SEC Media Days are set to begin Monday in Nashville as the 2023 football season draws ever closer. All of the event’s press conferences will be aired on the SEC Network, starting with LSU’s Brian Kelly.

Auburn is scheduled to take questions Tuesday afternoon, while Alabama is set for Wednesday morning.

Here’s the top question for each team in the SEC West before media days and the 2023 season get underway. Teams are listed in the order they finished the 2022 campaign.

LSU

Can the Tigers remain on top?

LSU won the SEC West in 2022, Brian Kelly’s second season leading the Bayou Bengals. The Tigers beat Alabama in Baton Rouge to seal their trip to Atlanta, where they ran into the Georgia juggernaut.

Quarterback Jayden Daniels is back, and the Tigers look ready for another run to the SEC title game in the west division’s final season. However, this year they have to play the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa and play a neutral site game against Florida State.

Improving on last year’s 10-4 record won’t be easy. Can LSU take the next step and find a way into the College Football Playoff?

Alabama

Who’s the quarterback?

Bryce Young is gone after being taken No. 1 overall by the Carolina Panthers in the 2023 NFL Draft. The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner was the key to Alabama’s offense for the past two seasons and replacing him will be difficult.

The candidates during spring practice included sophomore Jalen Milroe and redshirt freshman Ty Simpson. After neither of them stood out, Nick Saban brought in Tyler Buchner from Notre Dame in from the transfer portal.

Saban isn’t likely to have an answer when he takes the podium on Wednesday, but he and new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, who coached Buchner at Notre Dame, need to make the right choice if the Tide are to regain control of the SEC.

Mississippi State

How do the Bulldogs pick up the pieces after Mike Leach’s death?

The late Mike Leach, who died of complications related to a heart condition in December, had built the Bulldogs in his own image. Mississippi State ran the air raid offense that Leach had innovated, and it seemed to be working, with the Bulldogs finishing 9-4 and winning the Reliaquest (formerly Outback) Bowl to end the season.

Former defensive coordinator Zach Arnett will be making his first media days appearance as head coach. Arnett is faced with the unenviable task of figuring out how to move past Leach’s death and keep the Bulldogs improving.

The offense is going to look different under new coordinator Kevin Barbay, but has quarterback Will Rogers returning. How will MSU adapt and grow in 2023?

Ole Miss

Will a new defensive coordinator fix the unit?

Under head coach and former Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, the Rebels have never had a problem scoring. Unfortunately for Ole Miss, neither has its opponents.

Last year’s Rebels finishing ninth in the SEC in points allowed with 25.2 per game, but collapsed over the back half of the year after a 7-0 start. Ole Miss went 1-5 to finish the season, allowing 34.5 points per game through the final four losses.

Ole Miss also hasn’t finalized its starting quarterback, but with Kiffin at the wheel, the offense will likely continue to be solid. Kiffin added another former Alabama assistant in Pete Golding to take over the defense, and if he can get the unit on the right track, it could be a good year in Oxford.

Arkansas

Can the Razorbacks build around their top offensive duo?

The good: Arkansas returns both quarterback KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders. The two make up one of the top QB/ RB combos in the league.

The bad: There’s not much returning talent around them with just 10 total starters back. In head coach Sam Pittman’s fourth season, that will be his biggest challenge.

Pittman has a new offensive coordinator in Dan Enos to replace Kendall Briles who is off to TCU. On defense, Barry Odom took the head coach job at UNLV so Travis Williams and Marcus Woodson are taking over.

Auburn

Can Hugh Freeze get the Tigers on track?

The Bryan Harsin saga ended with the former Auburn coach fired. After a coaching search that reportedly centered around Kiffin, the Tigers ended up with Hugh Freeze.

Freeze is damaged goods after a career filled with various misdeeds, including the ones that forced him out of Ole Miss. After a stint at Liberty, he’s back in the SEC.

His teams have beaten Saban and Alabama twice, but it was a different time for both the Tide and the sport. However, he knows how to coach football, and optimism is running

Texas A&M

How will the Bobby Petrino experiment go?

The 2022 Texas A&M squad had all the hype entering the season. Jimbo Fisher’s bunch was full of five-star talent and was going to compete for the SEC title, maybe leapfrogging Alabama along the way.

Then the Aggies lost their second game of the season to Appalachian State. The offense struggled the rest of the way and TAMU finished 5-7, last in the division.

Fisher brought in help for this season in Bobby Petrino, previously the head coach at Arkansas, Western Kentucky and Louisville among other stop, setting up a volatile mix of personalities in College Station. Can Petrino help take Texas A&M, which is still loaded with talent, to where recruiting rankings think it should be?