JessN: Rating the Units: A tale of two divisions

[JessN]

Rating the Units: A tale of two divisions
by Jess Nicholas, TideFans.com Editor-in-Chief

Part of TideFans.com’s annual previews tradition is taking a look at how each team’s respective positional units are thought of prior to the season, then coming back after the year is over and seeing just how accurately – or inaccurately – our preseason looks were.

We are never beholden to a specific set of criteria when picking eventual division or conference champions in our longer-form narrative articles. This year, for that matter, Mississippi State is very well thought-of in regard to unit quality, but TideFans/NARCAS has the Bulldogs finishing with a losing record, the result of unexpected (and tragic) coaching turnover and a wholesale change in offensive system, the latter of which consistently makes it hard to win in such a competitive conference. But our unit rating matrix is a bit more scientific, and attempts to cut out some of those biases, replacing Nostradamus with mathematics, at least to some degree.

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Rating the Units: A tale of two divisions

The SEC West was another matter entirely. LSU not only was picked to finish 6th, it scored just 24 overall points in the intradivisional rankings, which meant we completely missed the boat on the T…

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[Power Eye]

I was surprised to see UGA's RBs rated as high as they are. Perhaps these were done prior to Branson Robinson's injury, but even so, I think this is a legitimate area of concern for them. Milton isn't 100% healthy, and there isn't a ton of quality depth. I was also a little surprised to see UT's RBs rated higher than ours.

 

[OakMtn4Bama]

Our QB's need to play better than predicted.

 

[DrollTide]

Thanks Jess. The stark objective extant facts are that our QB and WR units are not very good. Of course - new coaches, some new players, offseason programs and development, camp and scrimmage performance etc etc. But based purely on game results in the books, no bueno.

 

[teamplayer]

Our QB's need to play better than predicted.

Yes, it makes sense that our QBs and WRs are rated where they are to start the season. If, however, they can finish the season a few notches higher than they are currently ranked, I think we are a championship squad. We'll find out pretty soon. Defensively, I'll be very disappointed if we don't absolutely smother opposing offenses most of the time. Roll Tide!

 

[CoolBreeze]

Great fun Jess as always Jess, thank you! I did a statistical comparison of the teams during the offseason which revealed to me that the SEC East is only 80% as strong as the SEC West in strength of schedule. To me, that plays heavily into all of this given that half of the conference is in dogfights every weekend relying on quality depth while the other half has a huge advantage of a more cupcake schedule. So, even though Georgia is supremely talented (equaled only by Alabama in the entire sport) the dogs have the perception of being that much better simply given the fact that they play a decidedly weaker schedule. So, Crimson colored glasses firmly on, we have the better team and the better QB, whoever that turns out to be. But your stuff is still intriguing and great fun to read.

 

[Professor]

Something puzzles me about all this. Over the past several years no team in the country has come close to our recruiting success. That means we should have four and five star players at EVERY position, including QB.
How can we not be contenders for both conference and national championships?
Is it possible that there is a phenomenon between signing and playing that tends to even out the competition?

 

[DrJJoyner]

Something puzzles me about all this. Over the past several years no team in the country has come close to our recruiting success. That means we should have four and five star players at EVERY position, including QB.
How can we not be contenders for both conference and national championships?
Is it possible that there is a phenomenon between signing and playing that tends to even out the competition?

• We won the conference and the championship in 2020.
• We won the conference but lost in the championship game (after losing essentially our top 2 players at both WR and CB) in 2021.
• We missed the conference championship game by the virtue of giving up a 2-point conversion in OT on the road and were just one spot outside the CFP field in 2022. TCU was the more deserving team but we were far and away the better team.
• We're a co-favorite with LSU for the SEC West this year.

So, it would seem that we are indeed contending for both conference and national titles.

 

[Ledsteplin]

I don't put much credence in this system of measurement and ranking. We won't know anything until they line up and play ball. The final results looks about like what I figured anyway. I do question some of it, but it's mostly what I thought. Let's just play ball, and see what happens!

 

[Windsortide]

By the end of the year if there is a end of year review I’ll bet our QB and WR core will be rated higher.

 

[colbysullivan]

Something puzzles me about all this. Over the past several years no team in the country has come close to our recruiting success. That means we should have four and five star players at EVERY position, including QB.
How can we not be contenders for both conference and national championships?
Is it possible that there is a phenomenon between signing and playing that tends to even out the competition?

What are you even talking about? We DO have 4 and 5 star players at every position. We ARE contenders every year. My goodness, what a horrible take.