BREAKING DOWN THE SEC WESTHere, in order of !nish predicted by the SEC West Division’s football information directors in

The Birmingham News’ 66th annual Spring SEC Football Preview, are capsule looks at each team:

1. Alabama 2. LSU 3. Arkansas 4. Auburn 5. Texas A&M 6. Miss. State 7. Ole Miss2011 OVERALL: 12-1 2011 SEC RECORD: 7-1 2011 WEST FINISH: Second

GOOD NEWS: The o"ensive line could be one of the best in the country, as Alabama returns four of !ve start-ers who have combined for nearly 100 starts over their respective careers. At the center of it all is Barrett Jones, last year’s Outland Trophy winner at le# tackle who is moving to center so highly touted sophomore Cyrus Kouandjio can get in the !ve-man rotation. Quarterback AJ McCar-ron, the 2011 BCS Cham-pionship Game o"ensive MVP, only got better as last season progressed. He will have even more of an in$uence on the Alabama o"ense.

BAD NEWS: Though the recruiting pipeline is always $owing at Ala-bama, Nick Saban has a number of inexperienced players poised to see signi!cant playing time in 2012. The defense, in particular, will have a brand-new look a#er losing six starters (four within the !rst 35 picks) to April’s NFL Dra# and another to free agency. No one has been able to match what Julio Jones did at wide receiver and the position will yet again be a place where seemingly anyone could emerge as McCarron’s top target.

LOOK AT ME NOW: Running back T.J. Yeldon came to Alabama with as much hype as a recruit possibly can. All he did was further accelerate the hype by racking up 179 yards of o"ense at April’s A-Day game. It’s presumed that junior Eddie Lacy, de-spite missing the spring because of a toe injury, is still the frontrunner to start the season as the Crimson Tide’s top op-tion. But it’s hard to see how Alabama could keep a talent like Yeldon out of its big o"ensive plans.

THE CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: No team has ever won back-to-back national titles in the BCS era. A team that loses as much from the previ-ous year as Alabama does wouldn’t usually be anywhere near the “repeat” conversation, but the Crimson Tide is clearly one of the frontrunners to hoist the crystal football in 2012. It won’t be easy, as Alabama faces tough tests away from Bryant-Denny Stadium against Michigan, Arkansas and, of course, LSU.

2011 OVERALL: 13-1 2011 SEC RECORD: 8-0 2011 WEST FINISH: First

GOOD NEWS: LSU returns 16 starters from a team that won the SEC championship and played Alabama in the national title game. There are some holes — a new quarterback and top-notch receiver Rue-ben Randle is gone — but LSU has time to !gure it out. Four of its !rst !ve games are against North Texas, Washington, Idaho and Towson.

BAD NEWS: The loss of Randle could be big. He led LSU with 53 catches, and he drew defend-ers away from others. The Bengal Tigers also lost top defensive back Morris Claiborne, but the Honey Badger is back. Tyrann Mathieu returns at corner.

LOOK AT ME NOW: Zach Mettenberger is being hailed as LSU’s best quarterback in years, though he’s never played a down of college football. The new starter has big-time high school credentials, a strong arm, and he’s not the inconsistent Jarrett Lee or Jordan Je"erson, who combined to put LSU at 10th in the SEC in pass-ing last year.

THE CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: It’s a given, at least to LSU fans, that the o"ense will be much improved with Metten-berger (though the Bengal Tigers averaged 35.7 points per game last year without him). No matter, the core of the SEC champs returns, and there is optimism that LSU will have another shot at the SEC title with at least seven league wins.

2011 OVERALL: 11-2 2011 SEC RECORD: 6-2 2011 WEST FINISH: Third

GOOD NEWS: Arkansas will be happy enough to start the football season a#er an ugly o"sea-son that included its head coach being !red because he hired his mistress, among other things; and dismiss-ing a handful of players following arrests. New coach John L. Smith is inheriting some good players, mainly Heisman Trophy contender Tyler Wilson, the quarterback.

BAD NEWS: Dismissed coach Bobby Petrino will be missed, not because of his motorcycle skills, but because he is a passing game guru. Wilson thrived with Petrino. He’ll try again without his coach, and also without top receiver Jarius Wright and his 66 catches.

LOOK AT ME NOW: Running back Knile Davis was last seen leading the SEC with 1,322 rushing yards in 2010. An ankle injury cost him 2011, but he’s back and should be a force again, bringing balance to a team that likes to pass.

THE CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: What’s more important to Arkansas’ chances: The Bobby Petrino Disaster or hav-ing to get past Alabama and LSU in the SEC West? We’re going to opt for the latter. The Razorbacks begin SEC play with the Tide and end it against the Bengal Tigers. In between, they have tough road games at Texas A&M, Auburn and South Carolina, so they won’t be able to take any weekends o" if they hope to repeat last year’s six conference wins.

2011 OVERALL: 8-5 2011 SEC RECORD: 4-4 2011 WEST FINISH: Fourth

GOOD NEWS: Auburn re-turns 19 starters, count-ing tailback Tre Mason, who started the bowl game. The strength may be that !ve players who started in the defensive line last season are back. The defensive linemen found a new attitude in the spring with new de-fensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, who told them to stop worrying so much about !lling gaps and instead go get the quarterback.

BAD NEWS: Auburn went through spring practice without naming a starting quarterback, or a starting tailback, for that matter. Clint Mose-ley started the !nal six games at quarterback last season, but was hurt most of the spring, leaving Kiehl Frazier as the clear spring winner. Mason will get the !rst crack at replacing departed 1,000-yard rusher Mike Dyer.

LOOK AT ME NOW: Greg Robinson was a stand-by replacement at every game last year, but the big o"ensive lineman never got in. Now, the redshirt freshman from Louisiana will probably be a starter a#er a spring practice in which he received accolades from defensive linemen and coaches alike. He was a high-pro!le signee in 2011, and will get his chance now.

THE CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: Auburn didn’t have much of a followup from its 2010 national championship when it went 4-4 in the SEC last year. Worse, its four conference losses weren’t close. Gene Chizik addressed that quickly, hiring two new coordinators with NFL backgrounds. The players liked what they saw in the spring. They believe improvement is near, and a favorable home schedule gives Auburn a chance to add a couple more conference wins than last year.

2011 OVERALL: 7-6 2011 SEC RECORD: 2-6 2011 WEST FINISH: Fi#h

GOOD NEWS: Missis-sippi State is one of just two teams in the conference to return all 10 of its on-!eld coaches from last season. The Bulldogs also appear to have a de!nitive answer at quarterback, as Tyler Russell heads into his junior season with plenty of con!dence now that Chris Relf is out of the mix. Dan Mullen is an o"ensive-minded coach, but he’s quietly stockpiled a secondary that could be one of the best in the conference. Johnthan Banks is a potential All-American candidate.

BAD NEWS: Mississippi State still plays in the loaded SEC West, so getting over the hump remains its biggest challenge. The talent and depth have increased on both sides of the ball with every passing year under Mullen, but holes remain on a defense that will be hurting without defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, a top pick in this past April’s NFL Dra#. The Bulldogs have depth at running back, but a clear replacement for Vick Ballard has yet to emerge. Despite Russell’s continued im-provement, the passing game remains a concern. The Bulldogs didn’t have a single player accumu-late 500 or more receiv-ing yards in 2011 and the search for someone who can remains ongoing.

LOOK AT ME NOW: Mis-sissippi State pulled a junior college signing day coup when it snatched four-star defensive end Denico Autry away from Tennessee and Alabama. At 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds, Autry had a productive spring. With Cox gone, the Bulldogs need someone to pick up the slack. Autry could be that guy.

THE CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: The Bulldogs’ schedule gets ugly in the middle with games against Alabama, Arkan-sas and LSU all within a four-week stretch. There’s no reason to think the Bulldogs will miss out on a postsea-son bowl game for the !rst time since 2009. Then again, there aren’t many reasons to think they’ll do any better than !#h in the SEC West, either.

2011 OVERALL: 2-10 2011 SEC RECORD: 0-8 2011 WEST FINISH: Sixth

GOOD NEWS: With Houston Nutt gone and Hugh Freeze in as the Rebels’ new head coach, a sense of hope and optimism has returned to Oxford a#er one of the most miserable seasons in the program’s history. For the !rst year, at least, Freeze will receive the bene!t of the doubt. The vast majority of the roster has been decimated by attrition and an overall lack of tal-ent. Though the talented Nickolas Brassell is gone because of grade issues, Ole Miss should be able to hold its own with Dehendret Collins and Wesley Pendleton at the cornerback spots. The Rebels’ specialists — kicker Bryson Rose and punter Tyler Camp-bell — are both seniors and coming o" solid sea-sons. That’s a good thing for Ole Miss because they’ll be busy.

BAD NEWS: Where to start? The Rebels are coming o" a season in which they lost all of their SEC games — most by ugly margins — they have question marks at seemingly every posi-tion and the incoming recruiting class, thanks largely to the o"season turnover, was one of the lowest-ranked in the SEC. The status of one of the defense’s most promising players, line-backer D.T. Shackelford, remains in doubt a#er he had a second surgery on the torn ACL that kept him o" the !eld in 2011. The Rebels never settled on a starting quarter-back during the spring, as Barry Brunetti and Bo Wallace battled to a draw. Whoever wins will be one of the most inex-perienced quarterbacks in the entire conference and will play behind one of the worst o"ensive lines.

LOOK AT ME NOW: Randall Mackey isn’t a new name, but he’ll be at a new place in 2012. Mackey was the odd man out when Ole Miss dropped its quarterback competition down to Brunetti and Wallace. The Rebels’ leading returning passer from 2011, Mackey is now a wide receiver and maybe a wildcat quarterback.

THE CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: Any win against an SEC foe will be tough to come by. The 2012 schedule gives the Reb-els one of the toughest draws in the league. A non-conference game at Texas probably won’t help the win total, either. Four wins would be a major achievement.

2011 OVERALL: 7-6 2011 BIG 12 RECORD: 4-5 2011 BIG 12 FINISH: Sixth (tied)

GOOD NEWS: Texas A&M is moving out of Texas’ shadow in 2012, but the price it is paying is having to play in the SEC West. Yikes. Still, the Aggies will be a new story all season, and could be a handful for unsuspecting o"ensive lines that don’t know the Aggies led the nation with 51 sacks last year. They return two who helped to do that in Sean Porter and Damontre Moore.

BAD NEWS: Welcome to the SEC. Now go !nd a quarterback. The Aggies lost NFL !rst-round dra# pick Ryan Tannehill and staged spring tryouts for Jameill Showers and Johnny Manziel. Perhaps one of them can !nish the job on Saturdays, which the Aggies didn’t do in blowing leads in most of their losses.

LOOK AT ME NOW: Everybody will be new to SEC fans, so why not keep an eye on wide receiver Ryan Swope? Opposing defensive coordinators will. Swope had 89 catches for 1,207 yards last season. Those 89 catches? Easily more than the 67 by 2011 SEC leader Da’Rick Rogers of Tennessee.

THE CRYSTAL BALL SAYS: A&M is in a new league with a new coach in Kevin Sumlin, who was last seen throw-ing the ball around at Houston. The SEC did the Aggies no favor by sending them on the road to Alabama and Auburn in Year One, but they’ll go nuts to have Florida, Arkansas and LSU in College Station. A tough go on the way to perhaps a break-even start in league play.

66TH ANNUAL BIRMINGHAM NEWS SPRING SEC PREVIEWCOLLEGE FOOTBALL

DATE OPPONENT

2012 LSUTIGERS

Sept. 1 North TexasSept. 8 WashingtonSept. 15 IdahoSept. 22 at AuburnSept. 29 TowsonOct. 6 at FloridaOct.13 South CarolinaOct. 20 at Texas A&M

Nov. 3 AlabamaNov. 10 Miss. St. Nov 17 Ole MissNov. 23 at Arkansas

DATE OPPONENT

2012 MISS. STATE BULLDOGS

Sept. 1 Jackson StateSept. 8 AuburnSept. 15 at TroySept. 22 South Alabama

Oct. 6 at KentuckyOct. 13 TennesseeOct. 20 Middle TennesseeOct. 27 at AlabamaNov. 3 Texas A&MNov. 10 at LSUNov. 17 ArkansasNov. 24 at Ole Miss

DATE OPPONENT

2012 OLE MISSREBELS

Sept. 1 Central ArkansasSept. 8 UTEPSept. 15 TexasSept. 22 at TulaneSept. 29 at AlabamaOct. 6 Texas A&MOct. 13 Auburn

Oct. 27 at ArkansasNov. 3 at GeorgiaNov. 10 VanderbiltNov. 17 at LSUNov. 24 Miss. State

DATE OPPONENT

2012 ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS

Sept. 1 Jacksonville StateSept. 8 at La-Monroe**Sept. 15 AlabamaSept. 22 RutgersSept. 29 at Texas A&M Oct. 6 at AuburnOct. 13 Kentucky

Oct. 27 Ole Miss**Nov. 03 TulsaNov. 10 at South CarolinaNov. 17 at Miss. State Nov. 23 LSU ** Games played in Little Rock, Ark.

DATE OPPONENT

2012 AUBURNTIGERS

Sept. 1 Clemson*Sept. 8 at Miss. StateSept. 15 ULMSept. 22 LSU

Oct. 6 Arkansas Oct. 13 at Ole MissOct. 20 at VanderbiltOct. 27 Texas A&MNov. 3 New Mexico St.Nov. 10 GeorgiaNov. 17 Alabama A&MNov. 24 at Alabama* Game played in Atlanta, Ga

* Arlington, Texas (Cowboys Stadium)

DATE OPPONENT

2012 ALABAMACRIMSON TIDE

Sept. 1 Michigan*Sept. 8 Western KentuckySept. 15 at ArkansasSept. 22 Florida AtlanticSept. 29 Ole Miss

Oct. 13 at MissouriOct. 20 at TennesseeOct. 27 Miss. StateNov. 3 at LSUNov. 10 Texas A&MNov. 17 Western CarolinaNov. 24 Auburn* Game played in Arlington, Tx.

Capsules by Auburn Bureau reporter Charles Goldberg and Tuscaloosa Bureau reporter Andrew Gribble

Tre Mason

Zach Mettenberger

Ryan Swope

Knile Davis

Bold denotes conference game. Games in white are home games.

DATE OPPONENT

2012 TEXAS A&M AGGIES

Aug. 30 at Louisiana TechSept. 8 FloridaSept. 15 at SMUSept. 22 S. CarolinaSept. 29 ArkansasOct. 6 at Ole Miss

Oct. 20 LSUOct. 27 at AuburnNov. 3 at Miss. StateNov. 10 at AlabamaNov. 17 Sam Houston St.Nov. 24 Missouri