bowl.
Offense will be enough to win plenty of Big 12 games this season, but in the end, it will be defense that determines the champion.
Although, to be fair, there is one question mark surrounding Muschamp. This is the first time he's worked for a non-defensive coach. At LSU and with the Miami Dolphins, he worked under defensive guru Saban, and at Auburn he worked under Tuberville, who made a name for himself in the early '90s as the defensive coordinator of A&M's wrecking crew.
This season Muschamp won't have a defensive-minded head coach to lean on when making defensive calls.
Somehow, I think he'll manage just fine.
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