Power ranking the SEC after Media Days: Texas A&M football on the rise?

Power ranking the SEC after Media Days: #8 LSU Tigers

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: you can't expect to lose both Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers—not to mention Brian Thomas—and think everything will be hunky-dory. I get that Garrett Nussmeier is supposed to be pretty good—and behind that OL, he'll really have a chance to do some special stuff if he can ratchet up the consistency—but I'm really not sure we can expect LSU to have near the same offensive output.

Oh yeah, and they lost their offensive coordinator, too! What are we doing here, folks?

A great OL goes a long way, so I won't be too down on the Tigers here, but we could really see a pretty significant drop-off in Baton Rouge. The good news is that Blake Baker should probably make the defense not a dumpster fire. Probably.

Harold Perkins is still a frighteningly good edge rusher—the problem is that he wants to play like a three-down linebacker, likely with an eye to his NFL future. Dominick McKinley, though a five-star freshman, might be too raw to contribute much this year. Maason Smith is gone. The corner situation still needs to be figured out. These are all reasons for pessimism in Baton Rouge.

But you still wear the purple and gold, and you still play in Tiger Stadium. Because of that, you're a scary matchup until proven otherwise. That otherwise might just come sooner than we're all anticipating.