With the offenses in the SEC leaving plenty to be desired, division champions Alabama and Florida used stellar defenses to play for the SEC title last December.
Those two defenses should be stout again in 2016, as should LSU's, Ole Miss' and Georgia's, among others.
Could some other traditional SEC powers that have been down defensively find their way back? The quest to do so starts this spring.
To get you prepared for spring practice, let's rank the SEC defenses based on talent, scheme and experience in this slideshow.