SEC Football power rankings, Week 1: Nick Saban is still king

Sure, Brian Kelly may not be the best fit for LSU. But, he’s a very solid football coach, and LSU has two legitimate first round players sitting on their roster. They’ll power each end of the ball, with BJ Ojulari picked to wear the coveted No. 18 for the Tigers.

There’s also the matter of quarterback Jayden Daniels, who transfers in from Arizona State. Daniels was enigmatic with the Sun Devils. One minute, he would make an outstanding play. The next, he was throwing the ball into a disaster window.

If that’s cleaned up at LSU, this team may do some damage in this league. ESPN’s FPI thinks so, as it has given the Bayou Bengals a top 10 ranking to start the season.

Kentucky has a lot of pieces back from last year’s team, but they lose offensive coordinator Liam Coen. However, finding someone else from the Sean McVay/Kyle Shanahan coaching tree will help ease the transition.

Thankfully, Will Levis should be a first-round pick come next year’s NFL Draft. He’s got a cannon for an arm, and he’ll have decent receivers to sling it to. Questions still are in place about what will happen to Chris Rodriguez, though a four-game suspension seems likely.

Defensively, they’ve managed to get some key guys to use an extra year of eligibility, but there’s still some question marks.

On the surface, this shouldn’t work.

You’ve got a 29-year old calling plays in Charlie Weis Jr., you’ve got 17 new players on the roster who all come from different backgrounds. Oh, and those two factors are expected to be good right away.

Yet, Ole Miss should be just fine this year. Jaxson Dart and Zach Evans are legitimate playmakers at quarterback and running back, respectively.

Defensively, the team returns somewhere around 50 percent of the production from last year. It was a decent unit last year that looked worse because of Ole Miss’s pace of play. However, there are a lot of guys to replace.