COLUMBIA, S.C. — All of a sudden, the Southeastern Conference seems to have an identity crisis when it comes to football.
Review footage of SEC games from the past few decades and themes jump off the screen: a league stacked with talented runners, fierce, strong, fast defenders, or elusive, accurate passers who lead their teams to titles.
This year? It appears parity rules the league.
“When I say that the separation is really thin,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said, “you have to be on the right side of it.”
And that means finding ways to maintain your edge through the new world of the NCAA transfer portal, which is as much about surviving departures as it is building rosters. No longer can SEC powers stockpile three- and four-star recruits out of high school and take for granted that they’ll be around to develop into difference-making members of the team.
“I think there is more parity,” said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who since taking over the Crimson Tide in 2007 has led them to six national titles, with the most recent of those for the 2020 season. “And I think that because there’s more multiples of ways to bring players to your team.”
The cracks in the SEC wall have shown themselves early this season with some of the league’s marquee programs dropping high profile nonconference games, like LSU’s 45-24 loss to Florida State in the season opener on Labor Day weekend or the Tide falling to Texas 34-24 a week later.
“The observations that we didn’t perform to our standard level of performance are real, but we’re still going to have great competition,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “It’s competitive. You live with those things.”
The conference has only two teams among the nation’s top 20 in offensive yards per game (LSU is seventh and two-time reigning national champion Georgia is 13th), but things are a bit stouter on defense, with four SEC teams (led by Florida) among the top 20 in yards given up this season.
LSU is the SEC’s highest-scoring team a month into the season, but the Tigers are 11th of 14 teams in the league in total defense and points allowed. Auburn is second in rushing yards but second to last in stopping the run.
A check of the statistics through four games shows individual playmakers excelling throughout the SEC, with league leaders spread around among teams.
Vanderbilt quarterback A.J. Swann is at or near the top of several categories, including most offensive plays run, while teammate Will Sheppard’s six touchdown catches lead the league. South Carolina’s Xavier Legette leads the SEC in all-purpose yards and receiving yards per game. Missouri’s Cody Schrader, a former walk-on from Truman State, leads the SEC with 403 rushing yards and an average of 6.02 per carry.
On defense, Mississippi State linebackers Jett Johnson and Nathaniel Johnson rank first and third, respectively, in tackles.
“I think college football in general and this league every Saturday is its own entity,” Heupel said. “Your preparation, a play here or there that turns the momentum in the football game a little bit, it’s fine lines.”
Gary Danielson, a longtime CBS Sports analyst, believes the SEC can always count on defense, even if it doesn’t always grab the headlines. He has watched the rise of prolific offenses in the Big 12 and Pac-12 that put up video game numbers and immediately draw attention. He’s not so sure they’d fare well against the SEC’s steadiness and strength on defense, saying that “as pretty as it looks in the Pac-12, I don’t believe week in and week out they would have the same success” in the conference that produced the past four College Football Playoff national champions.
South Carolina tight end Trey Knox played his first four seasons at Arkansas before following Razorbacks assistant Dowell Loggains to the Gamecocks.
“I think the biggest thing you see is the size — SEC guys are just big and strong guys,” said Knox, who’s 6-foot-5, 240 pounds. “A lot of twitchy athletes that can fly off the ball and make plays. You’ll see that year in and year out. Now schemes may change, but that’s the biggest things, the way guys play and the body types and the athleticism.”
Whether those players stay the course at their original school is another matter.
Saban has benefited from transfers such as Georgia Tech tailback Jahmyr Gibbs, the former Dalton High School standout who played for the Yellow Jackets for two years before joining the Tide in 2022 on his way to becoming a first-round pick in the NFL draft. Saban also lost offensive lineman Javion Cohen to Miami, with the starting guard among 18 players who used the portal to leave Alabama in the past year.
“I think sometimes the stronger teams lose some of their depth on their team that go someplace else to play,” Saban said.
These days, Danielson said, powerful SEC teams can also play the waiting game. That means keeping an eye on the players who might have been on their recruiting boards but were not signed; if they develop well elsewhere, they can lure them in later in their college careers.
In the end, Danielson thinks the SEC’s identity remains its stellar players on the offensive and defensive lines that outpace most of its Power Five competitors.
“Top to bottom,” he said, “I don’t the other leagues can stand up to the NFL-ready talent.”