The countdown to kickoff is no longer at a snail’s pace, and kickoff is just a little over two weeks away for most every SEC program. That means we are also nearly halfway through fall camp for most every team in the league as well. There are still plenty of starting jobs up for grabs though, so let’s dive into the most intriguing fall camp position battles.
Up next: Missouri, Mississippi State and Oklahoma.
Missouri: Edge Rusher
Missouri lost 43% of their production for sacks, tackles for loss and quarterback pressures from a season ago. The Tigers had a second round draft pick on one side (Zion Young) and a former five star transfer from Georgia on the other (Damon Wilson II). Wilson left Missouri and headed to Miami. Now, the Tigers will need to figure out who will step up at edge rusher on both sides of the defensive line before the season starts in early September.
There are several other key positions that will most likely be more important in solving in the next two weeks before the season opener. The right tackle, left guard and star safety all still need to be sorted out. However, none of those three positions had anywhere close to the kind of production and impact that Missouri’s pass rushers did in 2025 making it priority number one and incredibly intriguing.
Mississippi State: Safety
Former defensive coordinator and head coach Zach Arnett is back in Starkville to oversee the defense. Jeff Lebby’s teams have never been known for their defensive prowess by any means, but Arnett’s track record of success speaks for itself. Under Arnett, the Bulldogs finished in the top 40 nationally in defensive success rate in four of his five years.
This year’s team has three legitimate stars at quarterback, wide receiver and cornerback. The safety position is very interesting because it features two players with polar opposite resumes. Lebby and his staff brought in three transfer safeties in the offseason including two from former SEC schools. They also brought in the highest ranked recruit under Lebby in former top 50 safety, Bralan Womack.
There’s talent and experience in the safety room which is a positive sign for Arnett and company. Which players will actually step on the field in Week 1 when they open the season against Louisiana Monroe is still up in the air.
Oklahoma: Tight End
Similar to Mississippi State, Oklahoma has several positions still up in the air that are probably more important than tight end. None are as interesting as the tight end group though. The Sooners were seemingly always loaded at that position. From 2010-2018, they had five different tight ends selected in the NFL Draft including three in the top four rounds. In the seven years since, they’ve had just two tight ends drafted and both were in the seventh round.
Oklahoma made a big splash when they hired former NFL All-Pro Jason Witten as their tight ends coach for the upcoming season. Witten believes there are three players that could vie for playing time this year with NFL caliber talent. What was once a consistent weapon in the Oklahoma offense has largely been absent under Brent Venables. Adding the amount of talent they did at that position over the offseason makes them even more difficult to defend in year two of Ben Arbuckle’s offense in Norman.
