SEC Could be Down Again in '09

Check out the final BCS standings for 2008...

1. Oklahoma (12-1)
2. Florida (12-1)
3. Texas (11-1)
4. Alabama (12-1)
5. So. California (11-1)
6. Utah (12-0)
7. Texas Tech (11-1)
8. Penn State (11-1)
9. Boise State (12-0)
10. Ohio State (10-2)
11. Texas Christian (10-2)
12. Cincinnati (11-2)
13. Oklahoma State (9-3)
14. Georgia Tech (9-3)
15. Georgia (9-3)
16. Brigham Young (10-2)
17. Oregon (9-3)
18. Michigan State (9-3)
19. Virginia Tech (9-4)
20. Pittsburgh (9-3)
21. Missouri (9-4)
22. Ball State (12-1)
23. Northwestern (9-3)
24. Boston College (9-4)
25. Mississippi (8-4)

Remeber when the SEC had five teams in the top 10 after three weeks of the season? Wonder how many people would've figured then that the conference would end up barely getting four teams into the top 25.

That's what happens, though, when no more than three teams in the conference had strong QB situations entering the season. More worrisome, however, is that looking ahead to next year only Ole Miss seems to have solved its QB problems. Meanwhile Georgia and Alabama could be losing their starters.

That's not good for a conference that had seven of its 12 members finish 87th or worse in scoring offense nationally this year. In fact, Florida was the only SEC team to finish in the top 28 nationally in scoring. Think the Gators were dominant this year? Check out how bad the SEC's offenses could be next year...

Here's a quick rundown of what the potential starting QBs could be in 2009 (NOTE: I'm not including any true freshman who could start next year, as they likely won't be a significantly better alternative.):

UGA: Joe Cox (1 career start)
Tennessee: Jonathan Crompton/Nick Stephens (combined 50% comp, 8 TDs, 8 INTs in '08)
Vanderbilt: Mackenzi Adams (49% comp, 5 TDs, 8 INTs)
Florida: Tim Tebow (He's good)
South Carolina: Stephen Garcia (53.8% comp, nearly as many arrests as TDs)
Kentucky: Randall Cobb (52.5% comp, 2 pass TDs, 5 INTs)

LSU: Jaret Lee (53% completions, 14 TDs, 16 INTs in '08)
Ole Miss: Jevan Snead (clearly the second best QB in the conf)
Alabama: Greg McElroy (20 career attempts, only QB on Bama's roster with experience)
Mississippi State: Tyson Lee (JuCo transfer with 8 career starts)
Auburn: Kodi Burns (2 TDs, 7 INTs in '08)
Arkansas: Nathan Dick (1 career start)

Who would you pick as the third best QB in the conference?

ADDENDUM: I didn't mean to discount the significant possibility that Ryan Mallett will likely be the starter in Arkansas and Jordan Jefferson likely will be the QB at LSU. I simply didn't include anyone who had not played (other than about a dozen snaps in Jefferson's case) this year. Even including either of them, however, does not discount the original point, which is that there won't be much experience at QB in the SEC next season.