South Carolina Gamecocks

Five SEC East questions: With so much uncertainty, who steps up in the East?

Published Aug. 18, 2015 11:40 a.m. ET

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With every team in the midst of fall camp, we take a closer look at the biggest storylines in the SEC East heading into the season.

1. Is it time for Tennessee?

Earlier this week, FOX Sports' Stewart Mandel revealed he picked Tennessee to win the East and play Texas A&M in the conference title game. Plenty of preseason polls/rankings have Tennessee in the latter portion of the top 25, indicating an expectation of a big step forward after last year's 7-6 finish.

There are reasons for optimism. Talented quarterback Josh Dobbs, now a junior, took over the starting job midway through last season and showed potential, competing 63.6 percent of his passes with six touchdowns and two interceptions while also running for 469 yards and eight scores.

Dobbs will have plenty of help, too, between standout sophomore running back Jalen Hurd, Alabama transfer running back Alvin Kamara and a strong receiving corps featuring Marquez North, Pig Howard and Von Pearson. In all, the Vols have 17 starters returning from last year, tied for most in the SEC.

And that extra year of experience could make a difference, especially when looking back at Tennessee's losses in 2014. In the Vols' three biggest divisional games last year, they lost to Georgia, Florida and Missouri by a combined 12 points.

2. Who's starting at quarterback?

This question isn't addressed at any one team, specifically, but rather most of the East.

Entering fall camp, only Tennessee (with Dobbs) and Missouri (with Maty Mauk) seem settled at the position, leaving competitions at Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

With Georgia considered the favorite in the division, much attention will be paid to the three-way competition there between heir apparent Brice Ramsey, the more athletic Faton Bauta and Virginia transfer Greyson Lambert. Ramsey, a sophomore, saw backup duty last season, going 24 for 39 for 333 yards with three TDs and two picks. Bauta, a junior, played less, getting four attempts in garbage time. Lambert has far more experience, starting nine games in 2014 (and appearing in 16 overall at Virginia), but had lost his grip on the starting job as of the end of last season after completing 59 percent of his passes with 10 touchdowns and 11 picks. One of the three will have to step up and provide production similar to what Georgia got out of Hutson Mason.

Florida has highly touted redshirt freshman Will Grier competing with athletic sophomore Treon Harris, who came on late last season and went 4-2 but completed just 49.6 percent of his passes. With new coach Jim McElwain expected to implement a pro-style offense with a greater emphasis on the passing game, Grier is the presumptive favorite, but Harris' experience won't be irrelevant as McElwain considers his options.

The South Carolina job is expected to go to sophomore Connor Mitch, but as is typically the case with Steve Spurrier, he's not giving anything away in terms of QB play. Following the exit of Dylan Thompson, Mitch -- who has minimal experience after going 2 for 6 passing last year -- will have to compete with junior walk-on Perry Orth and lightly recruited redshirt freshman Michael Scarnecchia. While Mitch won't be given the job, if he doesn't end up with it, it would be a bad omen for the Gamecocks.

Kentucky's quarterback competition is largely nominal, as few expect senior Patrick Towles to lose the starting job after completing 57 percent of his passes last year with 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions. However, former four-star recruit Drew Barker, a redshirt freshman, has the talent to make himself a factor, and coach Mark Stoops has reiterated throughout the offseason that the starting job will have to be earned.

Vanderbilt also has options, but neither is inspiring. Wade Freebeck and Johnny McCrary both started multiple games last year, but each completed only about 50 percent of his passes while the offense struggled to produce. Freebeck seems to be the nominal favorite entering camp, but either way, the Commodores will need significant improvement at the position to make any significant progress.

3. What can McElwain do at Florida in Year One?

There's an idiom in coaching changes that after a coach gets fired, the replacement is usually a polar opposite in terms of schemes, personality, etc. And that seems to be the case with Florida this year, which hired the affable McElwain (former offensive coordinator at Alabama) from Colorado State to replace the fiery Will Muschamp, one of the game's best defensive minds.

Will the Gators seen an immediate payoff? Probably not. While the defense is in excellent shape and should be among the best in the SEC, generating offense is likely to be McElwain's most difficult task Wideout Demarcus Robinson and running backs Kelvin Taylor and Jordan Scarlett offer some skill-position hope, but Florida will have an almost entirely new offensive line in front of a quarterback who's either a redshirt freshman with no college experience (if Will Grier gets the call) or a sophomore who provides some running ability but completed less than 50 percent of his passes last year (if it's Treon Harris).

Realistically, it's hard to envision Florida improving substantially on last year's 7-5 record, though the schedule isn't daunting. It's more likely that this will be a transition year as McElwain develops the young talent he has coming up the pipe with a goal of getting Florida back into the national conversation.

4. Can Chubb reach 2,000 yards and/or win the Heisman?

Nick Chubb started last season as Georgia's third-string running back, behind both All-American Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall. In the Bulldogs' first five games, he got a total of 31 carries.

After Gurley and Marshall went down with season-ending injuries, Chubb took over the starting job -- and then took over the rest of the SEC.

Chubb finished with 1,547 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns in eight starts, averaging 165 yards. At that pace, in a hypothetically full 13-game schedule (including a bowl game), Chubb would run for 2,149 yards. Regardless of exactly how successful Georgia ends up this season, that would almost certainly put Chubb in the conversation for the Heisman Trophy.

With Marshall healthy and the offense likely to see some minor changes under new coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, it might not be realistic to expect those sorts of remarkable numbers from Chubb. But they aren't out of the question, either.

5. Is this the year Kentucky's bowl drought ends?

Mark Stoops has made progress at Kentucky; there's no question about it. After the Wildcats went 2-10 in his first season in 2013, they improved to 5-7 last year, missing bowl eligibility with a season-ending 44-40 loss to archrival Louisville.

And while coming close last year was nice, Kentucky still hasn't been to a bowl game since the 2010 season, when the 'Cats lost to Pitt in the BBVA Compass Bowl. Both Stoops and his players have publicly stated at times this offseason that nothing short of a postseason appearance will be acceptable, and that seems to be the consensus for the program and its fan base.

"Six games is what we have to win," senior safety A.J. Stamps reportedly said at SEC Media Days. "Those six games are all that matters. I don't care who it is. We just have to get to six games (because) it would be very big for Kentucky to go to a bowl. This is Stoops' third year. Everybody says it's supposed to be his big year."

Senior offensive lineman Jordan Swindle echoed that sentiment.

"If we go to a bowl game, that's a success for this year. I want to do better than that, but that's my minimum bar," he said.

It's a thin line, but getting to 7-5 or 6-6 would show that Stoops and his program are continuing to progress, generating more momentum and positive attention for the Wildcats, while another 5-7 finish (or worse) likely would put Stoops on the hot seat heading into his fourth year, with a bowl game becoming an absolute necessity.

No pressure or anything.